She told herself she wasn’t taking up Patrick’s offer for Harry; she was doing it for herself. Laura didn’t really know which was true. Instead she focused on how she could make it work. And now, three months down the line, she realised she had.

She and Patrick had kept on a majority of their clients as they worked remotely, keeping in touch with each other as regularly as necessary. In the last few weeks Patrick had even rented office space, though he hadn’t pushed her when Laura told him she wasn’t ready to join him, and that she wanted to keep working from home so she could be with her son.

Laura knew things might change soon, and when they did she would have to tackle how best to adapt to them, but for now the situation was working. And if she was honest, the last three months had in some ways been a blessing. They had given her the chance to see that she could be a mum and have a career, and she could be good at both.

Nate tapped lightly on the bedroom door as he pushed it open. ‘I didn’t know if you were still on a call,’ he said, sliding onto the bed beside her and Bobby, resting a hand on her leg. ‘All going okay?’

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘Yeah, I think it is.’ She smiled at her husband and reached for his hand, squeezing it in her own. ‘Thank you,’ she murmured.

‘What for?’

‘For everything. For still being here.’

Nate laughed as he lay down alongside her and wrapped an arm across her chest. ‘Where the hell else would I be?’

She closed her eyes, enjoying the comfort of her husband and son next to her, though every time she was lulled into this security, her heart would jolt at the thought of the trial looming closer. Of Mia. Of the fact that they had all lied.

As far as Nate was concerned, there were still patches of her story missing; and every day since that night, Laura told herself she should come clean, but each night she promised to do it the next, and then the next, until she was caught in a vicious trap that she no longer knew how to escape from.

Once the trial was over, she told herself now, she would tell her husband the truth about Mia and her sister and what really happened. And she would pray that when the time came, he continued to understand.

Chapter Forty-Two