His words landed like a punch to her stomach. He had chosen money over her. ‘The fact that you even have to ask that question and are so clueless makes me cringe. I knew you were gifted so much, but I actually admired how hard you worked and how determined you were to make your own mark, but I was wrong.’ She thought of the times when money had been tight and her mum and dad had pulled together to paper over the cracks, fill the gaps, plug the shortfall – but always, always, together. The fact that Digby had seemingly fallen apart at the mere suggestion of a lack of funding was proof that Digby and she had never been on the strong foundation she had imagined. It was a lie – all of it was a lie. ‘If you loved me in the way that you need to when you marry someone, then none of what your parents threatened would be an issue.’

‘I guess you’re right.’ He answered quickly enough to launch a dagger of rejection that this time landed squarely in her breast. She looked down, not for the first time that day, to see if she could see any injury. Her chest heaved as sobs continued to build inside her. Her distress was evident and she wished she had better control of it, wanting to talk calmly, but with her hurt causing pain to every fibre of her being, there was very little she could do about it.

‘Why . . . why did you wait until today to change your mind? All the weeks leading up to this, all the times we talked about our future and you had a chance to say you weren’t happy, or that you’d changed your mind. We sat there with Reverend Pimm and agreed to always communicate! There were so many opportunities for us to figure stuff out, or at least for you to let me down with my dignity intact. Why let me get ready and arrive at the church like . . . like an idiot?’ The situation became more monstrous as she voiced it. And with the protective layer of doubt, the cushion of hope that had meant it might not be the end fully slipped from her mind and, finally, shock subsided, nudged out by the beginnings of fury.

‘I didn’t know quite how strongly she felt and I never thought they’d cut me off.’ His answer was vanilla, weak and irritating because of it. She had been put aside for the promise of money and in that moment she despised him for his lack of backbone, hating his voice, everything about him.

‘You really are the worst kind of human being,’ she fired.

‘I feel it!’