‘Just promise you won’t sue me in ten years’ time!’ She laughed, which you must admit is quite an odd thing for a doctor to say.

I snatched the prescription out of her fingers.

‘As and when needed’ turned out to be that evening, when the prospect of the quiz with its conspiratorial huddles, imparting of whispered secrets, the whole charade that it would entail, became too much. I popped my first pill just before I left the house. I locked the door and Annie ran off to catch up with Polly. Josh sweetly pretended he wanted to talk to me for a while but was quickening his pace and soon all eight of us were walking together, just as we had every year for the last six. Everything was exactly how it always was, except that I was dying inside. Josh and Evie were holding hands, Josh trying to include me in their conversation. I’d noticed how he’d sensed my vulnerability recently, how he’d changed his behaviour towards me; he was kind and gentle around me. He’d even been tidying his room regularly. I loved him so fiercely right then.

Annie and Polly had run ahead to draw chalk circles around dog craps. I came across the first: Truly delitefull, Annie had scrawled. Delishous by the next. She was really mastering sarcasm. Leah was checking her phone, half present as usual, oblivious to the antics of her ex-wife. And then there were the traitors. I watched them: I hated them both. Ness had the grace to look a bit twitchy and couldn’t meet my eye but Karl was laughing, striding ahead, appearing wholly unwrecked by his deeds. Was there no price to be paid for betrayal? I wondered how the hell I would get through the evening without punching them. Only a miracle could save me now.