‘That’s all I need. Meet me at Alessandro’s at one.’

One of Rav’s rugby friends had made a joke once that a team mate’s girlfriend was the ‘type of girl you only took to Alessandro’s’, and when Chloe had asked Rav about it later he’d explained that it was a famous restaurant in the City where you took women who you weren’t serious about, or didn’t want to be seen with. It was adjacent to several rather seedy hotels, therefore perfect for a rapid lunch and fuck if you were the sort of man who really did love his wife and didn’t want to get caught and lose the country house and the kids but couldn’t resist sticking it to a twenty-two-year-old secretary. Chloe ordered a bottle of fizzy water.

Max arrived five minutes late, looking harassed.

‘I’ll have an espresso,’ he said to the waiter, without looking at him.

Chloe could see why this place was popular. The booths were padded and high-backed, gloriously private.

‘What’s wrong?’

Chloe took a deep breath. Where was she supposed to start with this?

‘I want you to admit what you did to Zadie on the night of your twenty-first birthday. And I want you to tell me why.’

Max started to get up. ‘I am not sitting here to listen to this nonsense again.’

‘Don’t you want to hear what I’m proposing?’

‘Proposing? What the fuck are you talking about?’ He sat back down, looking increasingly angry. His coffee arrived and he snatched it off the saucer without thanking the girl who brought it.

‘Admit that you did it. Tell me. Tell her parents. Tell anyone who asks you. Otherwise, I am going to make you sorry.’

Chloe had worried that she would feel foolish doing this, that she lacked the composure it would require. But she was wrong. She had everything she needed right here. Watching Max’s face twist between worry and disbelief was gratifying beyond imagining.

‘How are you planning to do that?’ he asked. He sounded as if he was wrestling to keep his tone light.

‘You’re going to tell Zadie’s family what you did, and apologize, and take all the consequences. Otherwise, I’m going to tell Verity that we slept together.’

Max smiled, and Chloe tried to hold her nerve. Why didn’t he seem worried? When she had played this over and over in her head, he had been falling over himself to do as she asked. Instead, he was smirking. Refilling his water glass as if this really were a casual lunch between friends. ‘She won’t believe you. You don’t think anyone else has tried this on me before?’

A deep breath. Of course he wasn’t worried. He didn’t realize she had proof. She took out her phone, forcing herself to seem like she was confident, like her heart wasn’t thumping almost audibly.