Her heart was racing and her breathing so ragged that she had to open her mouth just to get enough oxygen. For a moment, she thought she might be sick right there in the street, but a few deep breaths pushed her nausea back down. Unanswered questions flooded her mind. How long had it been going on? Was it serious? Where was Ray? Did he know? Grace could bang on the door, demand to be let in and given a feasible explanation for what she had witnessed, but what she really needed now was to think, to clear her head. There would be time for questions later when she felt more able to listen to the answers calmly. She pulled at her scarf with trembling fingers, feebly attempting to cover more of her face, then turned and ran back to her car and locked herself in.

Once she could no longer actually see Charles’s betrayal playing out in front of her eyes, Grace began to feel more rational, the shock making her feel strangely calm and more detached from reality. Was there some other interpretation, something different to the obvious? Perhaps she had simply got the wrong end of the stick. But Grace knew that she hadn’t. Nobody kissed like that unless . . . Tears were smarting in her eyes and her throat began to close.

Grace swallowed hard and took a deep breath through her nose, steeling herself to go on. Falling apart here would solve nothing. She needed to keep a clear head. Apart from anything else she had to drive home and collect her children – their children – from school.

However, still she sat there, her hand on the ignition key but the engine silent. From the look of things, it appeared that the affair had been going on for a while. Charles had a key to the house, for a start, and little Leah looked totally at ease with him. Wasn’t that a bit strange, that Melissa let her child form a relationship with her lover, even if he was the child’s uncle? Leah was only small. How could they be sure that she wouldn’t tell her father what she had seen when nice Uncle Charles popped round? Of course, they couldn’t. So, either they didn’t care what she said or . . .

That must be it. Ray must have gone. Melissa, not knowing what to do, had contacted Charles, who had ridden in on his valiant steed to save the day, and then he had fallen straight into her arms himself.

But it had only been a couple of months since Grace was last here, and Melissa had seemed totally devoted to Ray. Could she have fallen out of love so fast? Maybe Ray had been unfaithful and Melissa had found solace in Grace’s husband? There were so many questions chasing each other around Grace’s head, but one thing was certain. Her husband was having an affair.