Leaving Melissa was Charles’s one regret in life. Of course, it couldn’t have been helped. As soon as that picture had appeared in the paper, he had known that the game would probably be up, even if he hadn’t made the mistake with Leah’s friendship bracelet. If he could have kept Melissa safe in a bubble, undisturbed by the rest of his life, then he would probably have still been with her now. After all, he had made things work for nearly twenty years without a single soul working out what he was up to. But that photograph had raised the stakes. That had been the catalyst for change.

For months Charles had lived on a knife edge, expecting Melissa to turn up at the Hall at any minute, shouting the odds. He had wracked his brain for explanations that he could trot out when she arrived, but his devious mind had finally let him down. If Melissa had come to the Hall, then it would all have been over, and he would have had to confess to both of them.

But she had never arrived. Weeks had run into months and then years and there was no sign of her. Melissa was uncomplicated, he thought, but she wasn’t stupid. She could have tracked him down if she had chosen to, so Charles had to conclude that she had just let him go.

Part of him was hurt by this. Did he mean so little to her that she could forget him so easily? But he knew that wasn’t true. For reasons he would never fully understand, she had released him from his obligations, and for that he loved her even more. His darling girl had let him fly away into the blue, as free as a lark.

Charles stopped walking and looked out across the water to Gateshead. People were gathering around him. The peculiar Millennium Bridge must be about to tilt to let a ship pass beneath it. Melissa would have loved that, a tilting bridge. He had spent so long explaining how things worked to her, and although he was never quite sure she had grasped the concepts, she would always nod and smile and tell him how very smart he was and how much she loved that about him. Grace never had to turn to him for explanations. She was far more likely to be the one doing the explaining but, for all her brains, Grace had never really seen what was going on under her nose. He really had been remarkably smart.

Sometimes Charles thought about going back, just turning up on the doorstep of the little terraced house in Whitley Bay. He could picture Melissa’s face when she saw him. She’d be angry at first, furious probably, but then later, when she’d screamed and shouted at him, she would forgive him like she always did. Charles was certain of it.