‘I’ve no idea.’ The bit where his brain used to be had been replaced by a big, numb lump. ‘She’s having an abortion.’

Pip looked dumbstruck. ‘That’s heavy, mate.’

‘Tell me about it.’

His friend abandoned his half-eaten sandwich. ‘It might be for the best.’

‘Do you think so?’ Jake wasn’t so sure. He wasn’t so sure at all. ‘What if the child is mine?’

‘You could insist on DNA testing,’ Pip suggested. ‘At least then you’d know.’

‘What difference would that make?’ Jake said. ‘She still wouldn’t want the baby. I can think of some suitable names for Neve, and “Earth Mother” isn’t one of them. You can’t bring a kid into the world like that.’

Jake felt himself sinking into depression. When did we start playing God with creation? Snuffing out babies without a second thought. Treating human life as a commodity. The act of creation as simple as merging the contents of two Petri dishes.

‘I guess it’s over between you?’

‘It pretty much looks like it.’

‘It wasn’t shaping up too well when she nicked the Egg Marketing Board account from under your nose.’

‘True,’ said Jake. It seemed like small fry now in comparison to this latest betrayal. ‘She said she was shielding me from Alec. I just didn’t realise she was doing it by selflessly throwing her body in between us.’

Pip started to laugh wearily and he clapped Jake on the back. ‘You’ve got to laugh, mate.’

‘Have I?’

‘You’ll see the funny side of it,’ Pip said, but he sounded forced. ‘In years to come.’

Jake’s laughing mechanism seemed to have been switched off. Perhaps he could have agreed more readily if he hadn’t got Lyssa caught up in the whole sordid mess and lost her in the process. He’d spent a terrible weekend back at their house on his own, just wondering what to do to make it all right again.

‘Come on,’ Pip said. ‘Let’s go back inside. I’m freezing my knackers off here.’

Jake wished his knackers had frozen off years ago, then perhaps he wouldn’t be trapped in the middle of this waking nightmare.

Still, as always, Pip was right. December wasn’t the traditional time for sitting outdoors with sandwiches. It was strange, but Jake didn’t feel cold. He didn’t feel anything. Anything at all.

Chapter fifty-eight

Chapter fifty-eight

The school is set on a hill above the village. It’s a small, one-storey building and there’s a group of children playing in the potholed concrete square of the playground.