The fire crackles and my eyes are drawn by the dancing, licking flames. Three empty stockings hang over the fire, and the curtains are drawn. I lean back into my husband’s chest and he kisses the top of my head.

Joe wriggles his body into my side, all cosy in his PJs and dressing gown. I inhale the scent of him – his clean, soft skin, his freshly shampooed hair.

‘What time does Santa actually get here?’ he asks.

‘Once you’re asleep,’ I reply, tweaking his nose.

‘But isn’t there an actual time that he comes? Like a timetable or something?’

‘No,’ I say. ‘He only comes once your eyes are closed and you’re fast asleep, snoring your head off.’

‘I don’t snore!’

‘Of course you do,’ Jared replies. ‘All real men snore.’

Joe looks up at Jared and gives him a crazy stare. We dissolve into laughter and Joe, already over-excited, starts dancing around the lounge, putting on a mad performance for us, leaping about, pulling faces and singing When Santa Got Stuck up the Chimney.

After everything that happened with Darcy, I thank God that Joe came out of it unscathed and unaffected. In fact, I think the only good and true thing Darcy said that night was when she told me Joe had gone to the movies with Tyler. They were safely away from the house in town watching some Pixar movie, blissfully unaware of what was going on. When Marianna brought them home, she drove back to a driveway teeming with emergency-service vehicles. Joe thought he’d landed on a movie set. We didn’t go into details. We just told him that a man had had an accident and the police needed to help him. He seemed to accept our version of events.

After Darcy escaped that night, I almost died with panic that she was on her way to snatch Joe from outside the cinema. Thank goodness she was too selfish to risk getting caught. Lucky for us, Darcy put her own survival over any plans for revenge. She didn’t even return to get her own son. Poor Tyler. He may have been a bully but now he has no parents to care for him. He’s gone to London to live with Mike’s sister. I hope, in time, he’s able to get over the trauma. That he doesn’t end up carrying similar scars to his mother.

So, after all that… After all the police, the search helicopters, the sniffer dogs and TV appeals, Darcy managed to escape. No trace has been found of her. The police are still looking, but I don’t hold out too much hope. She’s had a lifetime’s experience of evading justice, of lying and conning. She only told us a small part of what went on during the years after she left care. It seems Nicole Woodward was also wanted in connection with a string of other murders – mainly of vulnerable elderly people. Now she’s disappeared, no doubt with a new identity. She’ll have landed on her feet somewhere else, I’m sure of it.

Everyone was shocked when they discovered what had happened. Beth has been her amazing supportive self, and the school mums were suitably stunned and apologetic – sending me flowers, and bringing round cakes and casseroles. Mum and Dad were devastated, feeling somehow responsible. They even remembered talking to the little boy and girl at the care home all those years ago, but felt they were unable to take on siblings, which was why they hadn’t asked to adopt Nicole and Callum. It had been nothing to do with them ‘preferring’ me. They had simply wanted to give Beth a single brother or sister, and I happened to be the lucky one.

My heart breaks for the child Nicole was back then. But she let it twist her into a monster. She was consumed by her bitterness. I wonder if she’ll ever let it go or whether it will eat at her for the rest of her life.

‘Come and sit back down,’ Jared calls to Joe, whose crazy song and dance is now losing steam. ‘The movie’s about to start.’

As it’s Christmas Eve, we’re watching Elf – such a wonderfully, funny, feel-good movie. Joe bounces onto the sofa and I count my blessings once again.

I suppose, after everything, I could have told Jared to get lost. I could have kicked him out and felt totally justified. He had believed Darcy – a relative stranger – rather than his own wife. But… I know how utterly convincing Darcy could be. How she manipulated him by subtly discrediting me. She played a good game, and it was her intention to make me suffer. To split my family up. Well… no way is she getting her wish. I’ll fight to get back to the life we had. Before Darcy.

Jared is making up for it. Helping me recover from my ordeal. Making sure I’m okay and that I have everything I need. Well… I do have everything I need. It’s right here in this room.