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Jenny was speechless for the second time that evening. How did Antonia know? She tried to dart an ‘I didn’t tell her’ look at Gail. Gail blinked twice but didn’t lose her composure. She looked directly at Antonia. ‘How long have you known?’

‘I had my suspicions from the moment you walked into that antenatal class. It didn’t take a genius to decode the look on Geoff’s face. That’s one of my husband’s amusing qualities – he thinks that he’s the king of espionage, when actually he’s as transparent as a small boy.’ She sipped her wine. ‘I told myself I had imagined things. But when you failed to produce even so much as a picture of the elusive “Joe”, I had to face up to it.’

Jenny’s mind was going crazy. She had thought Gail was the Queen of Cover Up, but now Antonia, too? Ignoring her plan to stay out of it, she asked, ‘But why didn’t you—’

‘Say anything? Who to? Him? You? The other girls? The leader of the group? “By the way, Sally, you can put one less chair out tomorrow as I think my husband might be the father of that woman’s little bastard.”’

Gail flinched. ‘Don’t you dare say anything about Jake.’

Antonia put her hand up. ‘Okay, I take it back. It’s not his fault. Must be hard for you to look at him sometimes, seeing as he’s the image of Geoff.’

Jenny surreptitiously scrolled through the photos on her mobile to find the last group shot of all the babies together. It was true! Jake looked exactly like Geoff. Why had she never noticed before? There was no way she could slink off to bed now; this was too dramatic to miss. She had assumed that Gail would be the one with the jaw-dropping news. Antonia was supposed to be shocked, hurt, angry and bitter. Not just sit there, serenely sipping her wine as if they were all on a lunch date.

Gail seemed to have the same thought. ‘How can you be so calm? Your husband has fathered another child and has attempted to keep it from you all this time.’

Antonia laughed. ‘Attempted to keep it from me? I’m afraid that’s not true. He told me about you our first day at antenatal class.’

Gail almost staggered backwards, sinking down onto the sofa. ‘You’re lying.’

Antonia shook her head. ‘We had a huge row the whole way home in the car. When we got back, it was worse. I was screaming at him and he actually got quite distressed because he was worried my frantic state might hurt the baby.’ She smiled sarcastically. ‘Jessica is the one female he seems to actually care about hurting.’

‘What did he tell you?’

‘That the two of you had only slept together a few times, but you’d got pregnant. He also said he wasn’t planning to have anything to do with the baby except financially, and that he had no intention of ever seeing you again.’

‘And you believed him?’

Antonia snorted. ‘Of course not. But once he had told me, I could feel sorry for you. Geoff was going nowhere.’

Gail put her arms around herself. She looked very cold. Jenny wouldn’t have expected to feel sympathy for an ‘other woman’, but Gail looked so lonely sitting in the middle of that vast settee. Vulnerable, even.

Antonia was studying Gail, as if reading her thoughts. Was she even telling the truth? What did she know for sure, and what was she hoping to trick out of Gail?

‘Did you get pregnant to make him stay?’

Gail shook her head. ‘No. Did you?’

Antonia laughed. ‘No. I think the universe was having a bit of fun with the both of us.’

Gail stood up, walked towards the fireplace and, leaning against it for support, turned to face Antonia. ‘You seem pretty confident that he won’t leave you.’

Antonia shrugged. ‘He never has before.’ Antonia appeared to be positively enjoying herself, torturing Gail slowly. She didn’t even look angry. ‘Surely you didn’t think you were the first?’

‘Or the last, obviously, if the nanny’s knickers are anything to go by.’ Gail bit back.

Antonia wrinkled her nose. ‘Hmm. A little fib, I’m afraid. I thought you needed to be angry to get you to stick your head out of your shell. Seems you took the bait rather easily. I feel a little bit guilty, dragging poor Emily into it. Never mind, I’ll make it up to her with a nice Christmas bonus.’

Gail’s arms were poker-straight by her sides; she clenched and unclenched her fists. She was used to being in control, Jenny thought, manipulating conversations and situations as she chose. ‘So he hasn’t been sleeping with someone else?’

‘I didn’t say that.’ Antonia took another sip of wine. ‘I just said he hasn’t slept with the nanny.’

Gail took a deep breath. ‘I’m not sure that this conversation is going anywhere. I’m going to bed.’

Antonia pulled a mock-sad face. ‘Oh. Giving up so soon? I thought you’d have a bit more fight in you. I was looking forward to a more heated discussion.’

Gail bristled. ‘There is no point in a “fight”, as you put it. I’ve never fought over a man in my life and I’m not about to start now. I have no idea whether you are lying or telling the truth, but my life is fine, with or without Geoff. If he chooses to join Jake and me, and I think he will, then he is very welcome. By the way, when Jessica comes to visit at our house, I will be very kind to her.’ She smiled at Antonia with a saccharine sweetness.

Antonia blanched at that and her eyes narrowed. ‘You really think he’s going to leave me, don’t you?’ She sank further down into the chair, as if she were deflating. ‘He won’t ever leave me.’

‘I don’t know how you can know that.’ Gail moved towards her, almost circling her prey. ‘Marriages break up every day. Why are you so sure that yours won’t?’

Antonia looked up at her. ‘Because Geoff has a plan for his life, and being divorced is not part of that plan.’

Gail smiled grimly. ‘Plans change.’

Antonia got up to get the wine. ‘Not Geoff’s.’ She held the bottle towards Gail, offering her a drink, but Gail shook her head. Pouring another large glass for herself, Antonia passed the bottle to Jenny and then sat down again, nodding at the sofa opposite. ‘Why don’t you sit down?’

Gail started to shake her head and then changed her mind. She perched on the edge of the sofa and crossed her arms.

Antonia continued. ‘Geoff is a very clever man – he always was. He’s also used to getting what he wants. Even when I look at the way we met, our early times together, I realise that it was not a fateful, accidental meeting of two people. I was exactly what he was looking for. A pretty, bright – but not too bright – girl who was ready to be moulded into what he wanted.’ She flicked her hands slowly downwards. ‘He didn’t do too bad a job, did he?’

Gail cut in. ‘I’m not actually interested in any of this crap,’ she said. ‘I am already aware that your marriage is far from perfect.’

Antonia laughed hollowly. ‘But that’s the point. It doesn’t need to be perfect. It just needs to look perfect.’ She took another sip of her drink. ‘And that is why he will never leave.’

Jenny knew that Antonia was telling the truth and, despite the anger emanating from Gail, she could tell that she knew that, too. Imperceptibly, something had changed.

There was a long pause. The weight of it made Jenny feel more obvious as an intruder. Nevertheless, they had chosen to have this conversation in front of her, so maybe she had a right to take part. ‘So why haven’t you left him?’

Antonia shrugged. ‘I was speaking the truth earlier. What would I do? Where would I go? At one point I almost thought I might, but then Jessica came along. She’s my priority now.’

Gail sank back into the sofa. ‘And Jake is mine.’

The three women sat in silence for a few minutes. Then Gail spoke. ‘He told me you married him for money.’

‘He told me you were known for trapping married men.’

‘He also told me that you weren’t coping with motherhood.’ Gail looked Antonia in the eye. ‘That was a lie, too. You are a good mum.’

Antonia sucked in a sharp breath and put her hand to her chest. Was that a stifled sob? She bit her lip, and it took her a while to reply. ‘So are you. It can’t be easy for you with your job to juggle, too.’

Gail sighed. ‘I hadn’t really ever seen myself with a child. I didn’t know if I was even mother material. But Geoff was so confident. So stable. I let myself imagine this other life. The three of us. A house with a little garden. Rather pathetic, really.’ She paused, but no one interrupted. ‘I had two months of that before I found out that you were pregnant, too. I was so angry.’

Antonia nodded. ‘You should have seen me the night of the antenatal class. There are calmer volcanoes.’

Gail shook her head. ‘But I was angry at you, not at him. Isn’t that strange?’

‘Not really. Geoff is good at that. How do you think we’ve stayed married all these years?’ Antonia put her head on one side and looked at Gail intently. ‘I might have lied about the nanny. But there have been others.’

Gail looked exhausted. ‘I really do need to go to bed now. I can’t think about this any more.’ She got up. ‘Are both of you going to bed, too?’

Antonia curled her feet up onto the chair. ‘I’m going to wait up for Ruth.’

Jenny looked at her mobile. At last, a message from her.

Jenny sighed. Now she bloody tells me. She held the screen up to show the others. ‘No need.’