‘Ta-da!’ Kendra held up the bottle of white wine and grinned as the door opened. ‘Fancy a drink?’

After a largely sleepless night, and a day of once again checking her phone every five minutes, and not daring to leave the flat in case Ben turned up – which he hadn’t – she was going out of her mind. So, she had sent a text to her neighbour, Dawn, and arranged to pop over for a Saturday night together.

‘I’ve already got one chilling,’ laughed Dawn. ‘Come in, come in. The kids are in bed and Jayne’s hiding in her room pretending to do homework, but probably texting people she shouldn’t, or whatever it is she does on that bloody phone.’

Dawn closed the door behind Kendra, who automatically went straight through to the living room without having to be shown. ‘If she says she’s doing homework on a Saturday night then she’s almost certainly texting people she shouldn’t,’ Kendra giggled over her shoulder.

‘Hey, well, she can do what she wants this weekend, cos you’ll never guess what happened to her.’

Dawn sounded so outraged that Kendra stopped in her tracks and turned to face her friend. ‘Sounds serious.’

‘Some little bugger punched her. Honest, I thought her nose had been broken when I first saw it.’

‘It was that bad? Who was it? What happened? A mugging?’

Dawn shook her head and chivvied her on towards the kitchen. Clearly booze was called for to finish the story. ‘It happened at school.’

‘No. Right, where’s your corkscrew?’ asked Kendra.

‘Like you don’t know. Anyway, I get a call from the head saying our Jayne’s been hit and can I come straight away. I had to run out on the ward mid-shift; that took some organising to cover, I can tell you, but that’s a different story. So, of course, all sorts are going through my head, and when I get there… well, she looked almost as bad as I’d been imagining.’

Kendra gasped to show her appreciation of a good story. ‘Was it one of the other kids, then? She being bullied?’

Dawn nodded, lips a grim line.

‘Some jumped-up little rich girl who started there in September. She’s been giving Jayne loads of trouble; thinks she’s too good to be at an academy cos she used to attend some private school until she got chucked out.’

‘Oh, yeah?’ asked Kendra, premonition prickling.

‘Hmm, Ruby Thomas is her name. Now poor Jayne is probably hiding in her room because her nose is purple. She’s lucky not to have a couple of black eyes.’

‘Have you been to the police?’

‘I want to, but Jayne’s refusing to say who did it to her—’

‘But you just said—’

‘Oh, I know who did it, believe me. But Jayne’s staying quiet, and so are all the other kids. You know what it’s like at that age, no one wants to be a grass. Everyone went temporarily blind when she got hit. But Jayne’s mentioned this girl before, and I’m sure it’s her. Jayne should get the mad cow locked up for attacking her. Ooh, come here, I can open that faster,’ added Dawn, snatching the bottle away impatiently.

Kendra didn’t argue. She was too busy trying to process what her lover’s daughter may have done. There was no way she was going to tell Dawn who the thug was; it could impact on their friendship – and goodness knew, Kendra didn’t have many friends close by. She just thanked her lucky stars she’d been discreet enough to never mention Ben’s surname, or named his children. Paranoia had always made her careful with facts that could identify her lover.

When Dawn Seward had moved in across the hall from Kendra the previous year, Kendra had been in a good place emotionally. She had felt secure in her position as Ben’s true love.

She and Dawn had bumped into each other as each was carrying groaning bags of groceries up the stairs. Despite their lives being so different, they had clicked. Dawn was bright, bubbly and kind. Kendra had liked her instantly, so invited Dawn inside for a cuppa.

Not only was Dawn trying to recover from heartbreak, she was also coming to terms with being a single mum to her three children, Jayne, fifteen, Faye, thirteen, and Oliver, ten.

‘Can’t be easy starting again,’ Kendra had soothed, popping the kettle on. ‘I’ve been through my own share of bad break-ups, a fresh start was one of the reasons I moved down here, so I feel for you. If you ever need to talk…’

She had felt rather smug that her own love life was so perfect.

Soon, though, it hadn’t been her helping Dawn, but Dawn giving her a shoulder to cry on. The mistress and the single mum had become unlikely but firm friends. Dawn never judged Kendra because her own marriage had crumbled after her husband discovered she had had a drunken one-night stand with his brother. Messy, but meant she was on morally shaky ground if she tried to look down her nose at Kendra.

Another point in her favour was she had as little social life as Kendra. The pair were constantly popping over the hallway to have a chat over a cuppa, or something a bit stronger. It meant that Dawn could stay in with her kids while still socialising with a pal, and Kendra could have fun too, while still being available to drop everything if Ben texted to say he wanted to come round. All she had to do was nip across the hall and get herself ready for him. Perfect, everyone was happy with the arrangement.

Dawn filled a large wine glass almost to the brim.

‘I can’t drink all that,’ Kendra gasped.

‘I need it after yesterday. And it sounds like you do, too, from the tone of your text. So, what’s the latest?’

Kendra’s eyes filled with tears, so she looked at the floor to hide it. ‘There is no latest. I know Ben will be with me eventually… I must be the only woman in the world who has had an affair and the man hasn’t left his wife for her. What’s wrong with me?’

‘Hey, there’s nothing wrong with you. And if he can’t choose then maybe it’s crunch time.’

‘That’s why I went to see his wife. But nothing seems to have changed,’ Kendra wailed, telling the whole sorry story.

Dawn listened, sipping wine and not interrupting. When Kendra finished, her pal looked thoughtful, opened her mouth, then jumped.

‘Bugger. The food; it’ll be sticking to the bottom,’ she said, stirring at a pan furiously.

‘So, what are we having for dinner? Smells good.’

‘Just spag bol. Hope you don’t mind, but I’m too knackered to do anything fancy. I’m not like you, don’t get time to MasterChef it up in the kitchen.’

Kendra laughed through her tears. ‘Well, I have all the time in the world, that’s the only reason I do it.’

Without a job to distract her, it killed the hours when she was rattling around her flat alone, feeling as though she was going out of her mind with boredom. Ben was always impressed with her culinary efforts – it made her feel as though she was really looking after him, and gave her a feeling that she was better than her rival at something.

See, I could look after you like this every single day, that was the subliminal message she was trying to convey through her cookery.

‘Caught it just in time,’ said Dawn, stopping her stirring and turning to Kendra once more. ‘Look, I know you don’t want to hear it, but how long are you going to put your life on hold for Ben? I mean, don’t you want marriage yourself? Kids of your own?’

Kendra blushed. She hadn’t wanted kids. When younger, she had announced to anyone who would listen that children were an expensive way to ruin her figure, and she was too selfish for them. On meeting Ben, she had thought that eventually becoming a stepmum to his children was the perfect compromise; that way, she could be maternal when she wanted, but hand them back when any real problems arose.

But lately second thoughts had crept in. A desire grew inside her, one she had never expected to experience.

‘I want to have Ben’s child,’ she admitted, taking only the smallest sip of wine. The sharp, crisp liquid tasted good. ‘Which is why I’ve done something a bit sneaky. I’ve come off the pill without telling him.’

‘Blimey, Kendra. Are you sure? What if you get pregnant and he still doesn’t leave his wife? What then?’

She gave a small shrug.

‘He will leave her, because he loves me.’ Her voice was as diminutive as the shrug. ‘He’ll choose me and the baby that will come along, eventually, I’m sure of it.’

Fairly sure of it.

Hopeful, at the very least.

It was all part of her Big Plan to give Ben a push in the right direction. But she wasn’t going to tell anyone the details of that plan. Not even Dawn would understand if she knew the truth.

‘Anyway, are you all set for Christmas?’ she asked, desperate to change the subject.

‘Eurgh, don’t ask. It’s Tony’s turn to have the kids this year, so I’m dreading it.’

‘What will you do?’ Kendra was genuinely curious, and not only for her friend’s sake. She was trying to imagine what Dominique’s life would one day be like. ‘Maybe you could go to a spa, treat yourself.’

Yes, that would be the kind of thing the soon-to-be ex-Mrs Thomas would do, probably with that friend of hers she always spent so much time with.

‘A spa? You’re joking. I’m a single mum, love, I’m permanently boracic.’

‘What’s that?’ Kendra frowned in confusion.

‘Ah, you poor wee Scots girl, it’s cockney rhyming slang. Boracic lint, skint.’ She gave Kendra a penetrating look over the top of her wine glass, before taking a massive slurp. ‘And if you go ahead with your plan, you might end up like me.’

‘Okay, okay, message received and understood.’

Kendra held her hands up in surrender and smiled despite the niggling annoyance she felt.

Soon, Dawn was dishing up and the friends carried on talking until Kendra finally called it a night at midnight. Despite her exhaustion when she fell into bed, her mind whirled. Dawn hadn’t approved of what she was doing – if she knew the whole truth, what on earth would her pal make of her then?