I had no idea what that was supposed to mean but I decided to let her find whatever she was looking for and hopefully everything would make sense.
‘Whose denim jacket is this?’ she asked eventually, thrusting her phone at me.
I reeled back and squinted at the phone. She’d zoomed in and, even though the photo was fuzzy, I’d recognise the vines, butterflies and ladybird design anywhere.
‘Mine.’
‘So you admit it’s yours?’
‘You know it’s mine. You know the story behind it.’
‘And is this jacket unique? Nobody else has one like it?’
‘Other than Auntie Hope, no. It was your nanna’s bespoke design for us.’
‘Thought so.’ She pressed another button before holding her phone up in front of me once more. ‘Then how do you explain this?’
This time it was a video showing a woman wearing my jacket, locked in a passionate embrace with a man. It was taken from a distance and it was grainy but I knew exactly who it was and I started laughing.
‘Seriously, Maddie, please tell me this is not why you’ve been so off with me for the best part of two years.’
‘You don’t think I should be angry with you?’
I knew I shouldn’t laugh but, the more I thought about the ridiculousness of it, the more I had the giggles. My own daughter had turned against me for something I hadn’t even done.
‘Why are you laughing?’ she demanded, snatching her phone back. ‘It’s not funny! I caught you cheating on Dad.’
‘I’venevercheated on your dad. That’s not me.’
‘Yes, it is! You confirmed yourself that it’s your jacket.’
‘Itismy jacket, but it’s not me wearing it. Do you recognise the man?’
‘No. Some rando.’
‘He’s maybe a bit far away but you know him. That’s Ned.’
‘Your friend from uni? Dad’s mate? Ew! That’s even worse.’
‘It would be if it was me in the jacket but I swear on the lives of every single animal in this house and on this farm that it isn’t me. That’s Jude.’
‘You’re lying!’
‘Go and ask her yourself if you don’t believe me.’
‘I will!’
I ran downstairs after her, scarcely able to believe this was the reason everything had changed between Maddie and me and that, because she’d stayed quiet about it, we’d lost two valuable years together. I’d been to hell and back examining every possible thing I could have said and done to make her turn against me and she must have been having an awful time thinking I’d cheated on Laurie. So many things she’d said or done now made sense. She’d stopped doing three things because she believed I’d been lying about the most significant thing to happen to me that day, she hadn’t been surprised by Laurie and me separating, presumably because she’d been waiting for it to happen and, even in the car on the way to the farm, hercomments challenging me whether I’d ever loved Laurie now made sense. She thought I’d been seeing someone else all along.
‘Who’s this?’ Maddie demanded, thrusting her phone at Jude in the kitchen.
Jude gasped. ‘You were there? You saw me?’
Maddie’s head whipped round to me.
‘I told you it was Jude,’ I said.
‘You don’t think…’ Jude began. ‘Flippin’ heck, Maddie! You think this is your mum? It’s me and Ned in Reading, second week in September nearly two years ago.’
