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‘Sybil,’ Matt said, handing her his handkerchief. ‘It’s done now. Zennor, please sit down.’

‘No, I won’t,’ Zennor said, switching her focus to him, loving and hating him at the same time. ‘Did you know about this too? You don’t seem surprised. I can understand why Sybil hasn’t wanted to say anything, even if it wasn’t right to keep it from me …’ She swallowed a lump of anger and hurt. ‘But you. What’s your excuse?’

‘I came round here – to the cottage and I found Sybil in a terrible state,’ Matt said.

Sybil cut in. ‘At first, I told him he had to try to stop the wedding because I couldn’t.’

‘Why not?’ Zennor asked.

‘Because I confronted Trev afterwards at his office and warned him I was going to tell you and I realised you might break off the marriage.’ Matt explained. ‘Trev said it had been a one-off and that he’d already ended it and sacked the PA. He swore that it was the last time.’

Zennor swallowed a sob. ‘And you believed him?’

‘Maybe. Not really. But you were in love and if I had told you, I’d have broken up your parents, destroyed your faith in your father, in Trev, and – and forgive me for my cowardice: in me.’ Matt glanced at his hands. ‘I thought about coming to you beforehand so many times …’

Sybil touched Matt’s hand briefly before addressing Zennor. ‘Don’t blame him. I asked him not to in the end, which was wrong of me.’

‘And yet you decided to say something when it was too late? At my wedding reception?’ Zennor asked, forcing Matt to look her in the eye.

‘Yes, the worst of both worlds. I know you can never forgive me for that.’

She couldn’t answer because she was so let down.

‘When he sent the flowers after your faint …’ she said to Sybil. ‘They were a – a warning to you to keep quiet.’

‘Yes, I suppose they were.’

‘He tried to warn me off, too, the other week,’ Matt said. ‘I think he was afraid that all his lies were unravelling. I’ve been debating whether to tell you ever since.’

Zennor could hardly see his face because of the tears in her eyes. ‘You let me believe a lie for all this time.’

‘It’s not Matt’s fault,’ Sybil insisted. ‘It’s mine. I was as bad as Trev in my way, as was your father. I’ve done wrong, I kept secrets, I deceived you.’

Zennor couldn’t bring herself to contradict Sybil.

‘Does Mum know about the affair?’

Sybil sighed. ‘Yes. Some weeks after the wedding, Hayden told me your mother had found a text from me that gave the game away. That’s why she and your father decided to move away from Cornwall. It was a last-ditch attempt to save their marriage.’

Zennor held back the tears with great difficulty.

‘Zennor, he told me that things hadn’t been working for a while. That was before we became involved with each other.’

So her suspicions had been correct: her parents hadn’t been as happy as she’d once believed – not even at the time of her father’s death.

Sybil had tears in her eyes. ‘And I am so sorry that this isn’t what you want to hear. Even though things were difficult between them, your mother was devastated when he died. I was too.’

Matt had been silent through all of this. He now exchanged a glance with Zennor. He swallowed.

‘I only know,’ Sybil continued, ‘that I didn’t want to be the one to risk your hatred by telling you. Until today.’

‘I don’t hate you,’ Zennor said. ‘I never could. I worshipped you.’

‘I know. Which made it even more difficult to tell you.’

‘I could have said something too …’ Matt said. ‘But I didn’t. And it was too late to do anything once you were married.’

‘He cared too much about me and about you to hurt you. He was in an impossible position,’ Sybil added.