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‘With Erin?’ Leigh asked.

‘I guess she got tired of sharing her toy,’ Amanda said sourly. ‘She wanted time alone with me while Isabelle was filming on location. She assured me that Isabelle didn’t mind that she wanted us to have fun together. And then, right before Isabelle came home, Erin admitted it was a lie. Isabelle didn’t know and certainly wouldn’t have liked it. She implied I’d be in way more trouble than her if I said anything. So, of course, when Isabelle came back, I kept my mouth shut, and everything went back to normal with the three of us. Well, nearly.’

‘Nearly?’ Alex asked.

‘Isabelle’s behaviour seemed a bit more… She started wanting to know where I was all the time. She would ask for hourly texts when I left the house. “For my safety,” she said. She said that there had been threats against them as a couple, and she was worried. But it was only when Erin wasn’t around. She was checking we weren’t together without her, I think. One time, I went to the gym, and I forgot to text her. I tried to pay for lunch afterwards, and my card didn’t go through. I called her and she said, “I did that so you don’t forget again.”

Leigh swapped a look with Alex. It was a familiar story.

‘But then Isabelle left again, and Erin wanted the same deal. I didn’t think it was a good idea. But she…’

‘She forced you?’ Leigh asked.

‘Not as such. But she said we’d done it before, and it had been fine. I warned her that I thought Isabelle suspected, but she said I was worrying about nothing. I said no at first, but she just kept talking and talking about how much she wanted me and how irresistible I was to her. She also hinted that she wanted to leave Isabelle for me. She wore me down.’ Amanda took another sip of water. ‘And I started to think maybe itwaslove she felt?’

‘But what about you? How did you feel?’ Leigh asked her.

‘It sounds crazy now, but I didn’t pay that much attention to what I wanted. It just seemed like I should be grateful for whatever I got from them. And I didn’t have any other options at that point. I didn’t want to come crawling backhere, that was for sure,’ she said, looking around at her parents’ living room. ‘So, I just let things roll on in the way I was used to. Erin kept talking about us leaving, but she said she was waiting for the right time. She wasn’t in a financial position to leave yet.’

‘But she wasworking, right? Making money?’ Leigh asked. This part had never made total sense to her.

‘Not as much as Isabelle, but yeah.’

‘So where was her money going?’ Leigh asked.

‘She said Isabelle was taking it all.’

‘Did you believe that?’

‘It didn’t make total sense. If that was the problem, then just divorce and separate your finances, right? She might lose some money, but she could make more. Why stay married to someone who kept hold of the purse strings if you didn’t love them?’

‘Did you say that?’ Alex asked.

‘I didn’t like to contradict her,’ Amanda said, embarrassed.

‘Why not?’

‘I don’t know. She just seemed to get quite angry when I disagreed with her. So, I tended to let things be the way she wanted them. It seemed easier than trying to deal with her temper.’

‘She had a temper?’ Leigh asked.

‘She never hit me. But yeah, she broke stuff sometimes. Broke my phone once because I didn’t text her back quick enough.’

Leigh couldn’t believe this. It just kept getting worse.

‘But then, of course, we went to that club together,’ Amanda said. ‘Her idea, of course. I think she was getting a bit bold; I don’t know. Maybe, on some level, she wanted to get caught,’ she mused. ‘Anyway, Isabelle’s friend took that picture, and you know what happened next.’

‘How did that go down, the end of the arrangement?’ Alex asked.

‘Security came in at two in the morning and threw me out. I never saw either of them. Obviously, the credit card didn’t work. I had nothing. I had to walk all the way here. Took two and a half hours.’

Leigh rubbed her temples, worn out from the tale. She was officially very stupid indeed. ‘Did you see the interview?’ she asked Amanda. ‘She used your story to gain sympathy. She mixed up the details a bit, but it’s very much your story.’

Amanda shrugged, unsurprised. ‘She’s an actress. She used a script she had to hand.’

‘How didnoneof this get revealed? I’ve been to that house. There’s staff around that must have known what was going on. They’d have seen the pic and recognised you, right? It’s notobviousit’s you, buttheywould have known,’ Alex interjected.

‘Everyone in her employ signs a non-disclosure agreement. Including me.’