At 3:17 in the morning the police rang to tell me my husband had been killed in a crash, while he was asleep beside me with one leg over mine. The officer said: leave the room without waking the man next to you.

“Ma’am. I need you to leave the room without waking the man next to you. The identification, the vehicle, the phone and the personal effects at that scene all belong to Cassian Pellier.”

Everything went out of my face.

And then, from behind me, half asleep: “Babe? Who’s telling you I’m d.e.a.d?”

His eyes were already open.

I made myself laugh. “Scam call. They said you’d been in an a.c.c.i.d.e.n.t.”