‘That can’t be right,’ I told him, my voice rising. I tried to bring it down a notch, but I struggled. ‘You know it’s not. I’ve paid for absolutely everything while you’ve sat on your backside and done nothing.’

He couldn’t wipe the smirk off his face. It was clear that he genuinely believed he had some rights, and I felt my eyes fill with tears of frustration. How do you handle someone who is so unreasonable, irrational and deluded? I didn’t know, and the only thing I could think of was to run from the room before one of us said or did something from which there could be no coming back.

I heard Ian’s voice, laced with derision, calling after me, but I couldn’t hear the words over the thundering of my feet on the stairs. I fled to the bathroom, locked the door and leaned against it, my breath coming in gasps. But in moments they had turned to sobs, and I slid down the door until I was on the floor, knees pulled up to my chest.

I don’t know how long I sat there. I never heard him creep upstairs, but I knew he was outside the door. I could hear him breathing. He was waiting for me to come out.

‘Go away, Ian,’ I said, keeping my voice level.

‘You’re going to have to come out of there some time, and I’ll be waiting,’ he replied, his speech slow, sinister. ‘It’s time you learned that you can’t have everything your own way.’

It was a clear warning, and there was a sense of inevitability about what would happen the minute I stepped out of the room.

I had never been afraid that Ian would turn violent before, but I had been wrong about so much. I couldn’t risk it, so I pulled my phone out of the back pocket of my jeans and dialled three numbers.

‘Police, please,’ I said as quietly as possible, my voice shaking.

‘What the fuck are you doing?’ I heard him shout.

‘I’m calling the police,’ I yelled. ‘I’m scared to come out of my own bathroom and you won’t leave my house. What do you expect me to do?’

I heard the calm voice of the operator, asking for my name and address. Biting back a sob, I told her.

‘I’m not going to hurt you,’ Ian screamed. ‘For Christ’s sake, hang up the phone. Tell them it’s all a mistake. It’s just a disagreement. Please, we don’t want this, do we?’