He would take my palm, find my twisted life line and tell me that was the two of us – knotted together by destiny. And he would listen. To everything. How unsafe I’d felt as a kid. How Dee had taken on the motherhood role, and how there were times when I thought she resented me. How abandoned I felt by the father I’d never met, and how only Dee came to see me in hospital.

‘I love you,’ we’d say, in unison, and then burst out laughing. Michael talked about all the things we had in common. Our hair colour. Our star sign. Foods we both liked. He put in all that work at the beginning to lodge the hook firmly in my mouth. So when the good stuff stopped coming, I was stuck. Wanting more. Chasing after it.

The European leg of the tour – that’s when things started to change. As a matter of fact, I remember the exact moment when Michael showed his bad side for the first time. We were flying to Paris, sitting on huge, cushiony first-class seats and drinking champagne and whiskey shots.

I was reading The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen on that flight – not very grown-up, but one of the few books I had with me. I kept telling Michael how sad the story was.

‘It’s nothing like the Disney version,’ I told him. ‘The mermaid dies at the end.’

‘What are you reading that rubbish for?’ said Michael. ‘We live in the here and now. Not fairyland.’

‘It’s a beautiful story,’ I murmured, closing the book. ‘She sacrifices herself for the prince.’

‘Would you sacrifice yourself for me, my little punk princess?’

‘Of course I would.’

‘You’re all mine. Forever and ever. And you’ll never leave me because I’ll come find you.’ He folded me into his arms.

I felt ecstatic.

‘I love you, Michael.’

‘I love you too. Listen.’ Michael rested a hand on my bare leg. ‘We’ll be staying in a hotel right in the centre of Paris. A lot of press. We’ve got to hide you a bit better, okay? The European press are crazy. It’s not like in the US.’

‘Hide me?’ I said. ‘Why?’

‘Come on. You’re not stupid. Diane and I are still married.’

That hit me like a punch in the face. ‘But you’re separated. And we’re together now. The press are going to find out about us eventually. You just said … I mean, we’ll be together forever, won’t we?’

‘Don’t make a drama out of it,’ said Michael. ‘I told you right at the start, I’d have to keep us quiet. We just have to keep you on the down-low. That’s all there is to it.’