You looked past me and into the garden where they were playing.

‘I’ll get someone to pick up their bikes.’

It wasn’t enough. And what did I have to lose. I turned to look at them. They couldn’t hear what was going on in here so I asked you the question that I had wanted to ask since you started this.

‘Why are you doing this to me?’

You fixed your gaze on me and stepped closer.

‘Doing what? What, Caroline?’

‘I know what you’re doing. I know. You might have everyone else fooled, but not me. So why? That’s what I don’t understand. Why?’

You smiled, but I could see the irritation in your eyes. You picked up one of the white marble balls out of a bowl on the table and rolled it around slowly beneath your palm.

‘You made me. You wouldn’t leave it. You tried to ruin my life.’

I stared at you.

‘How? How did I ruin your life? Surely it’s the other way round?’

‘Yeah, I suppose it is. But you know, lovely, none of this would have happened if you would have just …’

‘What? Turned a blind eye? Left you to it? What, Jack?’

‘Stayed quiet. It’s all a game, Caro. But it turns out you don’t know how to play.’

You threw the marble ball to me, but I didn’t expect it and it smashed into a thousand pieces on the stone kitchen floor. You calmly opened the kitchen door and called Charlie and Laura in. I knew I had to stay composed. I knew you were taking my babies from me and I musn’t cry.

But they knew too. When it came to it, you hadn’t done the thorough job you thought you had of brainwashing them. Later you would tell me that they were crying because they had to leave their bikes and their toys, but it wasn’t like that at all. You’d been priming them for ages, telling them that they were moving out to give Mummy a break, that they would be living with Daddy for a bit.

The mistake you made was telling them that I was ill. You were pulling on their coats and suddenly Laura ran to me.

‘I want to stay with Mummy. Make her better. If she’s ill, I can make her better.’

She started to cry and Charlie’s beautiful eyes filled with tears that he tried to bite back. He came to stand beside me and we all stared at you. We stared and blinked at you. You never flinched. Your face was set in a determined expression. I’d started to recognise that look. I’d seen it when I spoke up in court. It was when you clouded with rage.