‘My God, Caroline. You are so humble. Such a good person. That bloody ex of yours should be ashamed of himself. If he knew what you’d achieved …’

That was part of the problem. He did know what I’d achieved. So did everyone else. And that made it all the more difficult for people to believe me. Dr Caroline Atkinson, esteemed senior research psychologist? Surely, you of all people, Caroline, would have known about and been able to resist the gradual chipping away at your self-esteem until you hardly knew who you were?

Caroline, professional fixer extraordinaire, would have been able to spot the signs of someone conditioning her into control? It’s almost as if no one could believe that Jack could do this to me, as if I had some magical professional shield that protects me from manipulative psychopaths. But at home we were just Jack and Caroline.

You had your little tricks. As well as the emotional withdrawal you criticised everything. You never said I looked nice, you just pulled a little face. Told me the things you arranged without telling me were for my own good. Told me I was a slut if I made sexual advances. It all adds up. The insistence on joint bank accounts. Staying completely calm when I argued with you, and ignoring me.

You carefully calculated the effect it had on me, then you made it worse by implying that if I mentioned any of this to anyone you would leave. Or worse. The paranoia set in as you related stories of ‘someone at work’ whose wife pushed him over the edge and he just … snapped. You never hit me. You didn’t have to. Award-winning psychologist or not, you scared the shit out of me. That’s when I started to give up. What could I do when no one believed me? I’m not doing this because I’m crazy. I’m doing it so everyone will believe me and it can be over.

Eileen leaves and I slump in my chair. I switch on the radio in my office and wait for the news to come on. For them to report that a woman’s bag was stolen from her shop. Was that newsworthy these days? I’m so out of touch. But the police would be called and that’s mainly where the news comes from, blue-light chasers. I read a paper on it years ago.