‘Towards the end, he got annoyed at me going to work. I couldn’t stop working, because as soon as I earned anything the money was gone. I’d found out about the gambling by then, encouraged him to get help, and he promised he would, but there was always one big win just waiting around the corner. Then he’d stop. Then he’d get help. It never happened, because the house always wins, especially with online gambling, but he clung to that excuse. Anyway, he started trying to stop me from going to work. One week, he called the agency and told them I was ill so couldn’t take any jobs for a week. I was furious with him and called them back, but they’d already given some of my jobs to other interpreters. I managed to get some other jobs that week, but he told me I couldn’t go. That I wasn’t allowed.’ I noted the bitterness in my own voice as I said that. ‘We had a row about it – don’t think I didn’t argue back, I often did. I stormed out, went to work and did my job. When I got back that night, he apologised, and I thought everything was fine.

‘The next morning I woke up to find he’d gone out early. There was a note on the table telling me he’d gone to Lincoln to the casino and he wasn’t going to come home until he’d made enough so I never needed to work again. He always saw it as making money, rather than winning money. He knew there were professional gamblers, so he started seeing himself that way, even though all he ever did was lose.’

I rubbed my face with a hand. I’d never told anyone about this after it happened. Even Anna and Gem only knew the absolute basics.

‘The door to the flat was locked, and I couldn’t find my keys, or my phone. We hadn’t had a landline in ages – we’d been cut off for not paying the bill. I didn’t look too hard that day; I actually thought he’d locked me in by accident, and I assumed my phone was somewhere in the flat. When I couldn’t find it, I wondered if he’d taken it to sell. He didn’t come back that night. Or the night after. Or the night after that. There was food in the fridge, though not a lot, and I found myself rationing it in case he didn’t come home for a week.