It was as if all the blood had drained from my body. I felt weak.

‘The CPS?’ I said. ‘What, as if we’re criminals?’

Williams didn’t respond. She didn’t have to. Nick was puce with anger.

‘This is f—’ he stopped himself. ‘If my daughter tops herself because you didn’t take us – her parents – seriously, you’ll have blood on your hands. And I will sue you into oblivion.’

Williams stayed infuriatingly calm, a grim little smile of contempt on her face.

‘From my impression of Rachel, I don’t see that as a likely outcome of us pursuing this case. As I said to you, the only point at which she displayed extreme distress was when she talked about the treatment she claimed she’d experienced at your hands.’ Her eyes bored into us. ‘You’re now legally obligated to stop contacting her, and to go no closer than 250 yards from her person. Those are the terms of the temporary harassment order we’ve got as an interim measure.’

‘What?’ I said. It was more a sob than a word, the walls of the drab, dark room closing in on me.

Nick was jabbing his finger at her as if he wished it was his fist. ‘So, what, our complaint against that fucking woman counts for nothing because you got in there first?’

Williams gave a smug little shrug, like she was deflecting his praise for winning the race. ‘Your statements can certainly form part of your defence.’

‘Our defence?’ I croaked. ‘Why do we have to defend ourselves, while that b— That woman, is out there in the world ruining other families’ lives?’

‘Do you know of anyone who can verify that accusation?’ said Williams, quick as a flash.

Could I force Deborah Madden to back me up, the way I’d led her by the nose on the PTA? No – this situation was way beyond a gluten-free bake sale. And besides that, I felt so broken.

‘I’m working on it,’ I said pathetically. I wanted to go. I wanted to lie down and cry, all alone, and then regain my strength for the fight of my life. This wasn’t meant to happen. My family was supposed to stay intact – that was the whole point of what I did. Maybe the fire-and-brimstone God of my Catholic childhood really did exist. Maybe he’d been keeping score all this time.

‘You’re wrong about the suicide thing,’ said Nick. ‘She threatened it to my wife when Lily told her we weren’t going to pay for Amber Greville anymore. I guarantee you she manipulated Rachel into that state so we’d keep chucking money at her.’

Williams remained untroubled. ‘Rachel told me that Ms Greville is seeing her for free, because she’s so concerned about the stress she’s under, so that argument really doesn’t hold any weight.’