She looked me straight in the eye and for the first time our gazes were level. “Bob Jameson conned my family out of their life savings. My father was in the early stages of dementia, but we didn’t know it yet. Jameson made him give him the deeds to the house. Some “security” if anything happened to him.” She made quotation marks with her fingers. “My father knew there was something wrong with him and he was frightened. Jameson took advantage of that. He played on his fear.”

I opened my mouth to speak but she got there first. She put her hand up to stop me.

“He convinced Dad that he’d be saving his family a lot of grief if he had a residential home organized for himself, when the time came. And it did. He went into the home, but it left my mother destitute: they threw her out of her home.”

I frowned. I was confused. “But how could that happen?”

She took a deep breath. “Bob Jameson set up this system almost like a living will. You sign all the documents while you’re well, then it’s triggered when you’re not able to care for yourself. He takes everything. Ostensibly to pay for the home, but that’s utter bollocks.”

“What do you mean?” I’d never heard Marina speak like this.

“The Jameson Grace care homes are appalling; the residents aren’t fed properly, or washed regularly, or given the proper medical attention. Only the absolute minimum is done for them, despite millions being raised every year to keep them going. It’s extortion.”

Marina looked away, her eyes glittering with fury and grief. “And once you’re in, you can’t leave, because as far as the state is concerned you have a home, but you have no money left to pay for anywhere else. Everything is gone because Bob fucking Jameson has taken it all.”

I protested in disbelief. “But your mother? What about the Family Home Protection Act? How could they evict her?”

Marina shook her head in disgust. “Oh, Jameson was smart. He had her sign a release, a declaration. And she did it. Because she was frightened too; she knew there was something wrong with my father and she was worried about how he was going to be cared for.”

“I see.”

“He, of course, didn’t want her to tell anyone. So, when he asked her to sign, told her it was the solution to everything, she did it.” She smiled bitterly. “She was part of that generation of women who were used to doing what their husbands told them to. Even the good ones.”

“God, that’s awful.”