He used to tell anyone who would listen that Stacey had ‘rescued’ him. She would always add that the rescue was mutual. Since she was a teenager, Stacey had talked about her ‘family deficit’, the feeling that she’d been rejected by her father and by extended family on both sides. Right from the start, Matt offered to fix the deficit she felt. ‘We will make our own family,’ he would say and Stacey would nod, eyes full of tears. He got a hook into the most vulnerable part of her.

By the end of their first year together, he had ditched all his other social connections and invested his emotional life entirely in her. He rang Stacey countless times a day, left romantic notes for her to find and would pop up unexpectedly at events to bring her some cute gift or food treat. Matt’s obsessiveness had always made Paula and Anita uneasy and the two of them analysed it endlessly.

One Easter weekend, still in the early years, the three women had rented a holiday cottage at Bundeena. This was not long before Stacey fell pregnant with Cameron, so it should have been the opportunity for Paula to say something, to intervene and prevent the catastrophe.

Bundeena was meant to be a girls-only weekend—no boyfriends invited. Remy had been happy to stay home (he was on call at the hospital anyway) and Anita’s then beau, Secretly Married Martin, was also content not to come. (It would later become clear that he had family duties, including an Easter egg hunt with his small children, whose existence he had not yet revealed to Anita.) Matt was a different story. He hated Stacey being away. He phoned her several times and finally manipulated her into agreeing to return a day early.

On Sunday morning, Paula and Stacey headed off on a bushwalk, leaving Anita to sleep off a hangover in the cottage. Paula figured this might be a good chance to broach her worries. More low-key, just Stacey and Paula, so there’d be no sense of two ganging up against one.

Paula aimed to keep her tone chatty as she asked, ‘Do you ever worry that Matt is a bit … I don’t know … a bit too dependent on you?’

Stacey barked a laugh and prodded her finger into Paula’s ribs. ‘I love the way you phrase that as a question when clearly what you’re thinking is “Stacey should definitely worry that Matt is too dependent on her”.’

‘Oh. Well—sorry. I was only—’

Stacey clutched Paula’s arm with mock panic. ‘Ooh, do you think I should be worried, doctor?’

‘Okay. Piss off. I’ll shut up.’