‘Took me two hours to persuade him not to jump, and every single second my heart was in my throat. I didn’t sleep for three nights after that. The next week he did it again, and the week after that we found him wandering up the railway track behind our house. It was awful, just the most awful thing imaginable. Every day worrying about what he would do next. Worrying about a phone call, or a visit from the police – or worse. We grounded him, but he just went out anyway, so we tried locking him in but he always found a way out. You can’t keep your child prisoner in his own home, especially when he’s bigger than either of us.’ Her voice dropped again, until it was barely above a whisper. ‘Eventually we got so scared that . . .’ Her voice tailed off.

I waited for her to continue.

‘What happened, Jen?’

She wiped a tear away. ‘We had him – we had him sectioned. So he could be treated.’

‘My God, Jen, I had no idea this was all going on!’ I hugged her, rubbing her back. ‘I’m so sorry.’

‘We didn’t tell anyone. The doctors spent a lot of time with him and eventually he was diagnosed with a borderline personality disorder – impulsive behaviour, risk-taking, emotional outbursts, yada yada yada. Although I believe that’s mostly garbage,’ she added hastily. ‘We knew he’d been getting in trouble at school, too – fighting and stealing and skipping lessons. That’s why we moved him and his brother to Lucy’s school.’

The memory came back to me: she had said Jake and Ethan were being bullied.

‘So it wasn’t bullying?’

She shook her head.

‘We thought that if he had a fresh start, a clean break from all the bad influences at his old school, it would be easier for him to move on. That’s what Alistair said, anyway. He’s supposed to know about these things.’

‘Oh Jennifer, you poor thing. I had no idea you were dealing with all this.’

‘So you see, I have to be really careful. It’s like he’s on a knife edge most of the time. Some days he can be super-excitable and into everything, trying everything, but other days he gets so low. He has these black moods and he’s just knocked down by everything, especially when he’s accused of doing things he hasn’t done. And he’s my baby, my firstborn. I have to protect him.’

‘I know that, Jen, I understand.’

‘You’d do the same for Lucy.’

‘You’re right. I would, absolutely.’

I paused, not sure how to ask the next question.

‘Was there any . . . any treatment for him? To help him get through it?’