‘Millie, I understand why you’re upset.’ He puts his hand on my forearm to still my furious chopping, and waits until I’ve put down the knife and he has my full – if aggrieved – attention. ‘I know it can take a woman years to disclose her abuse. I’m not making light of her accusations. But I can’t ignore the fact Felix just disclosed to me. He insists the only times he’s ever hit Stacey have been in a sexual context, and at her instigation. She, on the other hand, has attacked him numerous times and put him in hospital with concussion.’

‘According to him.’

He sighs again. ‘Yes, according to him.’

‘And you believe him?’

‘I believe him, Millie, but even if I’m wrong – especially if I’m wrong – there’s something very dark going on between him and Stacey either way. I don’t want you getting sucked into it.’

I can’t believe Tom’s allowed himself to be taken in by Felix like this. I’m not naive: it’s clear there’s something dark and twisty at the heart of the Porters’ marriage. Unlike my mother, Stacey has the financial wherewithal to leave her husband and stand on her own two feet, and she has a confidence in herself and her own abilities that only comes from making your own way in the world. My mother had neither. I accept Stacey’s reasons for staying with her husband are complex and there’s a part of her that wants to.

But Felix has taken the tiny kernel of truth in this ambivalence and confected it into something hideous. He’s not a victim. He’s gaslighting my husband. He’s plausible and convincing and that makes him dangerous.

‘Felix Porter is a controlling, abusive bully,’ I snap, picking up the knife again and scraping the chopped celery into a salad bowl. ‘I’ve seen how he treats his wife and the way he talks to her. When we were at the Hurlingham, he tracked her phone and then came down there and literally dragged her away from us! Don’t tell me he’s the one being victimised.’

‘Millie, we don’t know the backstory to that. You’re Stacey’s friend, so you’re seeing Felix through her lens, and she’s obviously not objective. Maybe there was a reason he—’

‘There’s no reason that excuses putting your hands on a woman, Tom!’

He acknowledges the point with another heavy sigh.