‘It’s Peter,’ he says, as soon as I pick up. ‘There’s been an accident. The ambulance is on its way, but you need to get home right now.’

chapter 17

millie

You don’t realise how much you love your child until you might lose them.

There’s been an accident.

I arrive home just in time to watch the paramedics load the stretcher into the back of the ambulance, knowing better than to get in their way. My baby looks so small and vulnerable suddenly, dwarfed by the vehicle.

Tom is already clambering inside it. ‘I’ll meet you there,’ he says.

‘It’s going to be OK,’ I say, the reassurance more for myself than for him. ‘They have to do this with head and neck injuries, just in case. It’s just a precaution.’

‘I should never have left them alone,’ Tom says.

The summer holidays have just started. Our children are thirteen and ten. Tom works from home most of the time: the majority of his client meetings take place on Zoom these days. The kids are old enough to look after themselves for a couple of hours on the odd occasion he has to go into central London for lunch.

He should never have left them alone.

Tom and I knew we were taking a risk when we had children: psychopathy is an inherited trait. The genes that make us unfeeling or narcissistic are often selected in evolution because they have benefits, especially if you are in a profession where a cool head is paramount. Evolution doesn’t care about how altruistic you are, or how much good you do. Only that you win.

Genetics is just part of the story, of course. Psychopathy is frequently linked to familial violence and abuse. A child who grows up with a violent father and a neglectful, self-absorbed mother will discover they can only get attention and resources by becoming manipulative. They’ll learn that negative behaviour is encouraged, and even rewarded. Their psychopathic-behaviour muscles will get stronger, until this pattern of being becomes hardwired into their personality.

I’m living proof.

When we decided to have a baby, we knew we couldn’t do anything about the DNA it would inherit, but we could make certain it wasn’t amplified by violence or neglect. Tom and I spent a year hammering out the parameters of our parenting before we tried for a child. He agreed to take on the scut work: ferrying the kids to school, chivvying them with their homework. I know my limitations. But I wanted to be the best mother I could possibly be. I might not be a natural parent, but I was determined to be a good one.

Psychopathy can’t be ‘cured’ any more than you can change the colour of your child’s skin. But it can be channelled. Given the right parenting, it can be modified with a reward system that taps into a child’s self-interest.