Claire remembered years ago, when they were both taking their exams. Their A-level results had been the same – straight As – but when she’d got a first-class degree with honours from the University of Manchester and he’d got an upper second-class degree, it had brought out a side of him that she’d not really seen before. It had taken her weeks to work out what was bothering him. He’d been quiet and moody but every time she asked what was wrong, he had said it was nothing.

And then she’d gone off on her girls’ holiday, a week in Portugal, flush with success and looking forward to some fun and sunshine. She’d hoped that a week apart would do them both good but when she came back, the situation between them was even worse. He snapped at her for the tiniest of things, constantly criticised her, and complained about her leaving him for a week even though he’d said he didn’t want to go on holiday after their exams.

It was only when Chris received a letter, offering him a position on the prestigious graduate management programme in a technology company, that she’d finally understood, mainly because his personality did a complete 180-degree turn, but also because he couldn’t resist gloating.

‘I may only have got a 2:1 but I still got the job!’ he crowed, doing some ridiculous celebratory football dance.

‘Congratulations!’ Claire had said when she’d read the letter, giving him a huge hug. She was genuinely pleased for him. Over the following weeks, as he returned to his normal loving self, Claire felt herself relax around him again. They went out for dinner, drank champagne to celebrate, and they made plans to have a few days away together before Chris started work. He bought two new suits and did more research on his employer.

Claire was still waiting for responses to her applications and she hoped she would also be offered an opportunity in Manchester. She hadn’t told Chris that she’d applied to one in London. She hadn’t planned on applying outside of their home city but one of her law lecturers had encouraged her to do so and written a personal letter of recommendation. It was the best law graduate training programme in the country, so Claire had applied, reassured by the knowledge that only one in six hundred applicants got accepted.

So, when she did receive an acceptance letter for that particular course, she was shocked. But instead of celebrating, she told no one and instead she slipped the letter between her textbooks in her desk drawer and closed it firmly. A few days later, there was a flurry of letters on the doormat all addressed to her and she picked them up, quickly opening each one and scanning their contents.