Watching his jaw clench, I tense, waiting for a reaction. But today he doesn’t explode in anger. Instead, there’s a trace of vulnerability I haven’t seen in years as he sighs heavily. ‘Hollie was completely unstable. There was an incident. Last year.’

‘What kind of incident?’ My voice is cold. ‘And why don’t I know about it?’

‘It was nothing to do with you,’ he says crisply, any impression of vulnerability instantly dispelled. ‘But if you must know, now and then, a teenaged girl gets a crush. Usually girls seeking a father figure. Hollie made an appointment to see me at the surgery. She said she had a lump in one of her breasts. I told her I’d ask a chaperone to come in, but she said she didn’t want anyone else in with us. Said she was shy …’ A cynical laugh comes from him. ‘She made a hell of a fuss after – accused me of touching her inappropriately. She even wrote a letter to the practice manager. Of course, they knew nothing had happened. But even so, it was hugely embarrassing.’

Damaging to his professional image, too. ‘You don’t think you deserved it, Andrew? She’d probably found out about you and Stephanie.’

‘I told you, Elise. She had a crush – one I didn’t reciprocate,’ he says sharply. ‘You and I both know that Hollie was a mess. She was all over the place.’ He shakes his head. ‘I have to say I’m very happy that Niamh is free of her.’ Utterly callous about Hollie’s suffering, he glances at the cupboard. ‘Bloody stupid, throwing away that Scotch.’

It staggers me that he can switch topics like that without so much as drawing breath. ‘You’re missing the point, Andrew,’ I say acidly. ‘Maybe she knew about you and Stephanie and she was looking for a way to get back at you.’ I shake my head. If I knew Hollie at all, her first priority would have been to protect her father. ‘Frankly, you deserve far worse.’ Then I break our unspoken agreement. ‘How long had you and Stephanie been seeing each other?’

Without replying, he picks up his jacket and walks out. Seconds later, I hear his car start. Andrew may believe he can do what he likes but we’ve crossed a line tonight and I wonder if he knows. Fear ripples through me, fear that for years has been the basis of our relationship; of his silence, his stonewalling, his anger and humiliation of me perpetually being stepped up another notch in the escalating scale of his abuse.

It can’t go on.

*