He shook his head, even though she had clearly meant it as a scornful swipe at him rather than a question. He looked at her, pleadingly. He was at the end of his tether, couldn’t she tell? But there was nothing in her face, no trace, to suggest she intended to retreat so much as an inch.

He stood up and went back inside. He didn’t know where to go, so he ended up in the bedroom and when he heard her footsteps, he quickly closed the door behind him. She opened it. By then, he had sat down on the edge of the bed. He was hunched over, with his head down and his elbows on his knees, as though inviting her to sit down next to him and maybe stroke his back.

She didn’t.

She leaned against the doorpost, arms crossed.

‘I can see why you’d be worried.’

The words came out in a slurred mass.

She laughed at him.

‘Worried? That’s how I felt the first few weeks, Anders. There’s nothing left of that now, just so you know. Nothing but a lot of fucking anger.’

She was screaming now, venting the fury that had been simmering under the surface.

‘You watch TV all day, feeling sorry for yourself, and at night you sneak out and fuck some bloody slag in the woods! And then you pretend nothing’s going on.’

‘But I don’t, I don’t know what you’re talking about!’

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. That’s all you ever say.’

‘You don’t know what it’s like. What it’s like in here.’

He slapped his forehead hard. His voice was breaking. She turned around. She couldn’t even look at him any more.

‘And this might be the worst thing,’ she said. ‘That you feel so damn sorry for yourself. First you deny everything, and then you sit here feeling sorry for yourself. It’s a pattern. You come in here every time. Do you know that? You sit there, in that exact spot!’

‘What am I supposed to do then? I don’t know what to do …’

‘You need to get help, Anders. Because this has got out of hand.’

He nodded and she left, and he stayed on the bed and looked at the floor and when he eventually got up, it was because he was wondering why Johanna hadn’t come to bed even though it was past eleven.

Diana sat in front of her computer…