Brave: How I rebuilt my life after love turned to hate. Adele Bellis

feel guilty now, don’t you,’ he’d say. ‘But you didn’t feel guilty when I was inside, did you? Not when you were taking the piss out of me –’

      ‘Anthony,’ I’d sob. ‘I haven’t –’

      ‘Don’t lie to me!’

      Round and round it went, any happy day ruined by him telling me that people had been talking about me to him. But I hadn’t done anything. I didn’t want to.

      ‘I only ever wanted Anthony,’ I cried once to his Aunty Claire.

      She sighed and put her arms around me. ‘He’s just come out of prison, he’s finding it hard to adjust.’

      And on the good days, that’s what he’d tell me too, he’d remind me that he had never felt like this about anyone.

      ‘It’s only because I love you so much that I worried you cheated on me,’ he’d say.

      ‘But I didn’t,’ I tried again. But I only ever got through to him until the next time.