A little foolish for hoping he’d say something different.’

‘It’s hard to stop hoping,’ he replied.

I looked at the receipt on the table.

I had paid for lunch with my own card.

Such a small thing, yet it mattered that the choice had been mine.

That evening my mother sent a long message about the damage the case had done to the family reputation.

I read it once and saved it.

Then I replied with a short note: I am open to talking about our relationship when you are able to talk about what happened to me, not only how other people reacted to it.