“She criticized what I cooked, how I dressed, how I spent money.

And Andrew always took her side.

Always.”

“He did exactly the same thing when he was with me, Gemma,” I said, quietly.

And she dropped her eyes, ashamed.

“I really thought it would be different for us,” she whispered.

And then she told me the detail that closed the entire circle, her voice cracking on it: that Andrew had begun complaining, constantly, that she lacked ambition — that he would tell her, pointedly, that at least Samantha had an impressive career to be proud of.

When he was with me, he had resented my work.