One of the many sweet things Zoe Watts’s husband Ben used to do for her during their 14-year marriage was make her a cup of tea before bed.
It was a ritual that seemed to show just how much Ben cared for her – because the churchgoing, pillar-of-the-community Ben was big on gestures.
‘He liked making these big outward displays. He would serenade me in church and book hair and nail appointments for me, making a point of telling the staff to make a fuss of me as I was so precious,’ mother-of-four Zoe recalls. ‘We seemed like the perfect family.’
Today, though, Zoe sees all this for what it was.
‘None of it was real,’ she says. ‘People like Ben foster a relationship to get their needs met. They masquerade as functioning, funny, kind, loving people. But behind it all is a monster.’
