Once I had finished school, I spent a year in Israel. I met people of all cultures and nationalities, learning from them and experiencing a whole new world in doing so. I fostered my love of art, channelling my excitement into the sketches and paintings that remain some of my best work to this day. I adored my time in Israel, feeling free from the shackles of my childhood and developing the sense of adventure that has come to define me.

I returned feeling like a woman of experience. I felt sophisticated and confident, until I met Leo, who was suave and looked like a rake, smooth in every way. He came from an entirely different culture to my own, and told such fascinating stories.

His past intrigued me. He was a Holocaust survivor and refugee from Riga, where he came from a powerful family who owned ships and chauffeurs. They had lost everything in the Holocaust, but that just made him all the more intriguing. Leo represented adventure to me, and that is what seduced me. I was enamoured.