He has a few words for me, the only thing he can give. He says: Be prepared for the worst, but always hope for the best. See you in court tomorrow. He leaves as the guards are herding us back to our cells. The hope that the court tomorrow will end my misery buoys my spirits. I whisper to one inmate what I have learned. Soon everybody has the same news about the court tomorrow.

If the burden is too much and stays too long, even love bends, cracks, comes close to breaking and sometimes does break. But even when it’s in a thousand pieces around your feet, that doesn’t mean it’s no longer love.

OK, we’ll tell her you dug the grave.’ It’s the truth – stretched, but still true. Besides, what would be left of love without truth stretched beyond its limits, without those better versions of ourselves that we present as the only ones that exist?

It would take a while for me to realise that each of my children had given me as much as they took. My memories of them, bittersweet and constant, were as powerful as a physical presence.

Yet despite how much stress and hairpulling Appen caused, Fuentes couldn’t imagine leaving the platform. She was terrified that tasks would stop arriving altogether and she would be forced to move on. Appen had been her savior, the only thing that pulled her through when everything else in her life had threatened to end her. Not only that, the earnings were once so great, she was able to invest in a new laptop and recoup the cost and then some.

When things were good, they were really good. When things were bad, she stayed tethered to the platform with the stubborn faith that it would return her loyalty.