Aidan meets her eyes and can see the pain in them. He feels that pain himself.

He’s going to do the right thing.

‘I’m not going to see you again. Please don’t contact me anymore,’ he says quietly.

‘It’ll be over when I say it’s over.’ Anger overtakes her sadness before she takes his hand. ‘I need you, Aidan,’ she whispers.

Everybody needs something from him. He needs… Lucy. He needs her to look at him the way she used to without her face being shadowed by worry. To hear her laughter. To hold her in his arms and whirl around the kitchen in a waltz the way they used to after watching Strictly.

He pulls his hand away. ‘You should go.’

He can’t look at her. There’s a blast of air as she opens the door. He jumps as she slams it shut.

Somebody’s going to get hurt.

Chapter Fifteen

Lucy

Grey clouds bunch in the darkening sky. The drizzle now a deluge, freezing rain slapping against my face. I’m frustrated as I crouch next to the footprints by the fence, trying to shield them with my open coat as the last traces of them disappear into sludge. They were the only proof I had that anyone had broken into our garden while Kieron and I were snuggled on the sofa in the lounge, unaware.

Unprepared.

‘Lucy?’ Aidan sticks his head out of the back door. ‘What on earth are you doing?’

I head back indoors.

‘And what’s happened to the car?’ He’s spooning coffee into a mug.

I must look blank as I slip off my sodden shoes because he adds, ‘The scratch down the side.’

‘That was while I was parked at the supermarket. I think it might have been deliberate—’

‘Deliberate? Somebody targeting you? Why? You assumed those birds were left by someone rather than an animal, didn’t you?’

My resolution waivers. ‘Well, yes and you were right. The birds were actually left by a cat, Felix. Our new neighbour came around today and apologized.’

He doesn’t say ‘I told you so’, instead he holds my gaze for a fraction longer than he needs to before he offers to cook dinner and this small kindness is worse than any shouting. He thinks I’m losing it in the way I had before.

I grapple to get my emotions under control, to get the situation under control. I’m fine. I am. I smile a little too brightly. ‘It’s okay, I made a lasagne this afternoon. It should be ready in a minute.’

‘I don’t smell anything?’ He cracks open the oven. ‘Lucy, you haven’t switched it on.’

A hot scald of humiliation rushes through me. ‘Sorry, I’ve been distracted because I thought somebody was in the garden and…’

‘Lucy. Go and get changed. You’re soaked through.’ He sounds so weary.