This house looked out on to lawns and then to woodland. Although it wasn’t far from that first house on the riverside, it was far enough. So she still kept her ‘friends’, such as they were – Chloe, her ex-next-door-neighbour, and Tanya. She still felt they just tolerated her, after all that bitch Phil had told them. But Phil was history. And ever since those days, Shauna had donated freely to all Tanya and Chloe’s favourite charities, made herself indispensable to them as a fundraiser, made sure everyone saw what a good upright pillar of the community she was – so now she was in, she was a well-established part of their circle, and that was all she cared about.

Josh had upped the security here after a spate of robberies in the area. There was a state-of-the-art alarm system installed in this house, and electronic gates. Of course that didn’t keep out Jeb Cleaver. Living the high life, enjoying her standing in the community, Jeb was like the evil fairy in Shauna’s perfect tale of bliss. Over the years he’d haunted her. He called on her whenever he could, whenever he wanted to. Anytime Josh was gone – and he was gone a lot – Jeb was likely to show up. And then he expected sex. And she had to give out. Or else. She had to toe the line. He always casually dropped her kids’ names into the conversation, and to hear Connor’s and Aysha’s names on his lips made her want to heave. She idolized her kids and she had to keep them safe.

Sometimes – this was the worst thing – she even enjoyed it when Jeb took her, and that made her feel disgusted at her own animal appetites. It was worse when he was slow about it, taking his time, really grinding away at her like he had all day. She couldn’t stand it then, couldn’t resist, because Josh had been neglecting her too long in that department. Sometimes it made her sick with rage that Jeb still had such a powerful hold on her. At those times, she thought of the Magnum tucked away upstairs in the wardrobe and wondered what it might feel like to blow his head to fuck, like she’d done with his brothers.