My phone lit up with a silent notification. Michael replied:

Run away with me. I mean it. Let me keep you safe. x

I stared at his words, thought of my family sleeping in the next room. If I just disappeared … they’d be safe. Whoever was doing this didn’t want to hurt them. He only wanted to hurt me. He’d surely leave them alone if I was out of the picture.

But my girls, they were my life. I wasn’t sure life would be worth living if I couldn’t be with them. And my husband, who was hurting, who wanted to save us, what would it do to him? I deleted the message from Michael, and crawled back into bed beside Paul, where I lay awake for hours.

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Elizabeth

I woke to the sound of a woman saying my name, over and over. I could just about make out indistinct noises in the background, but it was that one voice – calm, soothing – that gently encouraged me to open my eyes.

Her green uniform, hair tied back. A pretty face, scrubbed clean, no make-up. Blue eyes. Like Laura’s.

‘You’ve taken quite a knock, Elizabeth,’ she said. ‘You’ve been out for quite a while.’

I tried to speak but couldn’t make my mouth work just yet. A voice, male, familiar, was in the background. The policeman. The tall one. I couldn’t remember his name. Remember why he was there. This was my house, wasn’t it? My head throbbed.

I could hear the whining of a dog. My dog. Where was she? I tried to move my head.

‘Steady there, Elizabeth,’ I heard the paramedic say. ‘No sudden movements. We want to make sure you’ve not done yourself any real damage.’

She was shining a torch in my eyes, but I tried to close them; the light was too bright.

‘Do you know where you are, Elizabeth?’ she asked me.

I was sure I did. But my mouth still didn’t want to work. The words were stuck in my head. Where was the policeman? Was he with the dog? It was my dog, wasn’t it?

‘You’ve had a fall,’ the female paramedic said, enunciating each word slowly and purposefully as if I were stupid.

My head was still spinning. There was pain. Like hot knives. Like electric shocks.

‘You hit your head. Can you tell us your name?’

I wanted to scream at her that she already knew my name. Hadn’t she said it to me already? That was my name, wasn’t it? Everything seemed to fade in and out and in again. I didn’t know any more what was what and who was real, and where was Laura?

I tried to sit up but had barely moved before the paramedic was telling me to stay still and calm.

‘She’s very confused,’ I heard her say to someone.