I felt his hand on my throat and his grasp tightened; the air squeezed from my lungs, my head tilted backwards. I tried to kick out, but my feet were sliding on the ground, my shoes being pulled from my feet, falling off as he dragged me towards his car.

‘The more you struggle, the more it’ll hurt, or maybe you’d like it to hurt?’ he sneered.

I shook my head, again trying to pull away from him. I tried to claw his hand from my throat but he was too strong, using his other arm to immobilise my arms. All the kicking and flailing in the world had me going nowhere. Achieved nothing.

‘Please, let me go,’ I gasped. ‘I’ve got to go home. They’re expecting me. Paul will send the police out if I’m not back. They’ll be on their way.’

‘Then we’d better get out of here,’ he said, reaching his car and pulling open the passenger seat. ‘Get in.’

I shook my head, struggled more.

‘I said get in!’ he demanded loudly, forcefully. His face contorting in front of my eyes to the point that I no longer recognised him as the man he’d been to me just minutes before.

‘No!’ I shouted as loud as my burning lungs would allow. ‘No! I won’t. Let. Me. Go!’

‘Do you really think anyone’ll hear you?’ he sneered, pushing me towards the car, trying to force my body to fold into it.

I fought. I fought with all of my might. My heart pounding, my body slick with sweat, pulling against him, using every ounce of my strength. I could feel the gravel on the ground tear at my feet. Had Clare fought this hard? Had she been this scared?

A punch to my stomach folded me in half, drove the air from my body until I was gasping for breath I couldn’t find. I looked up at him, at his green eyes that had looked down at me with such love just a short time ago, trying to find some trace of the man I thought he was.

It was gone. There was nothing there to hope for or to cling to. I felt bile rise up and I didn’t have the strength to swallow it down. I threw up, my own vomit spattering the ground, his legs, my legs. It came in shuddering explosions of acidic liquid that I couldn’t stop.

I felt the car door crunch against my legs as he tried to force me further backwards onto the seat. I saw the shadow of his hand, raised against the sunlight. Tried to move my head as I saw it come at me …