‘But how come we never saw any bruises on you?’ Again, Martha sounded as though she doubted the veracity of what Naomi had shared with them.

‘He was either clever with where or how he struck me, or I had to resort to using make-up to conceal the marks.’

When Martha didn’t respond, Naomi turned to face Willow. ‘I’m so sorry you witnessed any of it, truly I am. I wish you’d told me.’

‘I just didn’t know how to,’ Willow said sadly.

‘But you’ve carried this for so long, and when you didn’t deserve to.’

‘Presumably Auntie Geraldine knew this … this awful secret of yours?’ interjected Martha.

‘I never once mentioned it to Geraldine,’ Naomi replied, ‘I can only imagine that something gave me away. In fact, such was my shame at what I was hiding from everybody, I couldn’t bring myself to tell anyone. Not until I told Ellis a short while ago.’

Martha groaned. ‘Oh Mum, how could you?’

‘Because I wanted him to know the whole of me, the good bits and the bad. Especially the bad. And I didn’t want there to be any secrets between us; I wanted a fresh start that was built on truth and honesty. After so many years of lies and pretence, it was a relief to say the words out loud. But it was also terrifying. I felt completely vulnerable and laid bare and horribly disloyal to your father. To you two as well.’

‘If it was so bad being with Dad, why did you stay with him?’

‘Why do you think, Martha? For the sake of you girls. I couldn’t bring myself to destroy the life we had as a family. Or ruin the love you had for your father. It would have broken your heart, and his too.’

Martha picked up a stone and threw it angrily at the retreating sea. ‘But it’s okay to do that now?’ she said, ‘for me now to know that my father wasn’t the man I thought he was, that he was an abusive wife-beater?’

In the painful silence that followed, Willow said, ‘What did you mean by Ellis knowing the bad bits about you, Mum?’

‘I mean the shame, Willow. The shame that has been like a second skin to me all these years.’ More firmly, she said, ‘And I won’t let that happen to you. If you forgive Rick what he’s done and go back to him, you’ll live in constant fear of him losing his temper again. You’ll also end up living a lie and you’ll hate yourself for pretending to the world that you’re fine, when, deep down, you’re not.’

‘I think it’s too late for that,’ Willow murmured. ‘I’ve already been living a lie.’

Chapter Fifty-Four

It had happened during the first term of her second year at Warwick University and was, of course, her own fault; she shouldn’t have drunk so much. Although that wasn’t her first mistake: that had been to go to the party in the first place. She hadn’t planned to, but at the last minute she had abandoned the essay she’d been part-way through writing and gone. The other two girls with whom she shared the house were away in London for the weekend, so with no company for a few days, a party had seemed like a great idea. She could not have been more wrong.