‘Mummy? Did you hear me?’

Beth blinks. She can’t fall apart. She can’t let Kat ruin what she has. ‘Sorry, darling,’ she murmurs. ‘What did you say?’

‘He gave us presents, look,’ Martha says, proffering her gift. ‘Can I open it?’

‘And me!’ Ava pipes up.

‘Why not, it’s almost Christmas.’ Beth watches her daughters rip at the wrapping paper and uses the distraction to take a breath. She needs to go home. Alone. Mark isn’t a threat to her anymore; he’s unconscious in a hospital bed. Of course she needs to get her head around that too, talk to Simon, find out why he’s avoiding DC Stone’s calls. But she can’t deal with that yet, not without knowing who Kat is, and what she wants. She takes another deep breath, then gestures for Simon to walk a few steps away. ‘I need to go back to Wandsworth.’

‘What? Why?’

‘Saskia has fallen out with Tim,’ she improvises. ‘She needs a shoulder to cry on.’

‘We’re supposed to be going to my parents.’

‘I know. I’m sorry. But Saskia is in a terrible state. I can’t abandon her. You go though, your mum will never forgive me if I sabotage a visit from her grandchildren. And I promise I’ll come by train this evening, or tomorrow morning at the latest.’

‘You can’t stay in the house on your own, Beth,’ Simon says, shaking his head. ‘Not with Mark wandering the streets.’

Beth pauses, breathes, absorbs the electric current of her daughters’ chattering voices. ‘He’s not wandering the streets,’ she finally says in a low voice. ‘He’s in hospital.’

‘What?’

‘Saskia messaged me. I don’t know how she knows,’ Beth lies.

‘It’s probably drugs-related,’ Simon blusters. ‘Maybe she heard through that charity she’s involved with.’

‘Probably. Maybe.’

‘A relief in a way, I suppose. For us. Not that I’d want …’

‘I know.’

Simon pulls his phone out of the bag, taps at the screen, sees the missed calls and blinks. ‘Do you think I should brief a solicitor?’

Beth suddenly feels the urge to laugh. At her husband’s petrified face, at her blindly inviting Kat into her home, at her belief that a single act of kindness would bring her peace rather than just more pain. But instead, she grazes Simon’s cheek with her lips, promises him that it will all be okay and opens the Uber app on her phone.

Chapter 48

Chapter 48

Mark