She heard the belt whistle through the air before it hit her, slapping her back, buckle end raking through the fabric of her thin T-shirt, shredding it and the skin beneath. She stuffed her fist into her mouth to stop from screaming out. It would bring Wren running. Mark might kill him; she hadn’t seen him this angry in years. Over a pair of fucking pants.

Mark quickly tired himself out. He wasn’t as fit as he used to be, the beer drinking catching up to him. Breathing heavily, she heard him put his belt back on. ‘You’d better go get that little shit stain from your mom’s, but I don’t want to see him. Understood?’

She nodded. Her back was on fire, but she didn’t dare move until she heard the front door slam shut. She throbbed all over. She straightened up with difficulty. Rather than go to the doctor’s, she put her hands on either side of her nose and clicked it back into place with a horrific crunch and a burst of white hot pain that for a moment surpassed the pain of her back. She hobbled down the hallway looking for Wren, whispering his name, terrified that Mark hadn’t actually left and that he was waiting for her. She kept looking over her shoulder.

She finally found her son in her wardrobe, cleverly hiding in her hanging dressing gown. ‘Oh, sweetheart, come here. Are you OK?’ she asked, smoothing down his sweat-slickened hair.

His eyes were filled with tears. ‘Why does he hurt you, Mom?’

Vanessa could have said a lot of things, none of it for little nine-year-old ears though. She wanted to tell Wren that his dad loved him, that it had nothing to do with him, but she couldn’t lie to him like that. Mark hated Vanessa and by extension, Wren. Why didn’t he just leave them? The only reasons she could think of was that he liked tormenting her, them. She couldn’t leave because he’d threatened to kill Wren, just to get her back. She believed him. He was psycho, and she never knew how he was going to act in any given situation. She thought back to his missing black pants. They definitely hadn’t been in the wash. It was possible that he’d left them at his girlfriend’s house. It was something that she’d hoped for before, thinking him being happier would mean less pain for her and Wren. But if he was with another woman, it wasn’t helping them at all.

‘Mom, are you OK?’