While putting on the sausages to cook, Vanessa said to Wren, ‘Hun, how ’bout you go run a bath for Ty and I’ll get dinner ready for you?’ Wren nodded and took Ty from her arms. She watched as he left the room, talking to his little brother, hearing Ty’s garbled and cheerful responses. She could hear the pair of them giggling from the kitchen, it was a lovely sound to hear. It made her heart swell with love. Wren was so attentive to Ty. Always playing with him and taking care of him. She couldn’t be more proud of him. Vanessa walked down the hallway and stopped at the bathroom door, peering around the corner. Wren was leaning over the bath pouring water over Ty’s head who giggled underneath the waterfall of warm water.

‘Honey?’

He looked up. ‘Yeah, Mom?’

‘I just wanted to tell you how much I appreciate your help. Love you.’ She went back to the kitchen to check on dinner then made her way down the hallway to her room.

She was intending to get changed after a hard day at the café. She pushed open her bedroom door and stopped in stunned shock. All of her clothes were strewn across her bed and floor, every drawer opened and empty, her cosmetics in the bathroom were carelessly thrown across the floor. Her bed had been slashed, the knife marks going through to the stuffing of the mattress. From her vantage point, she could see the bathroom mirror. In red lipstick were the words: You’re next.

Stifling a scream, she backed out of the bedroom and closed the door. She ran into Ty’s bedroom where Wren was getting him dressed after his bath. She took him from her son’s hands, finished dressing him and grabbed the nappy bag.

‘We’re going to Nannie’s house. I’ve barely seen her all week. So, c’mon, let’s go. Chop, chop.’ She turned off the stove and ushered them quickly to the car.

Wren gave her a quizzical look, and she knew what he was going to ask. ‘What’s wrong, Mom?’

‘Nothing, sweetheart, I just changed my mind about eating at home. And I miss Nannie,’ she finished lamely.

He could see right through her. ‘He did something, didn’t he?’

She looked at him in the rear-view mirror; his fists were clenched by his sides in anger.

She chose not to answer, just kept driving. He was looking out the window the next time she glanced at him, fists still clenched. ‘Maybe we’ll even stay the night,’ Vanessa said cheerfully. ‘We haven’t done that in a while either. Nannie won’t mind – she loves having us over.’ She was being overly bright and happy, but Wren would know something was up. He knew her better than that.

‘Mom,’ he said, his tone so stern that she felt like a schoolgirl in the principal’s office about to get a rap on the knuckles.

Vanessa sighed, glancing in the mirror at him again. ‘Your dad might have been in the house.’