He took a deep breath and the anger vanished from his face as if it had been wiped clean. ‘It’s just a cup of coffee. Come on, Stace.’

‘I said no and I meant no. I don’t want anything more to do with you. Not – ever.’

‘You ungrateful bitch!’ This time as she turned away from him, he grabbed her and slammed her hard against the car.

‘Get your hands off me!’ she shouted.

‘You’ll damn well talk to me, give me a chance. Whatever it takes.’ He snatched at her keys but she thrust them behind her back.

Seeing two older men coming towards them she yelled at the top of her voice, ‘Help! Help me!’

Darren tried to put his hand across her mouth and she bit him.

As the men started running towards them, he said in a low voice, ‘You’ll regret this. No woman treats me like that.’ He spun round and ran off.

The men didn’t try to chase him.

‘You all right?’ the nearest one asked her.

‘I am now. He wouldn’t let me get into my car.’

‘Do you know him?’

‘He’s my ex-husband.’ She couldn’t stop shaking and her words came out in jerky bursts. ‘He’s the one who – who broke up our marriage and now … now he’s pestering me to get back together. He won’t accept no for an answer.’

‘Take your time. We’ll stay with you till you feel all right to drive.’ He fumbled in his pocket. ‘Here. This is my card. If he keeps pestering you, I’ll happily be a witness to him manhandling you today.’

‘Thank you.’

‘Good thing I happened to be looking in your direction, eh? I was close enough to see you were in trouble. I don’t approve of men who treat women roughly.’

‘I took a photo of him with my phone,’ the other man said, also offering a business card. ‘Same goes for me. I saw it too.’

‘I’m grateful for your help.’

The first man beckoned to two older women who were standing watching. When they joined them, their husbands explained what had happened and one woman put her arm round Stacy.

It took her a few minutes to pull herself together. Nothing like this had ever happened to her before, and Darren hadn’t been so violent during their marriage, just – well, a bit rough sometimes, but he hadn’t beaten her.

One of the men looked at his watch. ‘Have you somewhere safe to go, Stacy?’

‘Um. I’m not sure.’ Where could she take refuge? Normally she’d have gone round to her parents’ but they were away house-hunting, living in a hotel somewhere now they’d sold their house.

She’d do her grocery shopping tomorrow, and do it somewhere else.

There was nowhere to go but back to her flat. At least there were usually people within call there. Most of the time, anyway.

She didn’t notice the red car following her till she turned into the street where she lived and it turned too.