‘Believe me, I am.’ She was uprooting her whole life, wasn’t she?

‘I don’t think you ought go out of the house at all tomorrow. And we’ll leave your car in the garage with the blinds drawn on the windows. There are a few other things we could do. My friend says you should change cars. We can leave yours round at his farm and I’ll sell it once you’ve left. I’ll take it round there after dark tonight and he’ll run me back.’

She felt a chill shiver down her spine. Her father wasn’t given to fanciful imagining.

‘We’ll buy another car for you from a newspaper advert and I’ll pay for it by bank cheque. You should change banks, too, as well as buying yourself a new computer and scrapping the old one.’ He looked at her grimly.

She was puzzled. ‘Why?’

‘He could have bugged it while you were married to keep track of what you were doing. Men like that try to control everything their wife does.’

She was beyond words.

Her father let that sink in, then added, ‘Think about changing your service provider, too, if Darren is with the same company.’

‘He is.’

‘Then you’d better change.’

She lay awake for half the night worrying about what else Darren might do, worrying about her parents’ safety too.

It was like living in a nightmare.

In spite of her anxiety and the need to keep out of sight, the few days spent with her parents had their pleasant side. But once she had chosen and insured a new car, which had also been taken straight to the farm, she steeled herself to leave. Living here would be taking advantage of their kindness and might even be putting them in danger.

She couldn’t help being secretly envious of them, though. They were so happily busy, so much in love still.

They told her to come back and stay with them if the job didn’t lead to anything more permanent, but she wasn’t going to impose on them again if she could help it. They’d just moved into this lovely new home and were busy with the addition of a couple of en suite bathrooms and a small extension containing a conservatory and sitting room for their own use.

She tried to keep cheerful and not let her anxieties show, but saw how they watched her. As if people who knew her so well wouldn’t guess how upset she was!

She left before dawn. Her father took her to the farm and she transferred her things to the new car, which filled it up, because there were not only clothes and necessities, but her computer and some basic art materials.

As she set off, she tried to look on the bright side. At least she had a job to go to, and with it the chance to start afresh.

She could only pray that Darren would meet another woman and get obsessed with her instead of stalking his ex-wife. Surely he’d come to his senses if she wasn’t around? He wasn’t a stupid man.