His pleas were becoming more insistent. Even though I believed his original apology had been genuine, his behaviour since then had shown me I couldn’t trust him, and I didn’t know how much control he would have over his temper when he was drunk. I walked past him and opened the front door, turning to block him from coming in behind me.

‘Can I come in? We need to talk.’

‘No, Mike. Look, you keep saying you want to talk, and that’s fine, but you can’t just turn up at my flat in the middle of the night and expect me to let you in.’

‘I’m sorry, Paige, you just have this effect on me,’ he whined. ‘I still care about you, you know. If you just said the word I’d come back, it doesn’t have to be like this.’ I ignored him, and he sagged back against the wall. ‘I’m not good enough for you any more, is that it? Or is it because you’ve found yourself a new bloke?’

‘I’m not having this conversation right now. I’m going inside. Either you can leave, or you can sit outside all night, it’s your choice.’

Going inside, I shut the door firmly, then took a deep breath. I had only taken one step towards the stairs when he started banging on the door.

‘Paige! Paige! Don’t do this to me! Why do you have to be so fucking cold?’

There was an edge to his voice that hadn’t been there before, and I resisted the urge to turn around and open the door. Ignoring the repeated thumps from behind me, I crossed the hallway and went upstairs to my flat.

When I got inside, the door buzzer went off, accompanied by the flashing light above it. Mike was leaning on the bell for my flat, but I didn’t let him in. I gently pushed open the door to Anna’s room to check she was asleep, but the light didn’t seem to have disturbed her. Creeping back out again, I sat down behind my front door to think.

After a few minutes, the doorbell stopped buzzing, and in the eeriness of the sudden silence I wondered if he’d given up and gone away. If he’d woken one of my neighbours, maybe they’d call the police – if that happened, it was his own fault.

I got up off the floor and went into the living room to look out of the window. I couldn’t see any sign of Mike in the road outside, and for a brief moment I thought he’d gone. Then there was a thump on the door to my flat.