She put down the plates she was holding and followed him obediently into the bathroom. He locked the door behind her and she wondered what fresh hell he had in store for her. Surely, he wouldn’t do anything while Jake was awake and sitting happily in the next room? He’d never been that reckless before. She noticed a look on his face that she’d never seen before; if she didn’t know better, she’d say it was fear.

As he took off his coat, she almost passed out from the shock. His pale blue T-shirt was covered in blood, making it appear almost entirely purple in colour. It was only then that she noticed his jeans had blood on them too. And his arms, and his neck – it was everywhere.

‘Are you okay? Are you hurt?’

He ignored her questions. ‘I need you to help me get rid of these, Grace, quickly!’ He pulled off his clothes. ‘Take them to Uncle Billy’s allotment; he’s got a firepit there. Put them in that and burn them. Make sure no one sees you. I’ll watch Jake while you go.’

‘What have you done, Nathan? Whose blood is this?’ she asked, acutely aware of the tremor in her voice.

‘Just do as I fucking say, Grace. Now!’

‘I’ll take Jake with me then,’ she said, desperate not to leave her baby with him, this monster who had clearly just done something terrible.

He grabbed her by the arm. ‘You can’t take him with you, you fucking idiot,’ he snarled. ‘What if he sees something? Leave him with me.’

So, she did as he asked, because she was too terrified not to. Terrified of what he would do to her, and to Jake, if she refused. But he would never hurt Jake. Not his own son? She reassured herself that Jake would be safe while she made the quick trip to the allotment. She wondered at the ease in which Nathan had asked her to become an accomplice in whatever heinous thing he’d done. But more so, at the ease in which she had complied.

Grace stuffed Nathan’s clothes and trainers into the nearest thing she could find – a plastic ‘Happy Shopper’ bag which she and Jake had used the day before on a trip to the park. She noted the irony of the paradox of the bag’s most recent contents as she emptied out Jake’s football and cars and filled it with his father’s blood-soaked clothes.