Nathan was sent back to the care home the very same day. No one ever told them why though. No one ever came to ask what happened. Malcolm and Shirley were too scared to say what actually happened – terrified Nathan would tell everyone what a pair of sick twisted monsters they really were. Malcolm was packed off to hospital – had a gardening accident apparently! And Shirley played the doting wife and mother, while Nathan was the troubled foster kid who just couldn’t fit it in anywhere.

Nathan didn’t care what they said about him though. He was happy to be out of that place, but nothing compared to the euphoria he felt when he stabbed that fucker. The noise and the feel of the fork piercing his flesh for the first time. Seeing the blood oozing from him, pooling at his feet, like the tomato sauce he was so fond of eating. Nathan had never felt so powerful. He was invincible. He was experiencing life in full glorious Technicolour, for the very first time. Ever since that day he’d been chasing that feeling, that rush. God knows he’d tried to find it in other ways. Drink, drugs, sex – but nothing came close.

Nathan finished reliving the trauma of his childhood for Grace and realized that he had his knees tucked up to his chest like a frightened child. After all this time, that bastard could still make him feel like that. Grace put her arms around him and kissed the top of his head, and it was his undoing. He broke down in her arms and begged her to never leave him.

Grace had never seen Nathan in such a state before. She could barely comprehend the events of the last few hours. He was so vulnerable and yet so terrifying, at the same time. It broke her heart when she thought of what he’d endured as a child at the hands of the animal who was supposed to be protecting him. Although she wasn’t sure what was more tragic – what that monster did to him, or the monster he’d helped him to become.

She was so shaken by his confession that he’d killed Tommy of all people. His friend. How could he do that? And what was she thinking helping him to cover it up? She’d known for a long time that his lifestyle involved inflicting pain and misery on others. But she always reasoned that if she didn’t know about it, she wouldn’t have to acknowledge it. Now the truth was there with them, and it was inescapable.