‘You filthy, fucking whore,’ he spat.

She laughed. The sound surprised her, that she could find humour even in such a situation. ‘I’m a whore?’ She shouted back. ‘I’m a whore? You screwed anything that moved, but I’m the whore? That really is something.’

‘That was different, Grace. None of those women meant anything to me.’

‘And you think that makes it okay, Nathan? You think that means I didn’t feel like my heart had been ripped out every time you came home stinking of another woman?’

‘But they were nothing to me,’ he repeated, as though he was trying to convince himself as well as her. ‘Did you love him?’

‘Yes,’ she whispered.

‘More than me?’ he demanded, ever the needy little boy.

‘Of course not,’ she told him truthfully, the words leaving her mouth almost involuntarily. She should have lied. She should have hurt him, told him that she never really loved him at all. But, how could she? Even thinking those words felt alien to her. Because she had loved him, the monster that he was, far too much, and for far too long. She had given him everything she had. Her heart and her soul, but it had never been enough. If she was the best of him then he was the worst of her.

‘Do you still love me, Grace?’

When she didn’t answer him, he really started. She felt the punches and the kicks raining down on her before she lost consciousness.

Chapter Eighty-Four

Grace woke up and tried to open her eyes. One was swollen closed but the other blinked in the bright light of her living room as she lay on the carpeted floor.

‘Thought we’d lost you there for a minute, love,’ Nathan said cheerily. He was sitting on the sofa eating a sandwich, as though he was visiting and was waiting for her to wake up from a nap. ‘Can’t have you missing out on the fun now, can we?’

Every part of her body screamed in pain. She could taste blood. Looking down at her body she could see she was almost naked; most of her clothes had been torn from her body. Who knew what that animal had done to her while she was passed out?

He stood up, wiping the crumbs from his hands. ‘Ready for round two?’ he smiled.

Please, for God’s sake – just kill me, she wanted to beg. But she knew that wouldn’t happen for a while. That would be too easy, too merciful for Nathan. Suddenly her mind was filled with thoughts of Jake – her beautiful, sweet boy. What would become of him if Nathan killed her? He would drag him into the gutter too. Maybe he would hurt him? Or God forbid even kill him.

The one thing in Grace’s favour was that Nathan underestimated her; he always had, and he always would. She just had to think of something – anything.