My knees buckled and I sat down suddenly. All of my senses seemed heightened with stress and my skin prickled furiously as I heard the bang of the back door, his voice as he called my name, his hesitation as he realized dinner wasn’t cooked.

And then the living room door opened.

CHAPTER 2

Ruby

Tom stood in the doorway, his tall, solid body almost filling the frame. His dark hair was damp with the heat of the day, his shirt crumpled now after the journey home. He could tell that something was up the moment he saw me. I was sitting on the sofa, frozen. His eyes darted around the room, but I was the only thing that was out of place.

“Ruby?” He sounded concerned and despite everything my eyes prickled. “Is everything all right?”

My throat was tight and I could hardly speak, but eventually I said, “Yes. Everything’s fine.”

He came farther into the room and instinctively I shrank away from him. He glanced at me and I knew he’d noticed that. Not much gets past him.

“What are you doing, sitting here in the dark? Are you ill?”

I shook my head.

“Your mum and dad? Are they okay?”

“They’re fine,” I said. I hoped they were, anyway. I hadn’t spoken to them for a few days. All I’d been able to think about was this moment; it wasn’t exactly something I could share with them.

He walked slowly around the room, his eyes on me, then sat on the sofa opposite me. I couldn’t pretend everything was normal. At this time on a Friday night I’d always be in the kitchen, cooking dinner. Right now I should be chopping lemongrass, garlic, and chillies, not sitting in a darkening room with my jacket and shoes still on and my handbag dangling from my shoulder.

I screwed up my courage. “Tom.” My tongue felt thick and dry in my mouth. “This isn’t working for me.” I wasn’t looking at him—I couldn’t—but I could sense he’d turned to stare at me. There was a heavy silence that I just had to break. “I need to go.”

“Go? What do you mean?”

“I need to leave. To move out.”

He was silent but he didn’t look furious, the way I’d imagined he would when I’d had practice runs of this, night after night while he lay sprawled beside me in bed, deep in sleep. When he reached out to me, I had to stop myself flinching, though I knew he’d never touch me now.

“I thought something was wrong, sweetie,” he said. “You’ve not been the same lately.”