Closing her eyes, she flushed the pills away, yanking at the lever before she could change her mind.

Anna breathed heavily, a second scream caught in her throat. Her feet were bare, and William’s too-long nails grazed her skin.

She shook her leg, gripping onto the banister as she kicked out as hard as she could.

‘Ooof,’ wheezed William as her foot caught him in the neck.

She took advantage of the moment, wheeling backwards, feet skidding on the floorboards. Her back hit the wall, and she slid down it, feeling the sweat on her face, doubly faint now, and not just from hunger any more.

He spoke, but so quietly that she couldn’t hear the words. She didn’t want to hear them, and she turned her face away so she wouldn’t have to watch his lips moving soundlessly or the plea for help in his cloudy eyes.

And as her breathing slowed, she realised that though the fall hadn’t killed him, he was in a bad way. He wouldn’t live long, but she couldn’t leave him like this. He might hang on until tomorrow, when his son arrived. He was strong when he needed to be, when he gripped her wrist to stop her from leaving the bed that he liked her to lie on with him.

At the bottom of the stairs, he moved very slightly, and though it was barely discernible, it galvanised Anna into action. On her hands and knees, she scuttled over to him, gripping his shoulder and turning him fully onto his back.

His eyes opened, blue orbs of confusion that were full of pain.

‘You’re a filthy old man,’ she said, her voice thin and reedy.

He shook his head; it wobbled on his skinny neck as he disputed her statement wordlessly.

She wanted to spit more vitriol at him, but what did it matter? It wouldn’t change anything; nothing had been as she had thought in the first place. Her mind drifted back to when she had started this gig, thinking that he would leave everything to her when he passed away, that she would get this house and the contents of his bank accounts and finally, she would have the money to live the sort of life she was destined to. It had all been a pipe dream.

She didn’t speak to him again as she covered his mouth with one hand and pinched his nostrils tightly together with her other, pressing down on him with all the strength she could muster.