‘Lean forward and breathe through your mouth,’ I say. ‘It’ll drain blood into your nose instead of down the back of your throat.’ I open the freezer compartment of their shiny American refrigerator and rummage for a bag of peas. ‘Take this. It’ll help stop the bleeding.’

‘Fuck this,’ Felix says, waving me away. Duck dis. ‘I’ll be in my study.’

We listen to his footsteps recede downstairs.

Stacey suddenly reaches across the kitchen island and seizes my forearm so tightly her nails dig into my skin.

‘Don’t believe him,’ she says urgently. ‘Please, Millie. This has nothing to do with him losing his job. He won’t let me leave. You have to help me.’

chapter 24

tom

I can’t say I’m sorry about losing the Glass House.

Millie’s upset, of course, but the prospect of that huge mortgage was already giving me sleepless nights, and it’s a lot of upheaval to put the kids through just to move a dozen streets away from where we are now. The last thing Peter needs is any more disruption.

And now that her dream house is off the table, maybe Millie will stop obsessing about Stacey Porter—

Some hope.

I’m not sure what it is about her friendship with Stacey that sets off alarm bells. The woman seems nice enough, though it’s hard to know how much of that is a carry-forward from her cuddly, approachable screen persona. But her friendship with Millie has gone from nought to sixty in thirty seconds: it’s the intensity of it that makes me uneasy. Something about their relationship just feels overheated, the emotional equivalent of a housing bubble. My wife can be very focused when she gets her teeth into something. Very determined.

Given her personal history, it’s not surprising Millie has a hair trigger for domestic violence. She’s got zero tolerance for any kind of physical abuse: quite rightly, of course. I’ve rarely seen her lose her temper, but when she’s confronted by any kind of violence or bullying – of defenceless animals, children, other women – it’s like red mist descends and some external force takes over. Her dark angel, she calls it. I honestly think when it happens she’s capable of pretty much anything. And I can feel her champing at the bit to go into battle on Stacey’s behalf.

Maybe I was wrong to put an end to her prison breaks. Perhaps she needs more than her wistful visits to other people’s houses.

Maybe we both do.