The last time my father hit my mother, he nearly killed her. If I hadn’t taken care of things when I did, the next time he would have done.

My phone suddenly vibrates in my hand with a text.

‘I have to go,’ I say. ‘Major incident on the M25. All hands on deck. I already have a blunt chest trauma en route to the hospital.’

‘What about Peter?’ Tom exclaims. ‘I’ve got a meeting in Covent Garden at nine. You said you’d be home till noon today.’

I knock back my scalding coffee, burning my tongue. ‘You’ll have to take him with you. We can’t leave him on his own.’

‘I can’t take a ten-year-old to a client meeting!’

‘Why don’t I stay here and keep an eye on him?’ Stacey suggests.

‘We couldn’t ask you to do that,’ Tom says.

‘Why not? I don’t have anywhere to be for the next couple of hours.’ She touches her swelling eye. ‘I can’t go out in public looking like this. And it’s the least I can do after all you’ve done for me.’

Archie is safely far away in Devon, and I don’t imagine Peter will try anything with an adult. And yet some instinct is warning me: danger! danger! Predators can always scent blood in the water. Stacey is vulnerable. And Peter’s not a normal ten-year-old.

‘Well, if you’re sure,’ Tom says, before I can object. ‘I won’t be long. The lazy sod will probably still be asleep when I get back. If he wakes up, you can just plug him into a screen.’

My phone vibrates with another text. I need to get to the hospital. Lives are in the balance.

And so I tell myself Stacey will be fine.

chapter 34

tom

I don’t know what the hell is going on with Felix and Stacey Porter, but I’m fed up with their domestic drama washing up on my doorstep. My wife certainly knows which side she’s on, but right now I’m not sure if Stacey’s victim or villain.

It’s hard to argue with a black eye – except Felix was sporting one himself last time we met. It makes me wonder if the Porters are one of those couples who get off on violent sex. Maybe all this is consensual. In which case Stacey Porter is deliberately misleading my wife, and I need to know why.

I’m not worried about leaving Peter with the woman either way. My son can more than take care of himself.

As soon as I’ve wrapped up my meeting in Covent Garden, I text Felix. To my surprise, he agrees to see me within the hour, which only makes me more bloody worried.