Everybody agreed, despite their personal views, it was good for Scott. His religion had helped him deal with the aftermath of the abuse: both periods, with Casey, yes… but also with Natalie. With her rages, with her violence, her crying, her saying sorry.

“I lost my way, and it led me into some bad places. But the truth is, God saved me that night. He came to me and he gave me the strength to act. He saved me, and I think he saved you too, Lauren.”

Lauren looked around, grinning ironically. Scott was so glad the injuries hadn’t had any lasting effect. She was still her usual cutting self; she’d quit school and was training to become a police officer. She was doing great.

“Oh yeah,” she said. “God saved me. It was you, Scott.”

A few of his church friends turned their noses up at that, but he never would.

“The point is,” he went on, “whatever a person believes–”

Several phones went off at the same time; Scott’s buzzed from his pocket. Gary’s made a notification sound from the arm of the chair. Even his mum’s.

Everybody looked around, laughing awkwardly.

“That’s weird,” somebody said, but Scott couldn’t hear them; it was all crashing down.

Gary stared at him, and he knew. He saw it coming.

All that faith he’d put into God’s plan, into thinking He’d taken him through this to lead him to Him. And now people were checking their phones; Gary’s hand rushed for his. Aissa could tell something was wrong; she was clutching Gary’s arm, looking back and forth.

Scott took dreamlike steps backwards, feeling like he could fall off the edge.

Any edge.

Casey hadn’t known the emails of his church friends; he hadn’t known them then. But Joseph leaned over and looked at Gary’s phone.

Everybody would see.

“Oh, Scott.” Gary stood, strode over. “Jesus. I’m so… fuck, Scott.”

“Did she write a message, or was it just the files?”

Gary showed him his phone.

If you killed me, Scottie darling, see you soon. I’ll keep your bed nice and warm for you. If I’m in prison, well… I’m a patient woman. Lots of love, your doting wife, Casey xxx

No, she was alive, in a psychiatric prison. Scott hoped they never let her out.

Scott took Gary’s phone, clicked the first attachment.

The first minute was a slideshow of photos: all of which had clearly been taken in secret.

THE END

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank everybody on the Bloodhound Books team who helped bring this novel to life. In particular: Betsy Reavley and the submissions team for taking a chance on my fairly ‘different’ books; Fred Freeman for his tireless work in trying to make us as successful as possible; Tara Lyons for her attention to detail and positivity; Hannah Deuce for always making sure our books shine on social media; and Morgen Bailey, my editor, whose insight is always valuable and who has saved my books more than once.