‘Don’t!’ Mandy gripped Steve by the arm. ‘It wasn’t him who started it. I did. It was me who led him on.’

Steve looked at her with disdain. ‘Are you sticking up for him now? Are you trying to save his bacon?’

‘It’s true. You know things haven’t been right between us. Let’s sort this out without him. Let him go.’

Steve turned to her, gripping Joe’s shirt in his fist. ‘Don’t talk to me about sorting things out. Don’t even think about that.’

A thin, discordant wail reached them from the hall. Joe tensed, looked around the room, tried to pinpoint the noise.

‘Bloody hell.’ Steve clenched his teeth. ‘That’s all we need.’

‘I’ll get him.’ Mandy ran from the room. She heard a scuffle as she rushed down the hall to where the baby slept. A cry of pain sounded behind her. She picked the boy up from his bed and stood a moment, panicked at the shouts and blows from the kitchen. What had she done? Why had she let that happen? She shushed the baby, gave him his dummy, and to her surprise he quietened in her arms. The warmth of him calmed her.

‘I messed up.’ She stood with him in the dark and tried to think what to do. ‘I really messed up this time.’

The baby was calm and still against her chest and she walked up and down with him, passing his hair through her fingers. From the kitchen she heard another shout, a thud, a chair falling to the floor. Then quiet. She opened the bedroom door and listened, took a few steps closer to the kitchen. The only noise was a small gasping sound.

She opened the kitchen door. Steve looked up at her from the floor. He sat astride Joe’s chest with his hand at Joe’s throat. Joe was choking, his eyes bulging, legs flailing.

Mandy screamed, ‘Steve! You’re going to kill him! Let him go! For God’s sake, Steve!’

Steve looked down at Joe and considered him for a beat before he eased his grip on his throat. ‘Get out of here.’ Steve stood and Joe rolled away from him, retching. ‘Get out of my sight!’

Mandy locked eyes with her husband. His lip was cut and his nose was dripping blood. ‘You’d have killed him,’ she said.

‘Get William out of here, would you?’ He wiped his nose on his sleeve. ‘What did you bring him in here for?’

She clutched the baby to her, half aware that he was howling in her arms. At the back door, Joe pulled himself to his feet. He glanced across at her, taking in the baby, and she tried to show in her face that she was sorry.

‘Why are you still here?’ Steve shouted at Joe. ‘Get out of my house! And keep away from my wife!’

Joe stayed where he was. He looked from Mandy to the baby and back. Steve ran at him, sending him into the yard, and he walked backwards towards his own house, coughing and spitting. Steve kicked the door shut behind him. A long, diagonal crack appeared in the glass, fracturing the pane.