The argument between her parents started in the hall and carried on into the kitchen. Their voices rose to a sharp-edged pitch – something about village gossip, and Mummy seeing Lloyd. Slowly pushing her wheelchair forward out of the living room, Grace wheeled herself down the hall and peeped through the open kitchen door, taking care to stay out of sight. The air felt thick with negativity. Something was very wrong.

‘He’s been here, hasn’t he?’ her father said, throwing his car keys on the side. ‘The minute my back is turned, that bastard is slipping through the door.’

‘He’s my friend!’ her mother wailed, making no effort to deny it.

Grace’s fingers tightened around the metal frame of her wheelchair as she listened. Things were building into a dark crescendo and it scared her. Perhaps if she could persuade her father that Lloyd was her friend . . .

Then she heard it. The familiar rumble of Lloyd’s truck as he drove up to the house. Bonnie’s excited bark heralded the visit of a man who was at the eye of this storm.

‘What are you doing?’ Susan cried as her father marched to the cabinet in the kitchen.

‘Getting my gun!’ he shouted. ‘This is the only way of getting through to someone like him.’

Peeking through the door, Grace held her breath. Before she got sick, Daddy used to line some tin cans up at the bottom of the yard and show her how to take aim. She liked spending time with her daddy before his new job took him away. But her daddy wasn’t hunting rats, or taking shots at tin cans. Lloyd would be here any minute, and Daddy was really mad.

‘Don’t hurt him!’ Her mother stood behind the counter in the kitchen, rooted to the spot.

‘Because you love him, don’t you?’ he said, loading cartridges into his gun. ‘You’ve always loved him. I can see it in your eyes. After everything I do to keep you and Grace happy at home. You want to leave me. Just like the others. One day I’ll come home and you’ll both be gone.’

‘I’m not going anywhere,’ Susan said. ‘I need you!’

‘Liar!’ Martin roared. ‘You’re a liar, just like the rest of them.’

‘Keep your voice down,’ Susan said. ‘Grace will hear you.’

‘She’s awake?’

‘She’s in the living room, watching cartoons.’

‘I . . . I didn’t know she was up.’ Martin rested his gun on the table, the heat of his anger dissolving for now. Grace watched through the crack in the door as he kept his voice low. ‘When are you going to realise that Lloyd isn’t interested in you? It’s Grace he’s after.’

‘You’re disgusting,’ Susan blurted. ‘None of that is true.’