The floor is empty.
“Where is he?” Tom whispers, panic lacing his voice now.
“He was here,” Sam confirms. “He was at the bottom of the stairs.”
“I need to call the police,” Tom says, because that is what you are supposed to do when someone assaults you. His hands are still shaking; his voice will not be steadied by the legalities Sam is about to articulate.
“No,” Sam says — flat , quick. The word is small and absolute.
Tom blinks. “What?”
“I don’t want the police here while I’m here,” Sam says. He watches Tom register his look, the way his brows pull together like he’s trying to problem-solve a foreign language. “I’ve had a… history with the police before. It’s complicated.”
Tom’s jaw tenses. “Okay… but I need to call them.”
“Yeah, I know. I just don’t want to be involved.”
Tom scrunches his face, still processing what’s unfolded tonight.
“I’ll go, then you can call them. You okay to be alone?” Sam asks.
Tom nods, the movement small. “Thank you.”
They both go downstairs for one final check that Daniel is not still in the house, then Sam turns and leaves as quickly as he can out the front door. Keeping an eye out for any movement around him, he darts to his car and drives away.
That was a detour Sam hadn’t planned for tonight.
When he saw events unfolding on the CCTV, Sam knew he had to intervene. He’s not some cape-wearing saviour; he doesn’t believe in being a hero. But he knows when a situation needs handling, and Tom dead on a bathroom floor would have been very bad for business.
Tom needs to stay upright. Focused. Useful.
Daniel was noise — dangerous, erratic noise — and Sam doesn’t tolerate interference.
Not from ex-husbands, not from anyone.
Whatever is in motion, Tom still has a part to play.
And Sam intends to make sure the stage stays clear.
Chapter 53
TOM
As Sam disappears up the road, I close the door, my hand still softly shaking. I’m not sure if it’s the fear or the fact I’m still in soaking clothes.
I keep replaying it. The water. The towel. Daniel’s hands around my throat. Every second of it looping like some twisted training video for trauma.
I should be one eye down, maybe two. Maybe dead. If Sam hadn’t turned up when he did—
I stop that thought before it finishes because the ending is obvious and horrifying. Sam saved my life. I can’t even remember why he was here, but if he hadn’t been…
And Daniel — Jesus, Daniel.
I thought I knew what unhinged looked like. I’ve seen anger, seen cruelty, but this was something else entirely. Something cracked. Desperate. He didn’t even sound like himself by the end — his voice was high, thin, stretched tight around madness.
I knew about his gambling problem when we were together, the debts he got into, but it seems they had escalated to a serious level over the time since we split up. He had clearly got himself tied up with some dangerous people if it had driven him to this.
But what is sticking with me is that he said about Guy.
