“I mean it Maisie, open up.”
I then heard a key scraping against the lock and thanked god I’d payed out a huge amount of money for new locks. When Sam had suggested it I’d thought it a stupid idea, but the more I pondered about it throughout the day, the more I realised he was right, so I called a locksmith.
“You fucking bitch,” he yelled. “You can’t do this. I’m entitled to be in this house.”
He went quiet and I held my breath, listening intently for any noise at all, jumping in my seat when he bellowed my name again. Tears started to roll down my cheeks as the fear intensified when the banging continued. It was then that I heard a thud above me – Frankie had woken up. I got up quickly and rushed into the hall, heading for the stairs, desperate to stop him from coming down.
As I put my foot on the first stair, the letterbox was pushed open causing me to screech out.
“I can fucking see you Maisie, now open this door before I set fire to the damn house.”
I gasped, pushing my hands against my churning stomach as I looked over my shoulder. Josh’s hand was poking through, but was too big to get much more than his fingers in. When I caught Frankie out of the corner of my eye, I turned and ran up to him.
“Frankie, sweetheart,” I said, holding out a hand to him. “Go back into your room.”
“Mummy, he’s going to get in,” Frankie cried, rubbing at his sleepy eyes with his hands. His chest heaved in his Spiderman pyjamas and his bottom lip started to tremble.
“It’s okay, he won’t, I promise. Let’s go to your room.” I put a hand between his shoulder blades and ushered him along the landing to his room.
Once there, I held back the duvet and urged him to get in and then got in next to him, pulling him into my arms. He snuggled his face against my chest, his little body trembling as Josh’s banging continued. When it stopped for a couple of minutes, I hoped it meant that Josh had got bored, but when the banging started on the back door I almost screamed.
“Mummy make him go. Call the policeman like Sam said.”
I kissed the top of Frankie’s head and slipped my mobile out of the back pocket of my jeans. As I keyed in my PIN, I had every intention of calling them, but before I realised what I was doing, I went to my contacts and pressed Sam’s number.
He answered within seconds, sounding breathless.
“Maisie, everything okay?”
“I’m sorry, am I disturbing you?”
“No. What’s wrong?”
I glanced down at Frankie and closed my eyes to stem the tears that were brimming at my lashes. “He’s here, Sam. He’s banging on the doors and wants me to let him in.”
“I’m on my way, I’ll call the police.”
“Please hurry,” I whimpered, hating myself for feeling so weak.
The line went dead and I hugged Frankie to me, waiting for Sam to arrive.
* * *
Just over ten minutes later, my phone rang and I saw it was Sam.
“I’m here,” Sam’s voice said as I answered my phone.
“He’s around the back. Please be caref-.”
I didn’t have chance to finish before the line went dead and seconds later I heard Sam shouting.
“Frankie, stay here,” I said, slipping out of the bed and pulling the duvet over his shoulders,
“Mummy no, don’t go, please,” he sobbed.
“I’ll be right back, I promise.”
As Frankie called to me again, I slipped out of his bedroom and down the stairs, into the hall and toward the kitchen. I could hear Sam shouting outside, but it didn’t sound as though Josh was there. I rushed to the back door and listened carefully.
