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.
My stomach lurches.
He got what was coming to him.
That’s what he said.
I don’t want to consider what Daniel was suggesting. Could he be responsible for Guy’s death? I wouldn’t want to believe it. But after tonight, Daniel’s violent, unhinged behaviour, it seems more than possible.
And the videos of Guy and I together, going to our hotel. I never knew how Daniel found out. I always wondered if it was Evelyn, Guy’s wife — that she secretly always knew, her phone calls and endless texts about Guy’s murder just a way of punishing me further for my infidelity.
But… Craig?
Craig. My best friend. My constant. The man who has been in my corner through everything. My relationship with Daniel, my father dying, Guy’s murder. I’ve trusted him implicitly for years.
He wouldn’t do that. Would he?
And yet, Sam said Craig lied. Lied about James being investigated. And Daniel said Craig sent the video. And my phone blocking Daniel, the only person with access to block him was Craig.
My head is pounding.
I grab my phone. The screen glows too bright against the dark of the living room. I scroll to Craig’s name — the only person I’ve ever trusted without hesitation — and hit call before I can talk myself out of it.
He answers on the second ring. “Tom? What’s wrong?”
His voice is calm but alert — police tone, professional tone. He’s in control before I even start.
“He broke in,” I say. My voice comes out as a whisper. “Daniel. He broke into my house. He tied me up, Craig. He—” I can’t say the word waterboarded. It feels absurd, cinematic, until you’ve felt it. “He was going to kill me. Sam was here. He—he saved me.”
There’s a sharp inhale. “What?”
“He’s gone now,” I continue. “Daniel. He’s—he fell down the stairs, I think, but when we looked again, he was gone.”
“Okay. Okay, listen to me,” Craig says quickly. “You need to stay where you are. Don’t go outside. I’ll call it in right now. We’ll get a unit round, and I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”
But something inside me hardens, sharp and furious. “No.”
“Tom—”
“No, Craig.” The words come faster now, driven by something more dangerous than fear: betrayal. “I need to ask you something first. Did you send Daniel videos of me and Guy?”
Craig doesn’t answer. Not right away. And that silence — that tiny beat too long — detonates inside me.
“Oh, my God,” I whisper. “You did.”
“Tom—”
“You did! He told me! He said you sent it! That’s how he knew! That’s how he found out!”
His voice changes, quiet, deliberate. “Tom, I did what I had to do to—”
My heart spikes. “What you had to do? You gave him proof!”
“I was protecting you,” Craig says. “You weren’t safe with him. You couldn’t see it, but I could. You think I enjoyed it? I did what I thought would make him go.”
My laugh comes out wrong — a dry, shocked sound that tastes of salt and disbelief. “You think that helped? You think sending him a video of me with another man helped?”
“You were never going to leave him, Tom, until I showed you what he was capable of,” Craig says, his voice growing tighter.
I am in disbelief. It was the revelation of the videos, which pushed Daniel to be violent, leading to the final breakdown in our relationship “So, you wanted him to find out so he would hit me?!”
“No! I didn’t know he would go that far, but you were never going to leave him. This was the best thing for you.”
“I nearly had my eye pulled out with a teaspoon. None of this is the best thing for me!”
“Jesus, Tom, let me come over now?”
I’m pacing without realising. The floorboards creak. My body doesn’t know where to put the anger. It’s burning holes through my skin. “You went into my phone too, didn’t you? You blocked him from my calls too, didn’t you?”
Craig sighs. “Yes. I had to.”
“You had to?”
“He was trying to get back into your life again, Tom. After everything. After what he did to you. I couldn’t just watch you fall back into it. He manipulates you. You’re not yourself around him. I had to make it stop.”
“By spying on me?”
“By keeping you safe.”
“Safe?” I laugh again, though it sounds more like a choke. “You call this safe? He tied me up, Craig! He nearly killed me. And I think he killed Guy too.”
“What? Guy?”
“He more or less confessed to it! Said Guy got what was coming to him! And that was your doing, Craig! Daniel didn’t know who Guy was until you sent him those videos!”
“Tom—”
“And now he’s dead, and I don’t think I can ever forgive you for that.”
There’s silence again — heavy, electric. Then his voice, low and careful. “You need to calm down.”
“Don’t tell me to calm down.”
“I’m still sending the police, Tom. You need to stay put. Do you understand me? Don’t go anywhere. Don’t call anyone else. Just stay in the house.”
I swallow hard, my throat dry and sore. “I don’t want your help,” I say finally. “Not anymore.”
“Tom—”
“I mean it, Craig. Stay away.”
I hang up before he can answer.
For a moment, there’s only silence. The quiet kind that follows catastrophe. My reflection stares back at me in the dark TV screen — pale, hollow-eyed, something halfway between fury and disbelief.
The silence is shattered by sound of my doorbell, the shrill ring making me jump.
I look at my watch: 00:02
Midnight visitors don’t bring good news.
I’m frozen—terrified at who could be on the other side of the door.
The doorbell rings again.
Whatever’s waiting on the other side, it won’t find the same man it came for.