The policewoman pushed a glass of water across the table toward him. Todd looked at it but didn’t reach for it. His hands were resting on his knees, fingers curled tight into his palms. He had a bandage taped across his brow, and the bruise under his left eye had bloomed into something dark and ugly.
“Do you want to tell us about the times Theo has been violent toward you? ” she asked gently. “Tell us about this time. ”
Todd stared at the wall.
His jaw worked for a moment, and then he said, very quietly, “Maybe this is why my son didn’t make it. ”
“Your son? ”
“What sort of father would I have been? ”
He had gone back and married him.
That was the part he kept circling. After everything, after knowing how Theo’s mood could turn, after seeing the look on his face the moment the bag was spotted, he still went through with it. He knew better. He knew how Theo would feel, seeing the packed bag, seeing that Todd was leaving.
He should have been more careful. He should have been less whatever he was. “Whatever you think you did or didn’t do,” the policewoman said, “nobody deserves to be treated like this. This wasn’t your fault.
”
“But maybe if I’d said something. If I’d explained. ”
“Todd, do you honestly think that would have made any difference? If someone you cared about, like George, or Sarah, had done what you did yesterday and been harmed the way you have—would you have blamed them?
”
“No. ”
“Please. Could you tell us, in your own words, what happened? ”
He looked down at his hands.
The room felt small and very quiet. Theo had been jealous. Todd knew it sounded stupid, but he had liked it. Nobody had ever felt that strongly about him before.
Nobody had ever wanted him that much. When Theo put him down, when he made him feel small, Todd had told himself it came from the same place as that fierce love. And when Theo hurt himself afterward, hitting his own head against the wall, cutting his own arm, Todd had seen a man who was suffering. A man who didn’t want to be that violent person.
A man Todd could fix. But he was that man. “Has anyone ever witnessed him being violent toward you? ” the officer asked.
“Or controlling? ”
“He was different with other people. He stopped seeing people, really. ”
“Have you ever had cause to go to hospital?
”
“I had stitches once. Glue on a knee. ” Todd paused. “I thought he was going to stop after that.
”
“Did you tell the doctor? Anyone—how it happened? ”
Todd shook his head. Theo didn’t want anyone to know.
So Todd stayed in the flat until it healed. He wasn’t allowed to leave. Theo locked him in. Todd told himself it was for the best, that it protected him from being tempted to go out.
At the time, he had believed that. “He thought I was so pathetic,” Todd whispered. “I think you’re incredibly brave telling us this. ”
“He could be lovely.
That was real. He gave up so much for me. So I thought I could fix him. ” He swallowed.
“I thought the good side would win and he would feel awful for what he’d done. ”
“Let’s just concentrate on you. ”
“But you don’t understand. I provoked him.
I said the wrong thing. I messed things up. I lost it sometimes. ”
The policewoman leaned forward.
“What’s that? Just him? Do you mean if you—if you thought about dying? About going somewhere?
”
Todd didn’t answer. When the interview ended, the officer offered him a lift. He hesitated, then said the police station was exactly where he was headed. She walked him outside and opened the passenger door.
He climbed in without arguing. “Where’s Theo? ” he asked. “Sarah’s taking him in.
He’s giving a statement now. ”
“He wasn’t going to be there, was he? Not after what he’s done. ”
Back at home, the conversation turned inward.
Sarah and George and Kit were talking in low voices. “We should have done something sooner,” Sarah said. “Instead of just all going round saying, ‘Let’s keep an eye on him. Oh, we should trust Theo.
’”
“What were you supposed to do? ” Kit asked. “More. ” Sarah’s voice cracked.
“I was supposed to do more. ”
George set a hand on her shoulder. “Still blaming himself, isn’t he? ”
“Where is he now?
” Kit asked. “The police station. ” Sarah wiped her eyes. “Todd said he didn’t want anyone there with him.
When I insisted on staying, he threatened to leave. ”
“He feels ashamed,” George said. “Of course he does. And we all know where the shame really lies in that.
”
Sarah left messages on Todd’s phone, one after another. “Hey, Todd, it’s me again. Give me a call when you get a chance. The offer still stands—come and stay with us, both of you.
You’re all right? ”
Todd didn’t answer. He was listening to his own voicemail, sitting in the quiet of his flat, replaying the sound of his own voice from before all of this, before the wedding, before the bag had been seen, before the violence had turned into something that could not be walked back. Theo had been arrested.
But Todd knew better than to think that was the end. Sarah drove him home from the station. He sat in the passenger seat with his face turned to the window. The streets slid past, gray and wet.
When she pulled up outside his flat, she didn’t switch off the engine. “You don’t have to go in alone,” she said. “I’m not alone. I’m with you.
” But there was something hollow in the way he said it. “Todd. Listen. I forgive you.
All right? We’ll work it out. Whatever happened, he started this. I love you.
”
He looked at her for a long moment, then leaned across and kissed her cheek. “I know you did. I’m sorry. I’m just scared, Sarah.
I should have realized. ”
“Will you let me take you back to mine? Stay with us for a while. ”
“I will.
I promise I will. But please—just get checked out first. ”
He nodded and got out of the car. Inside the hospital, the staff moved quickly.
They ran scans, took blood, asked him questions he answered without really hearing. The doctor came back with a grave face. His spleen was damaged. There was internal bleeding.
They were keeping him in for observation. Sarah stood outside his room and stared at the floor. “I hate him,” she said to whoever was listening. “I swear, I’ll kill him myself if I get the chance.
”
Kit found her a little while later. “How is he? ”
“They’re finding him a bed. Keeping him in.
”
“Keeping him in. Sarah, that’s serious. ”
“He’s bleeding internally. ” Her voice broke.
“How could Theo do this to him? ”
She thought about the footage. Someone had shown her a video from the flat—Theo hitting Todd, grabbing him, knocking teeth out of his mouth. It had been edited, spliced together to tell a different story, but she had seen enough.
She knew what her brother had survived. Todd’s phone buzzed. He picked it up wearily. It was a message from an unknown number.
TODD. SOMEBODY. PLEASE. HELP.
He stared at the screen. His thumb hovered over the reply box, but he didn’t type. Instead, he set the phone face down on the table. Later, in the police station, Theo sat in an interview room across from a detective.
His eyes were red, but his voice stayed calm. “Were you drinking yesterday? ” the detective asked. “We both were.
Celebrating our future. ” Theo leaned back. “I thought he was leading me on. I thought he wasn’t going to come.
Torturing me again. It’s been like this for months. ”
“Yet you married him. ”
“I thought the security would fix things.
” Theo blinked slowly. “I wouldn’t have hurt him if he hadn’t—I’m not proud of how far it went. I love him. ”
“Would you say you’ve always had a temper?
”
“No. ”
“Can I see him? ” Theo asked. “You’re not to contact him while we investigate.
”
“Gather evidence,” Theo said with a thin smile. “Like the footage from the camera in your flat, for example. ”
The detective watched him. “You look a little worried.
”
“No. The footage will back up what I’m saying. ”
“Do you have it? ”
“Me?
” Theo shrugged. “It’s simple if you just tell us where it is. ”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. ”
“We’ll be seizing all your devices.
”
“You’ll be seizing Todd’s too, right? We’re being treated the same. ”
“Interview terminated,” the detective said. “Sit him down, please.
”
Theo remained seated. He wasn’t going anywhere. At the hospital, the doctor spoke to Sarah with a clipboard in his hands. “We’ll monitor him for the next few days.
The damage to his spleen is not too extensive, but we don’t want to take any risks. ”
“Thank you. ”
Todd was asleep. The bandages around his ribs were clean and white.
Sarah stood over him with her arms folded and watched his chest rise and fall. George came in quietly. “Can a woman just withdraw her witness statement? ” he asked.
He had been talking to someone, a friend from work, about a case. “Because she’s going back to him. Waltzing back to the bloke that hit her. What’s the point?
”
Sarah looked at him. “Trust me, it’ll be far from a waltz. He’ll heal again. Probably not tonight—he’ll be sorry tonight.
A bit of respite. Then the tension will build again. ”
“Glad I’m not putting up with it,” George said. “I used to think like that.
” Sarah’s voice went quiet. “I’d go out to the same woman, time after time, and think, ‘What’s wrong with you? Walk away. ’ I genuinely thought they weren’t letting themselves leave.
But then I learned a few things. Abuse changes you. And leaving—even if someone has the courage, there can be endless reasons why they can’t. Not right now, maybe not ever.
”
“What about kids? ”
“What happens to them? Does she take them out of school? If not, how does she stop him using them against her?
Does he control the money? Has she got anywhere to go? ” Sarah shook her head. “And there’s so-called honor crime.
There may be others in the community she’s afraid of. Even in her own family. ”
“Everyone has their story,” George said. “We mustn’t judge.
” Sarah watched Todd breathe. “Sometimes all we can do is try to offer some hope. Some belief that escape is an option. That you can feel safe again.
But to hope, you’ve got to know it’s possible to survive. Move on. And that might feel out of reach right now. ”
“So we wait,” George said.
“And hope,” Sarah said, “eventually they’ll realize a future without their abuser is possible. ”
She reached out and took Todd’s hand. He didn’t wake, but his fingers curled around hers, just barely.
In the corridor beyond the glass, the nurse moved toward them with a fresh set of charts, and the quiet of the ward settled over everything like a held breath.
