Tonight was different from most nights. Kirsty knew that as soon as she stepped through the door and saw the state her husband was in. Not so much angry, more... she couldn't explain it. He was frustrated, but calm at the same time. She couldn't read him, and it worried her.

Once Warren had thrown her phone against the wall, smashing it into pieces, she knew something bad had happened. That'd have to be yet another call to Vodafone, explaining why for the third time in six months she needed to freeze her contract and order a new sim card. She had a stash of old handsets in her room, which was just as well, the rate she seemed to get through them.

The phone destroyed, Warren came towards her, his breathing ragged. He gave her a shove against the fridge, the magnets digging against her back as she fell.

"Who is he?" he breathed into her face. He stank of alcohol, and Kirsty flinched for a second. Wrong move. He slapped her across her cheek. "Look at me when I'm talking to you."

"So-sorry."

"Right. Now, who is he?"

"Ju-just a guy at work."

"Who signs off texts with kisses?"

"He does that with everyone."

Warren pulled back and mimicked a high-pitched voice. "Kirsty, I'm sorry about earlier. I shouldn't have let it happen. Adam." He grabbed the toaster from the side, ripping the plug from the socket and dropped it onto Kirsty's feet. It was all she could do not to scream out. "Who's Adam?"

"He's a doctor. He's just a friend, that's all."

"What happened earlier?"

"Ju- just some problems with a patient. We-we disagreed about how to deal with him."

"Liar!" Warren grabbed Kirsty by the shoulders and spun her around, pushing her face first against the wall with one arm held in a lock behind her back. "You know what happens to liars, don't you?" He gave her arm a wrench, and her cry was stifled by the wall.

"Please," she begged, close to tears. This was new, even for Warren. Something must have ticked him off. Why had she decided leaving her phone at home was a good idea? She should have known he would have looked through her messages, and although she was careful to always delete anything incriminating, anything that had been sent today obviously hadn't been intercepted. What else had Adam sent her following their kiss?

"Please what?"

"Please let me go."

"Not good enough." Warren forced her to her knees, her face grating along the radiator. "You weren't saying that to Adam when you were shagging him."

"We weren't-"

"What did I say about liars?" Warren wrenched her arm harder, and she bit her lip. The taste of blood filled her mouth, and she felt sick. "You're mine, you know that? Nobody else is allowed to touch you. To fuck you." He spat the word out, and Kirsty dreaded what was going to come next. Surely he couldn't stoop as low as that?

Warren pulled Kirsty backwards, causing a sharp pain to shoot down her spine as she ended up, sprawled on her back on the kitchen floor. Her head caught against the table leg and her vision blurred, but she was fully conscious of Warren raining down blow after kick after blow. She closed her eyes, trying to block out the stream of abuse. Usually he was careful to hurt her where nobody could see. Not tonight.

"Mum!"

Kirsty's eyes shot open. Fourteen year old Nita was standing in the doorway, dressed in her pyjamas and seemingly unable to move.

"Go upstairs, darling." There was pain in Kirsty's voice as she called out; she was desperate for the ordeal to be over, and the last thing she wanted was Nita witnessing it.

"No." Warren turned to face her. "Come here and see what a whore your mother really is."

Nita shook in the doorway, and took a tentative step forward. "Dad, please. Stop it, you're hurting Mum."

"Like she doesn't deserve it. She's been shagging another man. She needs to learn her lesson."

"Not like this. This is wrong! You're...you're..." Unable to form the words, Nita burst into tears.

"Stop your whinging. She deserves it. Or do you want me to punish you as well?"

Something inside Kirsty snapped at that moment, and she summoned all her energy to push Warren off of her. She got to her feet unsteadily, feeling dizzy from the blow to her head, and the pain searing through her feet from the toaster 'accident'. She began to run, grabbing Nita's hand and leading her to the front door. "Come on!"

"Get back here!" Warren chased after them, but Kirsty and Nita kept running, hand in hand and tears streaming down their faces, until they reached where Kirsty had brought them. She thumped on the front door, calling through the letterbox.

"Adam! Adam, open the door. I need you to let me in."

The door opened, and Adam stood there, a towel wrapped around his waist and dripping water from his hair. "Kirsty? What the hell's happened? Come on in, both of you."

Kirsty shut the door behind her once she and Nita were inside and bolted the lock. Only then did she catch sight of herself in the hallway mirror. She looked a right state, with blood matted into her hair and onto her checked shirt. It was one of her favourites, but it was ruined now. Nita's feet were covered in blood from running barefoot through the streets.

"Kirsty?" Adam repeated, and it was all it took. She fell into his arms, sobbing. Nita stood there, watching and crying, and he outstretched an arm to her, too. The three stood there, crying and consoling, with nobody willing to make any move otherwise.

Eventually, Kirsty pulled away. "Can I use your bathroom?"

Adam nodded. "Top of the stairs, first on the left. Ignore the mess, I was mid-shower when you arrived."

"Sorry."

"It's fine. I'd better go put some clothes on; anyone would think I was trying to come onto you dressed like this."

Kirsty paled at this, her eyes glassing over and muscles freezing up. No. She had been the one doing all the chasing. It was her mess, her fault. She couldn't blame Adam for any of this.

"You weren't." She ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time, and locked herself into the bathroom. Crouching over the toilet, she threw up. Even thinking about what Warren did to her made her want to kill him. The worst was that Nita had seen exactly what her own father was capable of. Kirsty couldn't look her in the eye because of the shame she felt. She'd made out she was strong, could hold her own against her husband, when the reality was she was too weak to stop him taking advantage of her.

A tap on the door interrupted her thoughts. "Mum?"

Nita. Despite Kirsty's shame and self-hatred, she knew she had to pull it together for her daughter's sake. Things were going to be tough for both of them, and while Kirsty was old enough to deal with all the shit life threw at her, Nita was still only a child.

Kirsty opened the door and took one look at her daughter. "I'm so sorry, love," she whispered, pulling her tight into a hug. "You should never have seen that."

"He was hitting you," Nita sobbed. "Is that why you've been so horrible to him?"

Kirsty nodded. She was going to have to come clean now; she'd gone too long lying through her teeth to Nita, but it was impossible to paper it over now she had seen firsthand what Warren was capable of. "I couldn't deal with it."

"This- this wasn't the first time he hurt you?"

"Not like that, but it's been going on for a while. I didn't think he'd ever hurt you, but I couldn't be sure. I put up with it just in case. You will always come first, know that." Kirsty kissed Nita's forehead, brushing wisps of tangled hair out of her face with her fingers.

Nita just sobbed harder against Kirsty's chest. "Wha- what's going to happen now?"

"I don't know. We'll stay here tonight, and I'll sort something out in the morning. I'll call your school and tell them you're ill; and I'll phone in sick to work as well. I promise you I'll fix things, though."

"How?" Adam was in the doorway, dressed in a baggy red t-shirt and grey tracksuit bottoms. "I heard your conversation, sorry."

Kirsty screwed her face up, trying to work out how to get out of this one. "I'll sleep on it. You know me, I always come up with something."

"I don't know you; that's just it. Why didn't you tell me Warren was abusing you?"

Kirsty shook her head. "It's not the sort of thing you bring up in everyday conversation, is it? What did you do this weekend, Kirsty? Oh, my husband slapped me and threw hot gravy over me because it was too thin. What about you?"

"Stop it!" Nita shouted suddenly, breaking free of Kirsty's hold. "Stop acting like it's so normal. Stop pretending what he did to you didn't happen. You've got to face it, Mum. Adam's right. Dad was abusing you."

Kirsty looked down at the tiled floor. She couldn't bring herself to say the word, despite knowing it was true. Finally, and with tears falling freely once more, she nodded.

Adam ran his hands through his hair. "Oh, Kirsty. I'm sorry."

"It's not like you could have stopped him. He saw your texts."

"Shit." Silence. "Are you going to the police?"

"They'll arrest him, take him to court and I'll have to relive it all again. I just want to forget all about it and move on."

"But it's not your decision to make." Adam's eyes moved from Kirsty to Nita. "Is it?"

Kirsty turned to her daughter. Adam was right; she wasn't going to be the one calling the shots here. That much was obvious. "Nita, love? I'll do whatever you want me to do."

"I want it all to go back to normal," Nita whispered. "But it can't, so I want Dad not to be able to hurt you anymore."

Kirsty nodded. "Alright. I'll call the police."

It wasn't until the morning she actually made the phone call, however. She and Nita spent the night in Adam's double bed, with him on the sofa. He had given Kirsty a shirt and shorts to sleep in that were the smallest he had, but still too big for her frame. Nita, of course, had her own pyjamas on, and Adam cleaned her feet while Kirsty changed. Nobody got a lot of sleep that night; both mother and daughter were plagued by nightmares of the evening's events, and Adam's mind was racked with guilt.

Kirsty stumbled out of bed at seven. Nita was sleeping, and she didn't want to wake her daughter, so she pulled the duvet back over her before heading downstairs. Adam was already in the kitchen, making breakfast.

"Morning." He looked up from the cooker as Kirsty walked in. "How did you sleep?"

"Sleep? Lying awake trying not to remember, more like."

"Oh." Adam stepped forward with his arms out, but Kirsty rebuffed the hug. She turned away, looking down.

"Don't."

"Sorry."

They ate in silence, not making eye contact until a scream from upstairs startled them. Both dropped their food and stood up.

"Nita!"

Kirsty ran up the stairs, calling her daughter's name. "Nita, darling, it's alright. I'm here." The teenager was sitting up in bed, sobbing hysterically. Kirsty sat down and held her close, stroking her hair and whispering soothing words. "It's alright. I've got you."

"I thought-" Nita stammered through her tears. "I thought he'd found us, and got you."

Kirsty shook her head. "I just went downstairs for breakfast, that's all. He won't hurt us again." She used her hand to wipe away Nita's tears. "Come on; let's get something to eat." She moved off the bed and let Nita get up. The girl was soaked in sweat, and Kirsty felt guilty for putting her through such an ordeal.

"Can I have a shower please?" she asked quietly.

"Of course." Adam, again, was in the doorway.

Kirsty turned around. "Will you please stop doing that? You're starting to freak me out."

"Sorry. But go ahead and shower, and if you want something clean to wear, go through my wardrobe."

Nita selected a pair of jeans and a print t-shirt that was the most feminine one she could find. She felt strange putting on a pair of Adam's clean boxer shorts, but Kirsty reassured her it was alright. She wasn't going to shower herself; as much as she wanted to step in and scrub herself clean, her nursing training took over. Washing would destroy any DNA evidence on her body, and if she was going to go through with reporting what Warren did to her, she wanted to be certain of a positive outcome.

While Nita showered, Kirsty made the phone calls to the hospital and Nita's school. The line she used was that they had both come down with food poisoning, and were being violently sick. Tess wasn't happy to be a nurse down, but there was nothing she could do about it. Once the calls were made, she had one more to do. The police.

Her hand hovered over the dial button. It was so easy not to call; to pretend it hadn't happened, but Kirsty wasn't going to let Warren get away with hurting her again. No. She had to ring; put aside her personal fears and put Nita's well-being at the centre of this.

"Hello? I'd like to report a- an assault."