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serious?’
    ‘Back off,’ Mark warned. ‘I really don’t need this.’
    ‘ You don’t need it?’ Amy squawked. ‘What about me? And the kids – or have you forgotten about them?’
    ‘Will you just shut the fuck up?’ Mark yelled. ‘I’ve had a shit day, and I just want to have a beer in peace.’
    ‘Oh, I’m sorry! Pardon me for disturbing your beer, just ’cos I’m worried about how I’m going to feed my kids !’
    Mark couldn’t take any more. He lurched to his feet, kicked his chair across the kitchen and marched out, punching the door on the way.
    ‘Oh, that’s right, smash the place up,’ Amy cried, running after him. ‘And don’t think you’re going out,’ she yelled, hurling the address book onto the living room table when he snatched his jacket off the couch and headed for the front door. ‘We’re going to talk about this whether you like it or not. Are you listening to me, Mark? . . . Mark! ’
    Furious when he walked out, slamming the door behind him, she yanked it open again and screamed, ‘If you don’t come back right now, we’re finished! I mean it, Mark!’
    He ignored her and carried on walking. Conscious of net curtains twitching at windows all along the road, Amy balled her hands into fists and cursed his retreating back. The bastard was lucky that Bobby was asleep and she couldn’t leave the house or she’d have gone after him and given him what for.
    The door of the house directly opposite opened and Amy’s neighbour Gemma came out and waddled up the path. She dropped a plastic bag into the wheelie bin and then paused to wipe her hands on her jeans, before doing a comical double take.
    ‘Oh, hello, Amy love. Didn’t see you there. Everything all right?’
    ‘Fine,’ Amy snarled, seeing right through her little act. The bag had been practically empty, and it was obvious that the fat cow had only brought it out as an excuse to watch the show. Well, tough, it was over!
    The phone started to ring. Amy slammed the door, marched into the living room and snatched up the receiver. ‘ What? ’
    ‘Er, hi, Amy,’ Steve said cautiously. ‘Is Mark there?’
    ‘No, he bloody well isn’t,’ Amy snapped. ‘And if you see him before I do, you can tell him he’d best come straight back or he needn’t bother coming back at all!’
    She smashed the receiver back onto its cradle and slumped down on the couch with her face in her hands.
    ‘Don’t cry, Mummy.’ Bobby’s little voice came from the doorway.
    Shocked, because she hadn’t heard him coming down the stairs, Amy quickly pulled herself together and wiped her eyes on her sleeve.
    ‘I’m not crying,’ she lied, smiling as he clambered up onto the couch beside her. ‘I’ve just got something in my eye, that’s all.’
    ‘I kiss it better,’ said Bobby, holding her face in his hands.
    Amy closed her eyes and let him kiss her on both eyelids. Then, giving him a cuddle, she glanced at her watch. ‘Oh God, look at the time. It’s lucky you woke up or we’d have been late for Cassie.’
    ‘Cassie!’ Bobby yelled, bouncing in excitement at the mention of his adored big sister.
    Determined not to let this latest disaster affect him or Cassie, Amy strapped him into his buggy and set off for school with a smile on her lips. But it was hard to maintain the front when she felt as if she was clinging to the edge of a cliff by her fingertips. She couldn’t wait for the day to be over.
    Steve had been on his afternoon break when he rang Amy and she’d sounded so upset that it had made him feel like shit, even though it wasn’t his fault. This was totally down to Mark, and Steve was pissed off with him for screwing up again. It was the fourth job he’d been sacked from in the last year alone, and Steve had warned him time and time again to stop pushing his luck. But the idiot had ignored him.
    Still annoyed when he arrived home that evening and found Mark waiting for him on the communal stairs outside his flat, he