Page 12 of The Impossible Fortune

‘Put it down, Suze,’ Danny says. ‘Let’s talk about it.’

Suzi shakes her head. ‘I don’t want to hear you’re sorry. Not this time.’

Fair enough. And anyway he’s not sorry.

‘And I don’t want to hear you won’t do it again, because you will.’

She’s right: he will do it again. He’d do it this very second if the gun wasn’t pointed at him. The shock of the gun is subsiding, and now Danny feels his anger beginning to rise. Who does Suzi think she is? Whose house does she think she’s in? Who paid for the pool? Who pays for the holidays? The school fees? What does she actually contribute? There’s a thousand women who’d swap places with her. He knows, because plenty of them ask to. But here he is, and this is what he gets for his troubles.

‘Babe,’ says Danny, ‘I lost my temper. You know the stress I’m under.’

‘You’re under stress?’ she says. ‘I’ve had fifteen years of being beaten black and blue. Of hiding what you do to me. From our son, from my friends, from my family.’

The family. That’s the only thing that’s ever really worried Danny. The brother especially. Suzi’s brother would kill him if he found out. Would kill him, and could kill him. But Suzi knows that too, which is why she’s never told her brother.

‘I hear ya, babe, I promise I hear ya. Put the gun down: let’s get a takeaway and tone down the emotions.’

She’s not going to shoot him. Danny’s fairly sure about that. The boy’s asleep upstairs. He’d hear. If she’d found the gun in the loft, which has a silencer, he’d be moreworried. A bullet from the Beretta would also make a hell of a mess. It’d be all well and good dragging his body to the car and burying him somewhere, but sooner or later the police would come calling, and you’re not going to get every drop of blood out of their Habitat sofa. No chance. That’s a crime scene she’d never clear up, and she’s been around long enough to know that.

‘You’re not going to shoot me,’ says Danny. Suzi’ll calm down. She always does. A few roses tomorrow, do a sad face at breakfast, maybe he could cry a little – that always seems to bring her round.

‘No, I’m not going to shoot you,’ she says. ‘You’re going to leave.’

He nods. Okay, this is more like it. She’s letting off steam. ‘Good idea, babe – give us both a chance to cool down.’

‘I don’t need to cool down,’ says Suzi. ‘I’m cool. You’re leaving right now, and you’re never coming back.’

Danny laughs at this. It’s actually nice to relieve a bit of the tension. ‘Babe, it’s my house.’

‘Whose name is it in, babe?’ she asks.

‘Your name,’ he says. ‘For tax purposes. And because I love you. But it’s my house, and you’re not about to shoot me. So why don’t I go and stay with Eddie for the night, and you can calm down, and we can pretend this never happened?’

She smiles. ‘I’ve pretended for so long, Danny.’

‘This ain’t like you, babe, come on.’

‘I know,’ she says. ‘I haven’t been myself for years. I used to be strong, Dan.’

‘You’re still strong.’

‘I used to smile, do you remember? And now I only smile in public or in photographs.’

‘Then smile more,’ says Danny. ‘Don’t blame me if you’re not smiling.’

She smiles.

‘There you go,’ says Danny.

Now she starts laughing. ‘Do you know what I did before I got your gun?’

Danny doesn’t love her tone here. What if she’s done something stupid like call the police? They wouldn’t need to be asked twice to search this place. There’s the guns, couple of bags of coke here and there, fifty grand or so in cash, twenty or thirty passports. Surely she wouldn’t? The police? She’s not from the sort of family who’d even know their number.

‘I packed you a little suitcase,’ she says.

Now he smiles. He can play this game. ‘Okay, Suze, I get the message. But I’ll be back in the morning, and we can have a proper talk. Kiss and make up.’

She shakes her head. ‘You’re going for good. Everyone’s told me for years, and I made excuses, but I’m out. I’m a big girl, Danny, but I’m not bringing up my son in a house ruled by a bully. You’ve broken me, but I won’t let you break him.’