Four families, four addresses, one and the same scenario - and all of it within twenty-four hours. In Vinica, Kočani, Gevgelija and in the outskirts of Bogdanci, in a single day the police detained or interviewed four men, all reported for physically assaulting their wives or partners. When the count for one day is four, that's no longer an incident. It's a condition.

The most harrowing detail comes from Vinica. There, according to the report, a 39-year-old man tried to attack his 35-year-old wife - and the attack was stopped by their children. The children stepped in between the father and the mother. Picture that scene in a living room, and then repeat to yourself that this is a „family dispute“, as the institutions still cautiously call it.

The same day, in Kočani, police held an official interview with another 39-year-old, reported for physically attacking his 37-year-old wife the previous evening. In Gevgelija, meanwhile, a 67-year-old man was detained who, according to the report, behaved aggressively toward his 66-year-old wife and inflicted injuries on her. And on the night between 19 and 20 July, again in the Gevgelija region, a 49-year-old man was detained for attacking his 44-year-old common-law partner.

In all four cases the pattern is the same: a report, a detention or interview, a notified public prosecutor, „upon full documentation, appropriate charges will follow“. The procedure works - after the woman has already ended up in hospital or with visible injuries. And here is the question the institutions keep dodging: why does the mechanism only kick in after the first blow has landed?

The ages tell their own story. Among those reported there's a 67-year-old and there are 39-year-olds. Violence in the home doesn't pick a generation and isn't a matter of „some people out there“ - it plays out behind doors in four different towns on the same morning. And the only reason we know about some of them at all is that the children reacted or the neighbours heard.

The police finished their work for the day and night. The question that remains isn't for them, but for the system that comes next - the social work centres, the courts, the protection measures. How many of these four women will get real protection, and not just another documented case in some drawer? Because the number „four in one day“ won't fall on its own.