He had to leave before he said something that would damage their relationship irrevocably. She hadn’t acted out of malice, he knew that, but it’d had the same effect. Ignoring her plea to stay, he brushed past her and left, slamming the door hard as he went.

But that small act of violence didn’t relieve his feelings, nor did it stop the fury roiling in his stomach.

All those years! She’d kept his father from him for twenty-six years! He’d lain awake night after night as a teenager, wondering what was wrong with him, why his famous father not only didn’t want to see him, but never even mentioned to the world that he had a son.

What she’d done wasn’t just from love. It was from a need to control him, to keep him tied to her world. She’d rejected his father when he wouldn’t enter her world.

But she’d failed with Tom as well.

And he was definitely going to contact his father.

When he got home from work the next day, Tom found his wife drunk again and his children, two-year-old Ryan and four-year-old Hayley, still in their nightclothes, with dirty, tear-streaked faces.

He stood in the doorway for a moment, looking at Gail, hating her. His mother insisted marriage was for ever. Yeah! Like his marriage was going to last much longer. Like he even wanted it to.

Only, you needed money to separate and divorce, and he had none. Besides, he wasn’t leaving the children with his wife, had to have somewhere decent to take them. But for that you also needed money.

Since Ryan’s birth, Gail had drunk or frittered away all he earned, however hard he worked, pawning household stuff to get booze if he kept her short of money. She’d even sold his Jez Winter albums one day. He’d lost it then and hit her, frightening her so much she’d never touched them again. He’d had to borrow money from his mother to get the albums back.

He’d frightened himself as well as her, didn’t want to be the sort of man who beat his wife.

Why had he never told her that Jez was his father? He’d never told anyone, actually, perhaps because he was ashamed of being unwanted.

Well, Gail would be even shorter of money from now on because today he’d lost his job. Downsizing, they’d told him brightly, a sound economic measure. The company hated to let him go, his manager would give him a glowing reference, blah, blah, blah!

He didn’t know what to do next. If he didn’t find a job and tried to manage on social security, he’d not have the money to bring the kids up properly. And heaven alone knew what lengths Gail would go to in order to get hold of booze.

He’d hidden her drinking from people up to now. Gail’s parents had moved to Spain and they didn’t come back very often, so they weren’t in the picture. Tom’s mother expected you to go and visit her, not the other way around. The only one who knew was his neighbour Jane Burtill, who’d helped him out a few times, rescuing and feeding the children.