He had destroyed his own family too. Sharon wasn’t Lesley Scott’s biggest fan, but she would never willingly wish this situation on her. She had a knack of making everyone around her feel just that bit inferior. Who could compete with her, with her church-going and her belief that she had the ear of Christ Himself? Lesley was a hard woman to get close to, especially when she didn’t want you to get too close. Sharon had never really stood a chance with her. Her dad had always said that Lesley Scott could start a fight in an empty house and that pretty much summed her up. After Sharon had buried Lenny, she guessed that his mother had sensed that everything wasn’t right with her, but she had assumed this for entirely the wrong reasons. Lenny had been the be-all and end-all in Lesley’s life – and when he had been murdered no one recognised that as much as Sharon.

Sharon was well aware that as a wife for her son, she had always been lacking in Lesley Scott’s eyes. But then, as she told herself over and over again, no one would have ever been good enough for him. At first, Lesley seemed to like her but that had changed as the years went on. Now she seemed to blame Sharon for Lenny’s involvement in the Life – for leading him astray somehow. She always had a reason to criticise Sharon these days. She had tried to rise above it. When Lesley Scott had basically questioned her parenting skills to her face, and found them sorely lacking, Sharon’s natural kindness had come to the fore and she had tried her best to build bridges. Well, Isambard Kingdom Brunel couldn’t build a bridge strong enough to cover this latest fucking aggravation and no one could dispute that. Least of all Lesley, Hail Mary, fucking Scott.

Now it seemed to Sharon that she had lost Ray. He was a man of few words, not really given to public displays of affection. She feared that he would see her as damaged goods, and who could blame him? Certainly not her. But she loved him and she could not deny that it would devastate her to lose him. The shock was wearing off and the enormity of the situation was sinking in. She had to try and make something good come out of this but how she was supposed to do that, she really didn’t know. She cried bitter tears.

Chapter One Hundred and Seventeen

Reggie and Barton King delivered Big Lenny to the lock-up garage. None of them were happy about it, but what could they do? Sharon was Ray’s squeeze and the man needed to be taught a serious lesson. He needed to be shown that he could not use everyone around him for his own ends, least of all his son’s widow.