Lesley Scott could not sleep. Ever since she had heard about the child born to Sharon and that Ray she had felt utter devastation. No matter what she did, Sharon Conway was somehow still blessed. Lesley had been praying on a daily basis for that whore to be taken down in some way but all she seemed to do was go onwards and upwards. Her son’s children called this man ‘Dad’; it was as if, between them, they had edited her handsome son out of their lives altogether. She felt the tears of anger and frustration constantly.

They lived behind gates in a huge house and they seemed to have endless supplies of money while she was hard pushed to stretch her meagre savings to pay all her bills. Her husband might have died but she still used the same amount of gas and electricity. Lesley felt like she was being thwarted on every level. Her life was getting worse, while that whore’s was getting better by the day. There had to be some kind of retribution, surely? God could not, in all conscience, let that bitch prosper. He would have to punish her. That was what kept her going: knowing that at some point Sharon would get her well-deserved comeuppance. And, when she did, Lesley would feel that her son’s death had finally been paid for.

She had lost so much, so very much. Her family had been decimated and that whore seemed to be replenishing her so-called family all the while. Her family was growing, getting bigger – they even had that man’s mother living with them. She felt the sting of tears thinking of her handsome grandsons calling another woman ‘Nanny’ and another man ‘Dad’. Life could be so raw, so cruel and so unfair. But she was determined to see the day her daughter-in-law finally paid for her actions.

Chapter One Hundred and Fifty

Jack Johnson was unable to sleep and that was annoying him no end. He had lost a measure of respect for going after the Carlton brothers. His anger was beneath him in many ways, but the brothers had always irritated him; if he was honest, it was because they had achieved against all the odds. They were thick as shit, and twice as stupid, as his old mum would say, and yet he had always coveted what they had.

Years ago he had been given first refusal on their businesses and he had declined the offer. Turned out that was a really stupid fucking thing to do. A fucking retard could have made money off it, which is why the Carlton brothers had done so well. He knew that he was being petty but he could not help it. They were so fucking stupid but they had seen something he had not. Now they were looking at such a big lump, they would have paid for their burial plots long before they got parole.