Sharon had been to see the boys and she was tired out. It had not been a good visit. She had lost her temper with them, and they had been suitably chastised. They still seemed to think that it was a big joke and that they would be out and about in no time. Nowhere in them did she see remorse for taking another man’s life and that was what had tipped her over the edge. Her shouting had bought the POs running and the other prisoners on their visits had enjoyed the cabaret. She knew her sons would be livid with her for making them a laughing stock, but at this moment she didn’t really give a flying fuck about that. They frightened her.

As she poured herself a much-needed glass of wine, Ray burst in through the front door and she heard him screaming Kathy’s name, following with heavy footsteps as he crashed up the main staircase. Putting her wine down, Sharon started to walk out of the kitchen when she heard the screaming. When she got up to her daughter’s room she could not believe her eyes. Ray – Kathy’s dad Ray, who worshipped the child – was battering her. She forced her body between them and finally managed to push Ray away. He looked like a man demented.

‘What the fuck are you doing?’

She was hugging her terrified daughter to her now, trying to make sense of what she had seen.

‘Tell her, Kathy. Go on, tell her what I found out today!’

Kathy was sobbing too much to make any sense and, looking Ray squarely in the eye, Sharon said quietly, ‘You tell me what this is about, please.’

Ray laughed then, a nasty, vicious laugh. ‘It’s a fucking whore we bred, Sharon. A whore who is shagging Barton. Fucking Barton, the cunt! The two-faced, dirty, fucking bastard of hell that he is.’

Sharon was so shocked she could not form any words. All she could think was that her lovely girl had lowered herself to sleep with a man old enough to be her father, and whose wife had always been a friend to them. Ray could see the shock and the horror on Sharon’s face and found it in himself to feel a moment’s pity for her.

She turned to her beautiful daughter and, pulling her face up to look her in the eye, she said calmly, ‘Is this true?’

Kathy was nodding, the tears were overflowing and she had strings of snot hanging from her nose. She looked twelve again, just as she had when she could not get her own way as a little girl. Her tears would always guarantee that Ray would eventually relent and give her whatever she wanted.

‘I will fucking kill him!’

Then Sharon started laughing.

‘What the fuck is so funny?’