Jessie was staring at her mum, her lovely, quiet, kind-hearted mum, who everyone thought was as soft as shit and treated with kid gloves. Her entire life, she had believed that her mum was weak. Jessie had always felt that she needed to be protected, and Jessie had been willing to do just that. But it had been a lie. Her lovely mum, who had her ‘problems’, was actually capable of literally anything. Her mother obviously knew all about her dad and his business. Jessie knew her mother would have shot those men without a thought if the need had arisen. She had handled that shotgun like a pro. She was a liar; like her dad, her mother was a great big whopping liar. Here she was, acting like butter wouldn’t melt, when it was all an elaborate act. Everything in her life had been a big pretence.

‘Please answer me, Jessie. Talk to me, darling.’

Her mum sounded so genuine. It was amazing – she actually sounded as if she cared. She was once more all nervous tension; she even looked anxious, her voice quivering with emotion.

‘I don’t know what you want me to say, Mum.’

Josephine was relieved to hear her daughter actually speaking. She had not said a word for so long. ‘I just want you to understand that what happened tonight was a one-off. It wasn’t supposed to happen. None of it. Please, Jessie, you have to understand that, darling. Your dad would die before he would ever have let you see that.’

Jessie nodded slowly, unsure what else she was supposed to do.

Josephine Flynn could understand the way her daughter was feeling. She had been party to something that she had no experience of, and Josephine remembered only too clearly how disturbing it was to witness it first-hand. But there was nothing anyone could do about that now. Most importantly, Jessie needed to understand that she could never discuss it with anyone outside their family. Here were some things that were best kept private.

Grabbing her daughter’s hands in hers, Josephine squeezed them tightly, as she said huskily, her voice choked with emotion, ‘Come on, Jessie love. You must have guessed that your dad wasn’t the usual. I mean, I know you must have heard things about him.’