And although she acknowledged that she’d just had a lucky escape, now she had to make sure that there weren’t any more emotional outbursts like the one she’d just had.

Of course, if things were different she and Alfie would have a future because she did love him, there was no question about it, but she refused to let love be her weakness and make the wrong choices. And that’s exactly what she had to do: she had to choose, whether she liked it or not, and she chose Mia. And when she found Mia, and she would find her, then she and Mia would leave Soho, leave London, leave England and start a new life.

She smiled and simply said, ‘No, you need to go and sort this out, it’s more important.’

‘But what about you? I can’t just leave you like this.’

‘Just see it as a moment of weakness.’

‘But it’s obviously important. You said yourself you lied to me, you said …’

Franny placed her fingers on Alfie’s lips. ‘Sshhhh, baby. Stop, it’s okay, we can talk another time. Neither of us are going anywhere, are we? Right now, the only thing we should be thinking about is Taylor and Mia. And please don’t worry, Alf, I’ll be fine. Even this talk we’ve just had has given me clarity … Everything will work out the way it should … I love you, Alfie.’

Alfie, putting Franny at the back of his mind, made his way across to Chinatown, pushing past a group of tourists taking photographs on Shaftesbury Avenue. He walked down Wardour Street before crossing the road to turn into Lisle Street.

He strode along for a moment before pulling up the collar on his jacket to protect him from the chill of the air.

Halfway along the street, at a large Chinese restaurant, Alfie walked down the stone stairs into the basement and knocked on the door twice.

It was opened by a man, who nodded at Alfie and let him in. Alfie smiled at the same time as taking a deep breath. Taylor needed him, so if it meant borrowing money from the infamous Triad clan, a gang of people he would normally stay away from, a gang of people no one in their right mind would do business with, well that’s exactly what he would do.

41

Alfie sat at the table with Mr Huang in the basement of the restaurant. The room was silent apart from the noise of the restaurant-goers above.