‘No, I never … I mean, I saw you stressed, but I thought, well I thought it was about Bree and about the coke you were taking, cos you were taking a lot of it. You never really told me how you felt about the letters until the other day. I wouldn’t have written them if I’d known they were going to affect you the way they did.’

Alfie, still sitting on top of Franny, yelled at her, ‘You should never have written them anyway! Do you know what you’ve done to me? Do you, Fran?’ Alfie’s eyes filled with tears. ‘Look at the state of me. I’m a grown man and I’m fucking crying and you did that, Fran, you did that to me. Why couldn’t you have left well enough alone?’ He paused again, then wiping his face from the rain and his tears, he pulled out a gun from his jacket, pushing it hard onto Franny’s temple. He spat his words at her, ‘Tell me why I shouldn’t kill you now. Go on, come up with a reason, cos I’m happy to pull the trigger. You know I will.’

Sounding breathless and her words full of pain, Franny whispered, ‘Because of Mia … Who’ll find Mia, if I’m dead? You don’t even know what she looks like.’

Alfie shook his head, a multitude of different thoughts rushing through his mind. ‘You’re something else, you know? There’s always something for Franny Doyle to hide behind, ain’t there? Vaughn was right about you, you’re a fucking snake, and you’re a nasty bitch … and I hate you. You hear me, Fran? I hate you!’

Ignoring the fact that she was lying not only to Alfie but also to herself, Franny said, ‘I only did it because I was worried about you. It was the only thing I could think of to do.’

‘What? What the fuck are you talking about?’

‘After Bree, and after she … after she lost the baby, I knew that you were upset. The first couple of days you just sat around and drank. I was worried because I’ve seen you spiral before, so I wanted you to get away, to take a break, but you wouldn’t listen. You were having none of it. So …’

‘So, you thought you’d mess my head up?’

‘It wasn’t like that, Alfie, I swear. Even before the stuff with Bree, you’d had a tough year. I just wanted you to go away and recoup.’ She paused, then lying through her teeth, Franny added, ‘Selfishly, I just wanted the old Alfie back. I know now what I did was stupid, but the letters, well that was just my way to encourage you to go.’

Bemused and still enraged, Alfie spoke through clenched teeth. ‘Encourage? And that’s how you do it? Fucking hell! You’re a joke, Fran.’