Alfie swivelled round in his seat to look at Franny, seeing the raised bruise on her face. He felt ashamed. He’d never really hit a woman in his life. It just wasn’t his style, and as much as it’d been fucked up – really fucked up, what she’d done with the letters – she wasn’t to know Charlie’s dad had abused him and she certainly wasn’t to know even after all this time that the thought of Barry Eton turned him from Alfie Jennings, a face to be reckoned with, to the trembling little boy from all those years ago. And although most people wouldn’t have done what she did, Franny just wasn’t most people. She’d really only done what she’d thought was best for him. She’d been worried. Jesus, worried about how he felt about Bree leaving him – the woman he’d basically had an affair with. But that just showed Franny’s strength. No matter how hurt she’d been, she’d still put him first. In his book that took some doing, and it also meant he had no right to be angry with her. ‘So, what do you reckon, Fran? Have you any idea what he was talking about?’

After pulling up a few streets away from their house because of the surrounding roads being blocked off due to the police and fire engines, Franny rested her head on the steering wheel. Her body was tired, her mind even more so, but she had to keep going for Mia … But where was she? Who the hell could’ve written that letter and left it on the dashboard? She wanted to run to the police, get help, but after what the note had said about not going to the police, she was too scared to risk it. She had no idea where to start looking, and the truth was, she was terrified.

‘Fran? Fran?’

‘Sorry, Alf, what did you say?’

‘Vaughn. What do you think he was on about?’

Franny took a deep breath, pushing down her emotions once again as she came up with something to say. ‘The thing is … The thing is … Vaughn was ripping us off.’

Alfie looked shocked. ‘What? No way! Not Vaughn. You must’ve got it wrong.’

‘He was, I … I wanted to tell you before, but I didn’t have all the evidence. That’s why I’ve been a bit secretive of late. Anyway, I found out and I confronted him, and of course he didn’t like it.’

‘But why would he want to meet me in the club, then?’

Franny shrugged. ‘Once he knew I was going to say something, I suppose he thought he’d get to you first. Get you to believe him rather than me. After all I did take your money before, so he probably thought it’d be easy to turn you against me.’