Grace smiled at him. She couldn’t deny there was some truth in what he said. She knew her ex-husband better than anyone alive. His insecurities; his weaknesses. Maybe she really would think about it.

Five weeks later, Grace and Patrick were sitting in her living room drinking tea. He’d become a regular visitor to the pub. On the nights she wasn’t working, he was invited upstairs to the flat once Jake was tucked up in bed and they’d talk long into the night.

‘So, you, my dad and Tommy were the best of friends then?’ Grace asked.

She’d learned about her dad’s connection to Nathan’s former boss, Tommy, a couple of years earlier. It had come as a massive shock at the time. Her dad, the gangster. She’d only ever known him as a funny, loving, if overprotective, father. She’d wished she’d known before Tommy’s death. Among other reasons, it would have been nice to talk to someone who’d known her dad back then.

‘Yeah. Thick as thieves we were. Funny really when you think about it. We were thieves and we were pretty thick too,’ Patrick laughed.

‘I suppose Tommy was always the ringleader? He seemed the type to always want to be in charge.’

‘No.’ Patrick shook his head. ‘Your dad was the boss. Ever since we were kids. He was just a natural leader, you know. Me and Tommy followed him around like a pair of stray dogs until he finally gave in and let us join his gang.’ Patrick laughed again at the memory.

‘What? No?’ Grace could hardly believe Patrick was talking about her dad.

‘Yeah. Well he was a couple of years older than us. And the girls loved him; he always had loads of dough, so me and Tommy thought he was the dog’s bollocks. He had quite the little empire built by the time he left it all behind.’

‘And he gave it all up, just like that?’

‘Just like that. When you were born, your mum told him she wasn’t having anymore of his nonsense. So, he walked away and he concentrated on this place.’

Grace shook her head in disbelief at the life her father had once lived. The life she’d known nothing of until after he’d died. She felt immensely proud of her mum though, standing up to her dad like that. ‘If only I could have given Nathan that kind of ultimatum,’ she sighed.

‘Wouldn’t have made any difference to him, love. Your dad gave it all up because he loved you and your mum too much not to. All the unpleasant stuff was a means to an end for your dad. But that’s what Nathan lives for.’

‘You worked for Nathan for a while, didn’t you?’