‘Can I help you?’ he snapped.

She started laughing. ‘Well I fucking hope so. Remember me, Nathan?’

He looked at her face, trying to place her. He’d definitely seen her before, but he couldn’t recall where.

‘I worked in your pub for a couple of weeks last year.’ She scowled at him.

He remembered her then. ‘Emma?’ he said, just to piss her off.

‘Sandra!’ she spat.

‘Well, what the fuck do you want?’ Although already, he had a sinking feeling it was something to do with the baby in that pram. About eighteen months earlier, he’d given Sandra a lift home one night after her shift had finished. He’d been unable to resist her. Eighteen years old, with legs up to her armpits, pigtails, and a tiny, tight miniskirt. He hadn’t used a condom. He usually kept a stash in his car. He hated them, but he used them most of the time, especially with some of his regular girls who’d had more cock than a farmyard hen. But he’d been as horny as hell, and she was too young to have slept around much.

Nathan remembered their encounter. Running his hands over the soft, taut skin of Sandra’s hips, her perfectly shaped tits bouncing up and down as she rode him like her life depended on it. She was clearly inexperienced, but that just made her more eager to please him.

‘I’ll see you at work tomorrow then?’ she’d said expectantly as Nathan had zipped up his trousers.

‘No, I don’t think so. I don’t think you’re going to work out. Here’s your wages for the rest of the week,’ he’d said coolly, as he threw her two £20 notes.

‘You fucking bastard. Don’t think you can treat me like some cheap slut,’ she’d snarled at him.

He’d laughed and told her to get out of his car. She took the money though. It always amazed him, these women who threw themselves at him, and then acted surprised when he treated them like the whores that they were. What did they expect? That he would leave his wife and run off into the sunset with them? As if he would. None of them could compare to Grace.

‘I’d like you to meet Eddie,’ she said sarcastically, snapping him from his thoughts. ‘He’s your son!’

Nathan started to laugh. ‘Fuck off! You expect me to believe that. He could be anyone’s.’

‘Believe me, I hoped he wasn’t yours. But my ex took a DNA test and he’s not his. He’s nine months old. The only other man I was with was you. So obviously, he’s yours. You can get a DNA test too if you like, but he is yours, Nathan, and you will pay for him. It’s only fair.’