Gabby could not even risk arguing with her – if she did, her mother told the social workers that she had been ‘aggressive’, that she had ‘frightened the children’ and, as the social workers knew that her children were not exactly enamoured of Gabby, she had to tread very carefully indeed. Cynthia was ruthless and she would do anything in her power to keep these kids as she was demonstrating daily. No one else knew exactly what her mother was really capable of – especially the goody two-shoes social workers. They thought she was wonderful; a fucking martyr. Well, they obviously didn’t spend much time with her, or they would have seen her other side by now.

Thankfully Vincent would be back soon, and he would not take any nonsense from her mother or anybody else. She had that much to look forward to at least. Her mother was wary of her Vincent, and so she should be – he was stronger than she realised. Strong enough for both of them and together they would face her down once and for all.

Gabby glanced at the clock and stopped her cleaning; she had to be around her granddad’s at six to make sure he had something to eat, and have a bit of a chat with him. He was still missing her nana Mary and she knew that without her in his life he would just give up.

She would pop the kids round there – that’s what she would do. They could all stay there Saturday night, and it would give him a thrill to see them. He loved it when they came round, which wasn’t very often thanks to her mother. Her nana Mary had warned her years ago that Cynthia wanted her children. Gabby wished now that she had listened to her.

Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-Six

‘I love you too, Vincent. I’ll be up the weekend, OK?’ Gabby replaced the receiver and turned to Cherie and little Vince, who were looking at her as if waiting for her to do something. She had picked them up an hour ago from her mother’s – not that they had been very enthusiastic about coming with her. Now they both seemed so uncomfortable around her it was breaking her heart.

‘Did you like talking to your daddy?’ She had hoped it would be a treat for them to speak to him.

Cherie shrugged. ‘It was all right.’

‘He’ll be home soon, and you’ll be able to see him all the time.’

Cherie gazed at her with her big, wide-spaced blue eyes, and the expression in them told her that was not something she was looking forward to.

Smiling with difficulty, she said gaily, ‘So, what do you want to do?’

Cherie looked at her brother and they both said in unison, ‘Go home.’