Peter stretched noisily, and said, ‘Fucking right I am! The girls are out buying new outfits as we speak!’

Daniel was pleased. It was good to have his brother back in his life.

Chapter One Hundred and Twelve

The whole Bailey clan were together, and they were proving to be a noisy bunch.

Bernadette O’Toole was loving it; they were in the VIP enclosure of the new club in Romilly Street in Soho. Her whole life had been leading up to this moment – she was finally where she was destined to be. She was the main attraction in a nightclub her husband-to-be’s family owned, and that meant so would she soon! The icing on the cake was that everyone was staring at her; she had made damn sure she looked good.

Imelda had remarked earlier, in her usual catty way, that soon her name would be Bernie Bailey, as if that was a bad thing. She had pointedly overlooked the barely veiled insult; until she had that wedding band on her finger she daren’t start any fights. But once she was married she would cause fucking murders, and enjoy every second of it. Imelda Bailey was a bitch, that was the truth. She seemed to get her kicks from trying to get a rise out of Bernadette, but she was too shrewd to fall for that.

Her dad was on a good earn guaranteeing that he was in a jovial state of mind, which was a bonus. He was usually such a miserable ponce. Her mum was, for the first time in years, in possession of a decent wage too. All in all, Bernadette had a lot to be grateful for.

The only fly in her ointment was that Petey, her intended, was obviously worried about something. Christ Himself knew that he wasn’t the most affectionate of men at the best of times, but tonight he had basically blanked her.

She was not about to cause ructions about it, even if she felt like it. She had to keep everything on an even keel; Petey was a man with fickle tastes.

When she saw him, a few minutes later, looking longingly down the cleavage of a young blonde waitress, she vowed that, when they were finally married, she would take the fucker apart piece by piece. He would finally see that she was not a woman who took kindly to being sidelined, humiliated or ignored. He had a big shock coming to him, and she was already relishing the day when she could finally make her feelings known. Petey Bailey was due a fucking wake-up call, and she was just the woman to give it to him.

Chapter One Hundred and Thirteen