Now she knew why her mum had kept such a close eye on her; she wasn’t interfering as such, she had just understood that there were people in this world who were capable of causing great hurt as well as great sadness for young girls. During her teenage years, boys had been scared of asking her out, because her family name was Bailey, and the Baileys were renowned for their violent reputations and criminal connections. No boy she had met had been brave enough to take that on and she couldn’t blame them.

Her mum had warned her of the pitfalls of falling in love – how you needed to be clever and use your brain, not your body, to get someone who would really love you for yourself. She told her that most young men were only after one thing – the very same thing a girl needed to keep for the man she loved, because once it was lost, you could never get it back again. How ironic then that it was a Bailey who should be the one to use her and throw her away like a used Kleenex, rather than the nameless, faceless young lads that her mother had always warned her about.

Many of her friends had already slept with their boyfriends – even gone on holiday with them; Tania had felt so green in comparison. Now look where she was: she was used goods. She was still sore, it stung when she passed water, and the reminder of him was more than she could bear. It was only a day since it had happened, and it was still raw in every way.

Daniel Bailey sipped at his tea, watching his daughter, unable to tell what she was thinking. He took a deep breath, then said carefully, ‘Look, Tania, about the other night. You should never have been anywhere near that. I’m not in my right mind, or I would have known that then, darling. I should have protected you. But I’m a bit confused – I don’t know how you are supposed to cope with something like this. I don’t know what the protocol is.’