Lena laughed out loud. ‘I suppose so. But then again is there ever a right time to have a baby? All this planning and deciding when you will have one! It seems to me as if they are trying to fit childbirth into their lives, but they are still completely unaware of just how powerful having a child actually is. They spend so much time planning everything, they don’t allow for just how fucking intrusive a baby can be. Kids are like a bomb going off in your life. They are all different, with different personalities, and you can’t plan for that. You have to just go along with them when they arrive.’

Theresa laughed with her daughter-in-law. She was so glad to see her happy at last. She knew these past months had been a nightmare, with all the worry about Daniel. That eejit of a son of hers! He’d shamed her more than anything in her entire life. Her boys had worked so hard for so long to get where they were, and Daniel had crumbled under the pressure within weeks.

He’d always had a temper, an irrational streak, even as a child. But he was her son and she loved him. It was seeing him weak, dependent on alcohol, using drugs, which she could not, for the life of her, understand. He had left this woman basically all alone after she’d given him a child, and Lena had never once brought him to task. The foolish bitch! Theresa would have felt happier if Lena had torn him out a second arse, that she would have applauded. But her acceptance of his behaviour, her complete and utter refusal to even acknowledge it, she could not fathom. Daniel had left her to mind the child, mind the house, the boys. His needs were, as usual, of paramount importance, and Lena had just rolled over for him.