Terry had been devastated and the future had looked truly bleak. But as one door closed another one had opened. He’d been approached by Roy Slack’s people and invited to join the biggest and most ruthless firm in the capital.

He’d then met Amy in one of Slack’s West End clubs. After only five dates he realised that he loved her and on the seventh date she’d announced that she was pregnant.

She’d thought he’d be angry and disappointed, but he couldn’t have been happier. At twenty-six he was ready to be a father and was determined to make a good job of it.

He’d been telling himself that he would always be there for his son or daughter, and he’d try to give them a better start in life than the one he’d had.

But was that going to be possible given what he now knew?

It was one of the many questions that were piling up inside his head as he stood on the bridge and fought against the panic that was threatening to overwhelm him.

He felt a little better by the time he got home. The walk had flushed most of the alcohol through his system and his head had stopped spinning.

It was just after 1am when he let himself in through the front door of their terraced house, within walking distance of the Imperial War Museum.

He’d been renting it for two years and the location was perfect. But now they’d have to move. After what he’d learned tonight there was no way that he and Amy could stay here. It just wouldn’t be safe.

‘Is that you, babe?’ Amy called out.

‘It is,’ he replied, closing the door behind him. ‘I’ll be straight up.’

He took off his coat and went into the kitchen to pour himself a glass of water. He spotted two new glossy wedding magazines on the table where Amy had left them. The date had been set for January fourth, three months from now, but the details still had to be worked out.

He wanted a cheap and cheerful affair in a register office and a few drinks in the pub afterwards. But Amy had her heart set on something more elaborate, and so they were looking at a hotel do with a combined ceremony and reception for up to eighty people.

As Terry fingered the edge of one of the magazines more questions popped into his head.

Would their wedding plans have to be put on hold? Would Amy still want to marry him after he told her what Roy Slack had said? Was it fair not to break the news to her straight away?

‘What’s keeping you, babe?’

Her voice wrenched him out of himself and he hurriedly filled a glass with tap water. Then he took a long, deep breath, switched off the kitchen light and climbed the stairs.