Frankie sat in stunned silence. Images of Jed flashed through her mind. His piercing green eyes, the night they’d first made love, his proposal when he’d asked her to marry him.

‘Are you OK? You ain’t upset, are ya?’ Eddie asked her gently.

Banishing the good memories from her mind, Frankie pictured her grandad Harry’s face. What goes around comes around, she thought silently. ‘I’m not upset. I hope Jed rots in hell,’ she replied bluntly.

Larry and Eddie both breathed a sigh of relief. They’d been a bit worried as to how she might take the news. ‘We will find Georige and Harry very soon, Frankie,’ Larry promised.

Frankie looked at her father for reassurance. ‘Do you honestly think we will, Dad?’

‘Has your old man ever promised you something and not delivered?’

Frankie shook her head.

‘And has Larry ever broken his promises to ya? He promised you’d be coming home today, didn’t he?’

When Frankie’s face suddenly lit up with a big grin, Eddie and Larry both chuckled.

What neither man realised, as they jovially continued the rest of their journey, was that for the first time in their lives, they had both made a promise that neither would be able to keep.

CHAPTER THIRTY

Chapter Thirty-One

2001 – seven years later

‘Georgie, stop, no!’ Frankie cried, thrashing about under her quilt. Seconds later, she woke up crying.

Desperate not to return to her nightmare, Frankie switched on the bedside lamp. Today would be Georgie’s thirteenth birthday and Frankie hadn’t been able to think of anything else all week. Was her daughter happy? What did she look like now? And, most importantly, where the bloody hell was she?

It had been over seven years since Frankie had last seen either of her children. November 1993 to be exact. Harry would be eleven now, Georgie a teenager, and not knowing their whereabouts or being part of their lives had literally broken Frankie’s heart. Everybody had tried to find them for her. The police, the authorities, her solicitor, her dad, but to no avail. When the O’Haras had done a runner from Rainham, it was as though they had disappeared into thin air, and even a private detective her father had hired had drawn nothing but a blank.

Jed not being found had allowed Frankie to walk free at her trial. She had gone down the self-defence route, saying that her ex regularly battered her. Kerry, her friend, had backed up her story and the jury had, thankfully, believed every word of it. Obviously, they had no idea that Jed was dead. No body had ever been found and Frankie often had nightmares about him as well. She often dreamed that the bastard was still alive, and even though she knew her dad and Larry would never lie to her about such a thing, she would never truly rest until Jed’s corpse was found.