As the girl in the next bed started screaming again, Frankie put her hands over her ears. The days she could handle, but she hated the nights. Most of the other inmates were heroin addicts. They were given methadone to suppress their withdrawal symptoms, but Frankie soon realised that the alcoholics were the worst. It was usually them that kept her awake all night with their hallucinations.

Aware that somebody had arrived to deal with the distressed inmate, Frankie pretended to be asleep. It was daylight now, but all Frankie wanted to do was shut her eyes and picture her beautiful children again.

‘Wakey wakey, Mitchell. Get up and pack your stuff. I’ve just been informed there’s a space waiting for you on the maternity wing. Sort yourself out and I’ll come back to collect you as soon as I get the OK from the powers above.’

Frankie immediately leaped out of bed and, for the first time in days, smiled. She was just over twenty weeks pregnant now and the baby inside her was the only thing that had kept her going over the last few weeks. She had been doing buttons to move to the maternity wing. Surely in there she would meet some other nice inmates and they could discuss their kids and stuff.

With a spring in her step, Frankie packed her belongings up. She was done and dusted in ten minutes flat. She sat back down on her bed, rubbed her swollen tummy and whispered to her bump. ‘Your father might have taken your brother and sister away from me, but he’ll never get his evil hands on you. I still don’t know if you’re a little boy or a girl, but whatever you are, your mummy will love you dearly and you will belong to her.’

Unaware that his sister was about to be moved, Joey Mitchell opened the front door and gave his father a hug. He had barely seen his old man since Frankie’s last court case and, seeing as they’d only recently been on good terms again, Joey had missed their new-found closeness.

Eddie kissed his son on the forehead and then shook Dominic’s hand. Dom was Joey’s boyfriend and when Ed had originally found out about his son’s sexuality, he’d gone apeshit. Being a notorious East End gangster, Ed just couldn’t deal with the fact that his sperm had produced a homosexual son, and it had taken a lot of pride for him to step down off his anti-gay soapbox.

Now things were different and even though Ed still couldn’t quite understand his son’s preferences, he’d learned to live with them. It also helped that Dominic was a lovely fella – so much so that Eddie often felt guilty for turning up at his flat that time and threatening to cut his cock off.

When Joey’s Chihuahua ran into the hallway to greet him, Ed picked the dog up and kissed her on the nose. He’d always loved animals, especially dogs. ‘Hello Madonna, my little darling,’ he said, laughing.