‘Well, I’m just making sure we are all singing from the same hymn sheet. I don’t want to give you any false hope when there is none.’ Clare was straight to the point, she owed him nothing. She stood up and grabbed her coat from the back of the chair. She couldn’t fall for his smooth words again.

‘I’m just going to the shop to get some fags. You two can have a chat while I’m gone. Oh and Kevin,’ she turned to him before she left the room. ‘I don’t think it’s a good idea that you come here all the time. When Ged is feeling better, he can come to your mam’s house and see you there.’

‘I’m not staying at my mam’s, Clare. I’m on the sofa at our kid’s for now.’

Clare was lost for words. Kevin had always gone back to his mother’s house when he had nowhere to go – all the times she’d kicked him out for his lies and dodgy schemes. Why wasn’t he staying there like he normally did?

‘I’ll sort something out with you later then, Kevin. Do you want anything from the shop, Ged?’

‘Can I have a Twix, Mam, I’m just craving one.’

Kevin looked up at her with his puppy dog eyes. Bleeding hell, was she expected to get him something too? Less than twenty-four hours out of the nick and he was expecting her to wait on him hand and foot.

‘Do you want anything?’ she asked in an abrupt manner.

‘Oh, yeah, ta. Can I have a Mars bar please, babe?’

He was at it again, calling her babe, making her skin crawl. She left the house ramming two fingers up behind her. He had more front than Blackpool and if she had her way he could ram his chocolate bar where the sun didn’t shine, too.

Kevin waited until he heard the front door slam shut. No more beating around the bush. It was time for the truth, and he didn’t waste any time in getting it. ‘So,’ he paused and looked at his boy. ‘Let’s have it then, no lies, just fill me in. The truth.’

Ged was white-faced. His dad would go ape when he knew what his son had been up to. There was no way of sugar-coating it.

‘Dad, before you start, I was doing this for us. I wanted to help my mam out and try and get you a few quid for when you got out of jail.’

Kevin nodded his head, waiting for the rest of the story. Ged carried on. ‘I think I was set up. I was doing a few drop-offs for my mate Frankie, the one I told you about, and when I told him this was the last one he wasn’t happy. And then I was jumped in Blackpool when—’