With a grim snarl on his face, Stanley pushed past Stacey, knocking into her shoulder as he headed for the door. When he pulled it open, Sophie was standing directly outside. Stanley’s face immediately broke out in a huge smile.

‘Hello, Princess. I was just coming to find you. I’m gonna have to go.’

‘Do you have to? It feels like you only just got here?’

‘My business won’t run itself. But cheer up. I’ve got a present for you. It’s in my bag in the living room. Come on.’

Before Sophie followed, she turned back and stared into the eyes of her mother. She would never admit anything, but Stacey knew she had probably heard every word of their conversation. Stacey opened her mouth to speak, but Sophie had already gone.

Three hours later and back at her own house, Stacey Collins stood outside Sophie’s bedroom, trying to summon up the courage to step inside.

She was racked with guilt and convinced that she was without a doubt the most terrible mother in the whole wide world. For years now the worst of her arguments with her daughter had almost always revolved around the fact that Sophie desperately resented not having a father in her life. Time and time again Sophie complained about the fact that her mother worked such unsociable hours and always, always seemed to put her job first. ‘But none of that would matter,’ a tearful Sophie would sob, ‘if I had a dad.’

Stacey had grown up with two parents who were always there for her, and, even when their own relationship hit a few bumps, stayed together for the sake of their daughter. Sophie had known no such security, and for years Stacey had decided that it was better to lie than to face the truth: that Sophie’s father had been right under her nose all along. But now that she had brought the two of them together and it was too late to turn back, Stacey found herself wondering whether, despite the aggravation, her original instincts had been the right ones.

Was a gangland father really better than no father at all?

She was only too well aware of the extent of Stanley’s criminal enterprises but she had purposely blinkered herself off from his activities. Now for the first time she had to accept that her daughter shared DNA with a man capable of the most inhuman acts possible. And the thought made her shudder.

There was no doubt in Stacey’s mind that Jack Stanley was fully capable of carrying out cold blooded murder. She was a hundred per cent certain that he had only been acquitted in the earlier case because the witnesses had been left terrified. God only knew how many other killings and deaths he had had a hand in. Yet all that Sophie could see was a man who bought her presents and had the time to spend with her that her mother did not.

She had finally relented to Sophie’s demands in a moment of emotional weakness, and at the time she had been convinced that she was doing the right thing. But now she was far less sure. What if Sophie found out the truth about her father? What if he ended up in the dock on another murder charge? Sophie could find herself despising them both.

Stacey’s mind drifted back to the forthcoming raid the SOCA officer had mentioned. Could it be true, and if so why mention it to someone who is suspected of passing on information to the target? She had said nothing to Stanley and had no intention of doing so. Her instincts told her it was a test, a kind of trap, but a part of her hoped it was for real. An arrest for drug trafficking would be the lesser of numerous evils. Sophie would be upset but at least she would get to know the truth about her father before the bond between them got too deep. It would be for the best.

Stacey knocked on the bedroom door and gently pushed it open. Sophie was sitting up in bed on top of the covers, her eyes shut and her head slowly bobbing back and forth.

‘Sophie, can we talk?’

There was no response. Ever since Sophie had become a teenager, Stacey had become used to the silent treatment. But upon closer inspection she realized there was another reason that her daughter had not heard her: two thin white wires led down from under her hair on either side of her chin and into her lap. Sophie was listening to the brand-new iPod Touch that Jack had given her.

Stacey moved forward and touched her daughter gently on the shoulder. Sophie’s eyes opened with a start, and she fumbled with the controls on her music player to turn it off before pulling the headphones from her ears, one at a time.

Stacey sat down on the bed alongside her.

‘Listen, Sophie, I don’t know how to say this. There’s no easy way, so I’m just going to come out with it. I don’t think you’re going to be able to see your father any more. Not for a while anyway.’

‘Why, what’s happened?’

‘Nothing, nothing’s happened, but it’s just … there are things going on, things going on at work that you don’t know about, things I can’t really explain to you that mean it’s difficult, actually impossible right now.’

Sophie eyed her mother cautiously, weighing up her words. ‘You’re jealous?’

‘Don’t be ridiculous.’

‘Who’s being ridiculous? You are jealous. Of course you are. That’s why you never wanted to introduce him to me before. That’s why you want me to stop seeing him now. It’s because you can see how close we’re becoming, because he treats me like an adult, not like a little girl, he shows up your failings, it’s because –’

‘Just shut up and listen. You don’t know that man the way that I do. Jack Stanley is … he’s done some bad things in his life. Things that could get him into a lot of trouble. With my job, I can’t be seen to be associating with someone like that.’

‘But you’re not, Mum. I am.’

‘It affects me too.’

‘You just don’t want us to be together.’

‘That’s not true, darling. If I didn’t want that I would never have introduced you to him in the first place.’

Stacey sighed deeply and ran her fingers through Sophie’s hair. ‘I know you feel like you’ve missed out your whole life by not having a father around. And now that he is in your life you must feel as though I’m trying to take that away from you, but that’s not the case.’

‘It does feel like that.’

‘You have to understand that there are things about Jack, about your father, that you don’t know about. Things that have happened in his past that –’

‘Like him being in prison? He’s told me all about that. And you’re right, it’s in the past.’

‘There’s more to it than that. It’s dangerous.’ Stacey tried to think of the best way to put this, a way that wouldn’t give her daughter nightmares. ‘Some of the things that your father has done in the past, they’re the kind of things that can make a lot of people angry. I worry about you, and at the moment I just don’t know if it’s safe for you to be seen with him.’

‘But nobody sees us, not if he comes round to Nan’s.’

‘I’m sorry, Sophie. I just can’t allow that.’

For a moment it looked as though Sophie was going to cry, but then her resolve stiffened. She looked directly at her mother, tiny traces of moisture in the corners of her eyes. ‘I don’t want to do anything to upset you or get you into trouble, Mum. I mean, it’s great having a dad and everything after all this time, but I’ll never forget that you’re the one who brought me up. You’re the one I owe everything to.’

‘Thanks, Sophie.’

‘Though if you’d told him about me earlier, then he probably would have been around a lot more.’

‘Sophie!’

‘I’m just saying.’ Sophie looked down at the iPod in her lap. ‘Okay. I don’t really understand why but, if you really think I shouldn’t see Dad for the time being, then I won’t. But it can’t go on for ever. I want him in my life. I really do.’

‘And he will be one day. I promise.’

‘Okay.’

Stacey smiled, reached out with both arms and pulled Sophie into a huge hug. Their bodies pressed together and their chins rested on each other’s shoulders as they held each other tightly.