LITMIR.BIZ

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turned her head in the opposite direction. ‘No. Don’t like ’em.’

      ‘Shall we go to that boozer I told you about, Dad? They have a good play area for kids. Me and Sammi often take Ollie there. He loves it,’ Little Vinny suggested.

      Vinny nodded. Ava was a difficult child to please at times. Happy as a sandboy at home playing with Fred, but enjoyed very little outdoor activity. His mother had even tried her with Sunday school and that had ended in disaster. When the teacher had asked who Jesus was, Ava had replied ‘A cunt.’

      Half an hour later, Vinny was sitting next to his son in the boozer, relieved that Ava seemed to be enjoying herself in the play area. ‘Look after Ollie,’ he shouted.

      ‘Yes, Daddy,’ Ava beamed, holding her nephew’s hand.

      As proud as Vinny was at the way his son had turned out, he did currently have one issue with him. ‘We need to have a chat.’

      ‘About what?’

      ‘The wedding suits. You might be happy to prance around looking like a pansy all day, but no way am I wearing that creation. I’ll be the laughing stock of the East End.’

      Little Vinny was slightly taken aback. ‘The suits are smart and modern. What’s wrong with ’em?’

      ‘What’s right with ’em would be an easier question to answer. For a start, they’re bastard-well white! You ever seen me walking round looking like Whitechapel’s answer to Larry Grayson?’

      ‘Who’s Larry Grayson? And the suits aren’t white, they’re cream.’

      ‘It don’t matter. I’m not wearing it.’

      ‘For once this isn’t about you, Dad. It’s mine and Sammi- Lou’s big day and we want it to be special. The bridesmaids are all wearing crimson and the males cream suits. You told me to choose what I wanted, so I did. Please don’t ruin this for me. The photos will look ridiculous if you’re the only one of us wearing a different suit.’

      ‘It’s got a fucking turtle neck an’ all,’ Vinny winced.

      ‘If you hate the suit that much, you can change it before the reception. Please wear it, Dad, for the actual wedding. Michael said he liked his.’

      ‘Michael’s secretly gay,’ Vinny replied sarcastically.

      Oliver Butler toddling over stopped the discussion getting any more heated. Vinny scooped the child up and sat him on his lap. Unlike the rest of the Butler males, Oliver was blond, but he’d inherited the trademark piercing green eyes. Vinny adored him, but still couldn’t get his head around being called Granddad. He felt far too young to be addressed as such, so had taught Oliver to call him Vinny.

      ‘Inny, Inny. Wha dat?’ Oliver giggled, pressing his chubby finger against his grandfather’s nose.

      Little Vinny smirked. ‘That’s the nose of a man who won’t do one small thing to please his son on his wedding day. Never mind, boy. When you’re older and you get married, I’ll do anything to make you happy. That’s what being a dad is all about.’

      ‘Bye, bye, Michael. I’m so excited now. See you tomorrow,’ Antonio said, before handing the phone back to his mother and jumping up and down on the sofa with joy. He’d never had a daddy like his friends did, but whenever he was with Michael, he felt like he did. People always said they looked alike and Antonio loved that. It gave him a sense of belonging.

      ‘Go and play in your bedroom if you’re going to jump about, Antonio. Mummy is trying to talk to Michael.’

      When her son skipped out of the room, Bella smiled. ‘He is absolutely over the moon we are all going out tomorrow, Michael. He cried earlier, bless him, when I said you couldn’t make today. He truly adores you as much as I do.’

      ‘And I adore him too, babe. So sorry about today. I feel guilty now, but there was sod-all I could do about it. It’s family shit that has to be sorted,’ Michael explained. Vinny had sent Carl down to the Cross Keys yesterday evening, but unfortunately Brenda’s loser of a bloke was nowhere to be seen. Michael could have defied Vinny by refusing to cancel his date with Bella in favour of waiting for a phone call, but to be honest, it wasn’t worth the grief. Vinny seemed to have a real hang-up over his relationship with Bella and to put her in front of family business would only cause World War Three.

      ‘How are your mum and aunt?’ Bella asked.

      ‘As mad as ever. I haven’t had a chance to tell ’em you’re back from Italy yet, but they’re bound to want to see you when I do. Ava’s living with my mum, so I thought perhaps Sunday week, I’ll pick you and Antonio up and take you over my mum’s for dinner? If I remember rightly, Ava and Antonio were inseparable at Vinny’s fortieth, and Antonio adored the mutt. Fred lives there too,’ Michael chuckled.

      Bella’s stomach churned. Ava was Antonio’s half-sister and that thought alone made her feel physically sick. ‘Let’s not rush things, Michael. Don’t tell your mum and aunt I’m back yet. Let me get settled again and then we’ll surprise them together. I can’t wait to see them again though. I thought they were lovely and so funny.’

      ‘OK, babe. Whatever you want. I’ve gotta go now. There’s a geezer here to see me. I’ll bell you later.’

      Bella said goodbye, replaced the receiver, rested the back of her head against the sofa and stared at the ceiling. Living a life littered with lies and deceit was awful, but what choice did she have? She’d tried to live without Michael and couldn’t. She had to keep telling herself that she was the only one that knew the true identity of Antonio’s father and there was no reason for anybody else to believe it wasn’t Clint. Only Vinny, perhaps? And no way was Bella ever going to allow her son to be in his company. She was afraid if she did, Vinny would take one look at her beloved boy and, because of Antonio’s age, black hair and piercing green eyes, put two and two together.

      A sunny day always brought droves of shoppers to Roman Road market and the Enemy was pleased that the crowd started to thicken as he walked past Cardigan Road. He’d kept a good twenty feet or so behind Queenie and Vivian since he’d spotted them at Percy Ingle’s and had stopped to browse at stalls whenever they had stopped. Queenie was wearing a floral dress accompanied by a bright-red jacket. Vivian’s dress was bright green, and the silly old cow had some kind of fur draped around her neck. The Enemy liked animals – he’d recently bought a kitten – and in his eyes the fact some poor creature had been skinned alive so that old witch could drape it proudly over her shoulders was a good enough reason to kill her.

      Spotting a gorgeous blonde, the Enemy began to smile at her before realizing there was no point as he was in this ridiculous disguise. Had he not been, he reckoned he could have been in with a chance. He’d always had all the girls at school after him and he hadn’t done too bad while locked up. He’d lost his virginity to a twenty-five-year-old brunette called Dawn who was meant to be teaching him art. He’d been a hero amongst the other inmates when their affair had come to light. Dawn hadn’t though. She was fired on the spot.

      When Queenie and Viv did a detour into the arcade, the Enemy decided to wait outside and order himself a jacket potato. He wasn’t hungry, but the less conspicuous he made himself look, the better. He was determined to carry out his plan today. Fucking hard-faced old slappers. They deserved everything coming their way.

      Shirley Preston feared nobody. When her grandson Jamie had been falsely accused and then subsequently banged up for murdering Molly Butler, Shirley had dealt with the barrage of abuse and bricks aimed through her windows by chucking abuse back, along with the bloody bricks.

      The police had strongly advised Shirley to take up their offer of a safe house far away from Poplar, but Shirley was having none of it. Unlike her parents, she’d survived the war and Hitler’s bombs, so could bloody survive anything. To run away would have been a sign of guilt and even though, at first, the evidence had been stacked against her grandson, Shirley had always known in her heart Jamie was innocent. A silly boy at the time for leading the

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