on her mobile phone. “The bastards have slammed him. Gary, I swear he’s kicking off. They’re going to hammer him once they get him into a cell. Just you watch, if they put one mark on my boy’s body I’ll sue them.” Rachel held the phone to the side of her ear and bit down hard on her lip. People were coming out of the courtroom now and there was no way she wanted them to see her like this. She took a deep breath and tried to hold back the tears. People were pointing and whispering. The phone call ended suddenly and Rachel stood waiting for Sarah. Each person that walked out from the room looked her up and down, judging her, knowing now why her son was the way he was. Rachel stood tall. If they wanted trouble she’d give them trouble alright. She’d dealt with these sorts of people all her life and, like her son, she was scared of nobody. Tilting her head to the side she placed her hand on the side of her hip and held a cocky expression. A woman was eyeballing her from the opposite side of the corridor. “Have you seen enough or do you want me to spin around for you to get a better look, you nosey cow?” She was ready for her, she was ready for them all. They were no better than her, she’d scratch their eyes out if she needed to. They were just regular people thinking they knew her story. The courtroom door flew open and crashed against the wall. Sarah appeared, her eyes were red raw and her voice was low. “They’ve took him Rachel, they’ve took my Mikey.” Sarah’s legs buckled from underneath her as she fell to the floor. She was hyperventilating and finding it difficult to breathe. People just walked past her as if she was a big dollop of dog muck on the bottom of their shoes. Not one person stopped to see if she was alright; inconsiderate bastards the lot of them. She could have been dying for all they knew and not one of them gave her a second thought. Rachel sprinted to her side and held her tight in her arms. She didn’t need this, she had her own grief to cope with without nursing somebody else. She’d told Sarah not to come to court but she just couldn’t stay away; she was in love, totally head over heels in love with her boy. Rachel composed herself and put her own troubles to the back of her head. “He’s going to be alright. Our Mikey will deal with them. You know he won’t take any shit from anyone. Come on, sort yourself out and let’s get home. Everybody’s looking at you. For fucks sake I don’t really need this!” Sarah snivelled as she lifted her head up slowly, tears rolling down the side of her cheek. “What am I going to do without him? He’s my world. Nobody knows me like he does. I just want to die. Leave me here on my own, just leave me be.” Rachel shrugged her shoulders and remembered when she had been in this situation. Her own heartache had destroyed her, ripped her heart out and if she was being truthful she’d never really truly loved anyone again after it. John Pollock had been her world back in the day and when he got slammed for ten years it broke her in two; shattered her heart into a million pieces. At the time she declared she would wait for him and be faithful to the end of his sentence but in her heart she knew that was always going to be a big ask. Things change, time moves on and even with the best intentions she had to admit to herself that she was lonely and needed a man beside her. Rachel had received death threats from Johnny from behind the prison walls. Once he heard she had moved on he pledged to end her life, make her suffer. And he would too, he was a sick bastard who liked to make his victims suffer. Any time soon John Pollock would be walking the streets of Manchester again, the police had said they would inform her of his release date. Rachel pretended she was over it all but she was scared, very scared. This man was a head the ball and he would never forget what she had done to him. The sleepless nights she’d caused him, the