Nine months and twenty-three days after he’d been taken into police custody, Luke walked free from Wrexham Prison. There was a car waiting for him, his children standing beside it, along with Ceri, who’d been looking after them while he was inside. He’d admitted to everything relating to the drugs business, told the police everything he knew and was rewarded for his cooperation with a more lenient sentence. He’d never known time go so slowly, each day inching to its conclusion, but he’d made sure that he was a model prisoner and now he was out on parole.

‘Dad! Dad!’ The children jumped up and down and ran to greet him, throwing their arms around him as he crouched down. He held them to him and savoured the precious moment, the feel of his children, his flesh and blood. The people he would do anything for to ensure their safety.

‘I’ve missed you both so much.’ He buried his head in Tessa’s hair, Callum clasped to his chest, unable to say more for the lump in his throat.

He’d had a lot of time to think in prison. Time to understand his priorities and come to terms with the decisions that he’d made. As luck would have it, he was put on the same wing as Ted and with the help of a mediator, over the space of several months, they’d managed to talk through what had happened, and why the family had needed to get away from him. How his over-protectiveness had become oppressive and abusive.

Counselling had helped Ted’s view of the world to become more balanced and he and Luke had come to an understanding. Ted would be inside for at least another year, having admitted to being the mastermind behind the cannabis operation, and Luke had promised to visit him on a regular basis, hoping that, over time, they could work out how he could become part of the family again.

The children pulled Luke towards the car, where Ceri was standing waiting, a wide grin on her face. He’d never seen her looking so happy and he wrapped her in a big hug.

‘Thank you so much for looking after these two.’ He let out a shuddering sigh as the realisation hit him that he was really free. ‘My God, it was…’ He could feel the emotions swelling up in his chest and he turned to look back at the place that had been his home for almost ten months, clear in his mind that he would never do anything that might risk a return visit.

‘No problem,’ Ceri said. ‘They’ve been great. No problem at all. We’ve all settled in to that big house of yours just fine.’

‘I can go for sleepovers with Sion still, can’t I, Dad? It’s only round the corner.’

‘’Course you can, Cal. When you’re invited.’

‘And Tessa comes swimming with me on Thursdays,’ Ceri said, throwing an arm round her niece’s shoulder. ‘It’s okay if we keep that up, isn’t it?’

‘We have to go,’ Tessa piped up, ‘’cos Auntie Ceri fancies the lifeguard.’ She giggled as Ceri pulled a horrified face.

Luke laughed and nodded. ‘Of course it is.’ Swimming. He was glad Tessa had found something she enjoyed and if it was allowing his sister to have a more normal life again, then all the better. ‘Swimming sounds great.’

‘It’s such fun, Dad. We do life-saving and dive for bricks and I can swim a mile now.’

Luke looked at Ceri, who was hiding a smile. ‘A mile. Well, that’s pretty impressive.’

‘And I want to go on Tuesdays as well, Dad. Then I can train to be in the team.’

Luke blinked harder. ‘Yep, yep, I’m sure that’ll be fine.’

‘Hey, let’s give your dad a bit of space,’ Ceri said with a laugh, bundling the children into the car, while Luke got into the passenger seat.

Luke watched the prison fade into the distance as the car moved away from the kerb and they started on their way home to Bangor, where his parents would be waiting for him, having sold the farm and bought a bungalow on the same estate as Luke’s house.

It’s over. It’s really over.

Ceri had been given a suspended sentence for her part in the drugs business. Luke had testified that she had nothing to do with it and the court believed him for the most part, because it corroborated what Ted had said. His parents had also been exonerated of any blame, all their children having testified that they’d had nothing to do with the business.

‘Sion’s dog has just had puppies, Dad.’ Tessa’s voice was wheedling.

‘They’re so cool,’ Callum chipped in. ‘Just little balls of white fluff. And there’s two left that nobody wants.’ Luke looked over his shoulder and caught Tessa giving Callum the thumbs up.

‘Yes,’ Luke said, not having to be asked. ‘Yes, we can. It would be mean not to give them a home, wouldn’t it?’

‘Really?’ He turned and looked at the joy on his children’s faces, his heart swelling with love for the two people he cared most about in the world.

He nodded. ‘Yes, really.’

A couple of puppies would be a great focus for them all, and he didn’t even need to know what breed they were. What did it matter? It would get them out on walks and they could all get involved in training them.

It was going to be tricky to find work now with his criminal record, but he’d got a volunteer placement working at a home in Llandudno for blind ex-servicemen. Selling the cannabis had been wrong, and he accepted that, but he still wanted to help his former colleagues. This placement sounded perfect and he’d been told that if it worked out, then come the summer, there would be seasonal work. And who knew what might happen after that.

They turned onto the A55 and headed home, and the chatter faded for a while. Left with his own thoughts, Luke nodded to himself. He’d done the right thing, he was sure of that now. It had been a hard choice to make and a big risk, but looking at his children and his sister, seeing how they’d blossomed, he knew that he’d make the same choice again because it had been the only way to set them all free. Free to be themselves and escape their life of fear and abuse.

Luke smiled and let out a whoop of joy that set the children off laughing; a sound that was music to his ears. It was the sound of his future.