The Family

The Family
Kay Brellend

The follow-up novel to the hugely successful debutTHE STREETIn this dank corner of town, you have to keep your friends close and your enemies closer – even if those enemies are your family.Jimmy Wild saunters around the streets of Campbell Road, and among the people he used to terrorise. Even though the years have passed, he’s still a tyrant. The sight of his lanky frame is enough to terrify the inhabitants of this close-knit community, who reside in this villainous corner of London.Jimmy’s beautiful step-daughter Faye and his downtrodden wife Edie eek out a meagre existence for their family, having left behind their lives in Kent. What devastating act was so bad that it drove them away from the place they called home to this hovel of a house in Campbell Road?Robert and Steven Wild thought they’d moved on. It was hard enough coming to terms with the death of their mother – and now their abusive father, presumed dead, has returned. One thing you can bet on, Jimmy Wild’s not returned to start playing happy families…How can young Faye make a life for herself and carve a future for young siblings? Who is this aged woman that Jimmy Wild has come back to see? And can a romance between Faye and Rob blossom amidst a family at War?

KAY BRELLEND

The Family

For my sons, with love

Table of Contents

Cover (#ucaace64c-464a-5f9d-8b0c-e820d9854c83)

Title Page (#ue6067340-b00e-579a-aa81-63e55c7b5459)

Dedication (#u7d078732-ac5f-513d-ac5b-66d9dbff1d6c)

Prologue (#u6208a5e2-96ac-5a21-95fb-2c6d8403aa40)

Chapter One (#u6579be1c-0729-5351-ba0b-767e73a850ab)

Chapter Two (#uac277773-a6d3-5c23-b9eb-f4c66ba9a3e2)

Chapter Three (#u80f0a0ed-4575-5b42-838a-bfdeccb52714)

Chapter Four (#u9713ca0d-a370-5e2d-97af-822b05a9dde9)

Chapter Five (#u18061cb4-c35a-52b7-ae10-406352622f4c)

Chapter Six (#u3bcd4bd4-4c81-5c83-9e78-a8b6491736e0)

Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Sixteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seventeen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eighteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nineteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-One (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-Two (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-Three (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-Four (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-Five (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-Six (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-Seven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-Eight (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-Nine (#litres_trial_promo)

Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)

Acknowledgements (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

PROLOGUE

November 1919

‘Shut up making that racket, fer Gawd’s sake, you’re not a kid any more.’

Robert Wild glowered at his younger brother, who was cuffing tears and snot from his face, then snapped defiant eyes to a couple hovering close by. They were frowning in censure rather than sympathy as Stephen carried on sobbing his heart out. The bigger boy stared back belligerently until the woman gripped her companion’s elbow, urging him to hurry on.

Yanking at his brother’s arm, Robert steered him into the grimy corridor of the Duke of Edinburgh pub. From beyond the closed door of the saloon bar they could hear their kith and kin, voices raised in revelry; it served only to increase Stephen’s misery.

‘They ain’t bothered she’s dead, are they?’ he hiccupped. ‘Just us, ain’t it, who’s real upset?’