Crooks - A London Gangsters Tale | COMPLETED

Chapter Twenty Two

She was just as Wayne remembered her. It was as if the intervening years had melted away all at once, and he was just a kid again. They both cried and hugged each other tight. She ushered him into her living room, as though afraid that they might be spotted by an interloper.

"Oh Wayne," she said, "my lovely boy. Just as handsome as ever."

"I missed you," Wayne said.

"I missed you too, darling. I tried everything I could to come and see you, but he wouldn't have it. Same with your sister. How is she?"

"She's alright. She married that Jason bloke."

"I've heard about him. Read about him online, you know. He sounds like your father. And you know how I feel about your father."

"Yeah," Wayne agreed, "he wants the top job. That's the only reason he sticks around."

His mother made them tea, which she served on the glass coffee table. "How did you find me? I always assumed your dad poisoned you against me. Made you think I was some kind of monster."

"He tried. But I always knew at the back of my mind the way things really were. It just took me a while to acknowledge it. It doesn't matter how I found you. What matters is that I did."

"True enough," she said and kissed him on the forehead.

"It's all falling apart, mum," he said. "I don't know what to do."

"Oh, sweetheart. Tell me all about it."

So he did. From beginning to end, he gave her the story. Commencing with the rift between the Carter and Popov organisations, his injury, Silvertown, the murders of Rob Linley, Chloe Linley, Ronnie Vincent, George McMinn...

She listened with an impassive expression, but he could tell that she was utterly horrified by each new revelation. And rightly so. It had all gone so wrong. Whatever moral compass he had once had, his father had done everything in his power to corrupt and compromise it. Wayne was his father's son; there was no getting away from it.

But it wasn't too late.

"There's still a chance, Wayne," his mother began once he was done. "You could always go to the police. Face up to what your father's done – and your part in it. Come clean. You might have to do a little time, but I doubt it. If you helped them to bring down your father then I reckon you could get immunity for yourself. You've got the money for a good lawyer, haven't you?"

Wayne, however, shook his head. "I'm not good with money. Never had to be, did I?"

"Well..." his mother sighed. "In that case, maybe it's for the best. Sever all ties, give it all up. So you'll go to prison for a short while. But a jury will take into account the fact you came forward in the end. Your father was the one in control. He bullied you, threatened you. Made you take part in all those awful things."

"Dad would kill me if I even thought about it."

"Don't say stuff like that. You're mine again now, aren't you? And you've always been my son. I'll do anything for you."

There was something in her eyes that made Wayne believe it. That was the only part of her which had changed: her eyes. They seemed colder now. Harder. They were a reflection of the hardships she had gone through since David Carter kicked her to the kerb. After all, he had turned her into an invisible woman. He had erased her.

There was a long silence, but it was not an uncomfortable one. Rather, it was a moment of tranquillity after all the turmoil. Wayne felt as though a fog was clearing. There might just be a way out after all.