"I'll wash up." Katy said, chuckling as her grandmother nodded in agreement. "Gran, can you put the kids to bed?"

"We should get going." Jack said, glancing over to where Ricky, Amy and Ruby were playing with their video games.

"They'll be OK for a while." His daughter said, nudging him with her hip.

"They have school tomorrow."

"So does Ruby." Katy pointed out.

Jack frowned, following her into the kitchen. "You've got her into Walford Primary already?"

"Sorted it before we came. Matthew and the twins have got a place at the nursery, too." Seeing him open his mouth to ask more questions, she smiled. "And I've registered us at the doctor's. We're all set."

"You've grown up a lot since you left."

"Didn't really have a choice, Dad." She pointed out, smiling wryly. Catching the expression on his face, she shook her head. "I know it was my own fault. I don't regret leaving. I just… I missed you."

"I missed you too." Jack told her, pulling her into a tight hug. When they broke apart, he looked conflicted for a moment, before rummaging in his jacket pocket and holding out an envelope in Katy's direction. "This came for you a couple of days after the funeral. I didn't know where you were, whether you'd ever come home, but I felt like I needed to keep it safe, in case."

Drying her hands quickly, his daughter turned and looked at him with a frown. "What is it? Who's it from?"

He shrugged. "No idea. I didn't open it."

Warily, Katy took the envelope and looked at it carefully. She didn't recognise the writing, but she did recognise that it had been sent from Ibiza. Her immediate guess was that it was from her mother and aunt's business partner, Carlos, and her heart sank as she remembered that his son was the twins' biological father. She wondered whether he had found out about them somehow and wanted contact with them.

"Are you gonna open it?" Her father prompted, impatiently. Clearly holding onto it for two years had made him curious.

"Not right now." She said with a shrug, pushing it into her pocket. "I'll read it later. If it's anything important I'll let you know." She smiled weakly. "Thanks for keeping it for me."

They finished the washing up in silence and then Jack decided that it really was time to take Amy and Ricky home. They hugged their sister tightly, demanding that she took them to school in the morning. Laughing softly, Katy promised that she would be there first thing to pick them up.

"It'll be just like when you used to take me to school because Mummy was busy." Amy said, grinning broadly.

"Yeah… yeah, baby, it will." Katy agreed, the mention of her aunt causing a sharp pain in her chest. "So… half eight?"

"Great, thanks Katy." Jack agreed, the same sadness in his eyes as he leant in to press a kiss to her cheek.

Leaning against the doorframe and watching them cross the Square, Katy pulled her cardigan more tightly around herself. Glenda squeezed Ruby's shoulder and smiled down at her. Shooting her granddaughter a look she turned them both away from the door.

"Come on, darling, we should get inside before Mummy gets cold. Bedtime, hmm?"

Ruby nodded without argument, scampering inside and up the stairs. Katy glanced sideways at her grandmother and sighed, shaking her head as they went inside and closed the front door behind them.

"I'm OK." Katy promised, nodding and patting Glenda on the shoulder. "I'm OK."

"You want me to…?"

The younger woman nodded gratefully and wandered into the living room. She looked around, wishing there was still some washing up to do to distract her from the memories that her sister's words had dragged up. She had known that coming back to Walford would mean dealing with things that she had forced down, but she had thought she wouldn't find it quite as tough as she evidently was.

"I'm popping over to the Vic." Glenda announced, poking her head around the door and smiling. "We could ask Dot to come and babysit if you fancy joining me?"

Katy smiled weakly and shook her head. "No, thanks. I'm exhausted."

"Alright, darling. I won't be too long. Shall I look in on you when I get back?"

"Yeah, please." Her granddaughter's smile grew brighter, especially when Glenda just nodded and backed out of the flat.

Despite the fact that both Glenda and Katy had agreed that separate flats – albeit in the same building – were a good idea to allow them some privacy, the reality of being on her own wasn't one that Katy liked. She hadn't been on her own since she'd moved to Walford at seventeen and she had quickly realised that she didn't actually like having her own space after all. Glenda hadn't made a big deal out of her granddaughter's need for company, which made Katy think she was just as lonely on her own.

The letter that Jack had given her had been burning a hole in her pocket since he'd handed it over. Katy had resolutely avoided opening it until the girls and Matthew were safely tucked up in bed and fast asleep. She glanced towards the door living room door for a moment, checking that there was no chance of any of the children interrupting her, before pulling it out and looking at it closely.

The writing on the envelope was just as unfamiliar on second glance as it had been earlier that evening. Sliding her finger under the flap and ripping it open, she pulled the folded sheet of paper out and furrowed her eyebrows at the realisation that it was typed. Immediately her eyes moved to the bottom of the page, looking to see who had sent it, but grew even more confused when she realised that there was no name. Flipping it over, she looked at the back, but still couldn't find any clue as to who had sent the letter.

Thursday January 19th 2017

Katy,

I know you'll be struggling with the events of the last few weeks, but you should know better than anyone that things aren't always as bleak as they might seem.

Don't give up; don't give in to the darkness even though it might feel like the only option. It's always with you, but you're stronger that anyone ever gives you credit for. You need to stay strong. Fight. Keep fighting until you get through to the other side.

You are so loved. Remember that.

You'll do great things, of that I have no doubt.

At the bottom was a mobile number. With shaking hands, Katy immediately dialled it and held her phone to her ear, chewing her lip as she waited impatiently for the call to be answered. Within seconds, however, she slammed the handset onto the coffee table as a message telling her that the number was no longer in use dashed all her hopes that she would finally have some answers.

She was still reading the letter over and over again when her grandmother let herself into the flat. Glenda was chattering about something or other, several names tumbling out in quick succession, and didn't instantly notice what Katy was doing.

"What's that?" She asked, finally spotting the paper in Katy's hand.

"A letter… I… I think it's from Mum."

"Katherine?" Plucking it from her hands, she ran her eyes over it quickly, before turning her confused gaze on the younger woman. "Why would you think this is from Veronica? It could be from anyone. It's not even signed."

"I just know, Gran. I know it's from her." She shook her head and reclaimed the letter. "She's trying to tell me she's still alive. They're still alive… I know it. I told you they couldn't really be gone!"

"Katherine… Katy." Glenda looked at her sadly, reaching out and cupping her cheek gently. "Veronica and Roxanne died. You know that. They're not coming back." She sighed deeply. "There's no way this can be from your mother. She didn't know she was going to die… she couldn't have even got someone to send this to you afterwards. It's just… it's someone trying to mess with you or… I don't know!"

"Gran, please believe me. I know Mum. I know that this is her."

"Enough now, Katy. That's enough. Please… it's enough."

"I… I'm sorry, Gran. I know you… I'm sorry."

Glenda sighed again. "Where did you get it, anyway?"

"Dad kept it for me."

Biting down her frustrations with her son-in-law, Glenda simply nodded and changed the subject. She asked whether her granddaughter minded if she went back out to rejoin Kathy at the pub. Katy shrugged disinterestedly, still slightly confused about the odd friendship that seemed to have been kindled between the two women.

Shooting the young woman a final glance, worry coursing through her as she watched Katy reading the letter yet again, Glenda headed out of the house and across the Square. She pulled her coat around her more tightly, hammering on the front door of her son-in-law's house.

"Why the hell did you give Katy that letter?" Glenda demanded the second Jack opened the front door. She pushed her way inside and stood with her arms folded across her chest and scowled at him. "You do realise she now thinks it's definitive proof that her mother and Roxanne are still alive?"

"What?" Jack stared at her, completely aghast. "Why the hell would she–?"

"That letter was apparently from Veronica and referenced the funeral." She told him angrily. "Katy's been convinced that they're still alive since she thought she saw Roxanne in Tesco."

Jack blinked at her in complete bewilderment. "What are you going on about?"

"About two months after we moved, Katy came home one night absolutely convinced that she'd seen Roxanne in Tesco. She wouldn't see sense and dragged me out to look for her. Obviously there was no sign of her but since then Katy's been so sure that they're not really dead."

"She can't still believe that? It's been two years." He pointed out bluntly. "Did you take her to see someone?"

"No I did not." Glenda sounded affronted at the very idea. "She doesn't need to go and see someone. You've seen her; she's a businesswoman, she's a mother and she's fantastic at both those things, despite everything else that's going on in her life."

"You don't need to tell me that. She's my daughter."

"Maybe you need to remember that, then."

"I never forgot. I didn't even know she was planning to leave Walford. If I'd have known I would have–"

"No, Jack." Glenda held up a hand to stop him, her eyes flashing dangerously. "You might not have had a choice in the matter, but you weren't the one sitting up with her at night when she was crying with the pain. You weren't holding her hair back when she was too weak to do anything but sit beside the toilet. You didn't have to convince Matthew and the girls that everything was alright when Katy was rushed into hospital with infections or queries over her test results. My daughter is–"

"Katy is not your daughter, Glenda."

There was a long silence. Glenda blinked in confusion, taken aback by her own words. Nodding silently, she opened and closed her mouth a couple of times, before realising that there was nothing she could say to correct her slip up without making it sound worse.

"Just… don't mention I told you about her thinking she saw Roxanne."

"I'm not indulging the delusion that they're still alive, Glenda." Jack told her firmly. "They're gone. They're gone and they're not coming back and she needs to accept that."

"You think I don't know that, Jack?" She retorted. "My daughters are gone and the only thing holding my granddaughter together most of the time is this bizarre belief that they're not really dead. Those first two months after we left… they were awful. But then she thought she saw Roxanne and everything just seemed to click back into place."

"I'm still not going to let her believe it's true."