"So how many weeks are you?" Michelle asked as she looked at the scan picture I'd just taken out of my bag.

"Thirteen." I told her.

"Which makes you due when?" she enquired.

"Middle of September, the 15th." I said, as the door of the back room opened, and I quickly hid the scan photo behind my back. Michelle, Mum and Peter were the only people who knew about the baby, and for a little while longer, I wanted it to stay that way.

"Michelle, you wouldn't mind giving me a hand, would you? It's just got really busy out here." Liz asked. Michelle nodded and smiled at me.

"Chelle, I'm gonna pop over to the factory. I'll see you in a bit." I said as she followed Liz out to the bar, and I put the scan photo back in my bag.

Mum was on the phone when I walked into the office at Underworld. I shut it behind me and closed the blinds while she finished up on the phone. I sat down on the desk opposite her and held the small card with the scan photo inside in my hands.

"So?" She said, putting the phone down on the desk, "How is my little grandson or granddaughter?" I handed her the scan photo which she opened and smiled widely. "Oh Orlie, and everything's alright? All healthy, good heartbeat?" She asked.

"Yeah, yeah, all good. Strong and healthy heartbeat, a bit on the small side, but they said at this stage it's nothing to worry about." I told her.

"Have you been crying?" Mum asked, as she folded the scan photo back in the card and handed it back to me.

"Only happy tears. I heard the heartbeat echoing through that room and I just couldn't stop." I told her. Mum smiled, before there was a knock on the factory door. I tucked the scan card back into my bag and put it on my shoulder.

"I need to go to a meeting in town for the bakery. I'll see you at home tonight." I said to Mum once she had finished talking. She kissed my cheek as I said goodbye and then I left the factory to go out to my car.

Since I'd found out I was pregnant, I'd put plans on hold to open a second bakery and instead we'd turned the focus to creating a commercial kitchen and selling our bread and cakes in shops around Manchester. This meant a lot of meetings, a lot of research, a lot of visiting commercial kitchens and the last few weeks had been busy, but we'd finally found a space to base our commercial space. I went to my meeting in town with a potential distributor and was back at the bakery just before closing. I helped the girls serve the last few customers today before going into the kitchen and doing some prep for tomorrow. It was the first time in weeks that I hadn't felt sick all day and for some reason, they smell of the fabric in the factory and the smell of the washing up in bakery made me feel 100 times worse. But today, I didn't feel it, so I washed up everything, as I felt bad for not doing it for some time.

"I'll finish up here Faye, you get off home." I said to her when she came into the kitchen with a stack or empty trays to wash.

"Really? You sure?" She asked. I think she knew there was something going on with me over the last few weeks, but I don't think she could put her finger on what it was. I hadn't really been myself since all the stuff happened with Ben.

"Yeah, yeah, you go, enjoy your evening." I told her.

"Craig and I are actually going to the Rover's for a drink, so I'll probably see you in there later." She said. I said goodbye to her and then continued with the washing up. I stacked the dishwasher and got some butter out of the freezer for tomorrow before going into the office. I sat at my computer and replied to some emails for a while before I heard the door out in the shop.

"Hi Mum, I'm almost done." I shouted through. She'd have come to get me to tell me to come home and have a break. Her and Michelle had done nothing else since I found out I was pregnant. I heard the front door shut and then nothing. Mum would have stomped through and pulled me away from my computer, not caring if I'd finished or not. But I didn't hear anything. No rustling of a coat, no footsteps on the floor, nothing.

"Hello?" I called out before standing up from my desk and walking towards the door of the office. I got to the door and saw a woman standing in the middle of the bakery. "Hi, can I help you? I'm afraid we're closed." I said.

"Are you Orla?" she asked.

"Depends who's asking?" I said.

"I'm Lou, Ben's Mum. He said I'd find you here." She told me.

"And what exactly is it you need to find me for?" I asked, cautiously.

"To apologise, to apologise for Ben, for what he put you through. I know he's my son and I should feel for him, having to spend the rest of his life behind bars. But he did an awful thing. To you, to Lena, to Molly and it's now come to light it wasn't the first time either." She said.

"But you don't need to be the one to apologise." I told her.

"Well, my son should be, but I know that he won't. And because I feel partly responsible, I raised him, I brought him up to disrespect women like that, to think it's ok to take his anger out on someone like that." She said.

"I'm sure people don't blame you for what he did." I told her.

"Have you not read what people have written online?" I shook my head. "They think I should have been locked up with him for not raising him better."

"He's an adult, he has to make his own decision and if that's the wrong one, then that's on him." I said to her.

"I bet your parents are proud of you." She said, smiling at me.

"I hope so, my Dad died when I was seven, it was only my Mum really." I told her.

"I bet she is, and I bet your Dad is too, wherever he's watching you from." She said, before the room fell silent. "I'm sorry, I'm not really sure I should have come here. I'll let you get on."

"Wait Lou, thank you for coming and please do remember that this wasn't your fault." I said to her as she opened the front door. She smiled before walking out, the door slamming in the wind behind her.

I waited for a minute in the doorway of the office watching to make sure she didn't come back. As much as she seemed like a nice person, if she found out about the baby, she would be straight to Ben, and he was the last person that I wanted to know. That was why I wanted to keep it quiet for a little longer, I wanted well rid of Ben before anyone found out I was pregnant, so, I hoped no one would ever work out it was his baby.

When I was sure she was gone, I went back into the office and grabbed my stuff before locking up the bakery and walking back home. The pub was busy, so I chucked my things in the back room and then went out into the bar to help Michelle and Mum. Peter must be putting the kids to bed upstairs.

We were so busy that Mum, Michelle and I barely had time for a conversation in between serving customers, so it wasn't until closing when they realised something wasn't right. I was exhausted and after we'd closed and tidied up, all I wanted to do was climb into bed and fall asleep. But Mum and Michelle were stood at the bottom of the stairs.

"Where do you wanna have this conversation?" Mum asked.

"What? What conversation?" I replied.

"Something is going on and you're not going to bed until you've told us Ora." Michelle said. I nodded. There was no hiding stuff from them, they knew me like the back of their hands.

"Fine, in the back room then." I said, turning around and walking in. They both sat down either side of me on the sofa. I told them about Lou coming to visit, and how Ben had said that was where to find me. I told them about how she'd apologised and felt that she'd failed him as a mother.

"But you didn't tell her about the baby, did you?" Mum asked.

"No, no. She would have gone straight to Ben, and I don't want either of them involved. I understand that she's sorry for what he did, but it's not her apology that needs to happen, and even if he did apologise, he would never ever come anywhere near my baby." I told them both. Mum put her arms around me and pulled me into her, kissing my head as she did.

"And neither of them, neither of them will ever come near you or this little one." Michelle said as she reached her hand over and rested it on my stomach. "I think there's a little bump there you know? Someone is growing a bit." I sat up away from Mum and the three of us looked down at my stomach, which had grown a little bit. We sat like that in silence until Mum said,

"You know that I'm not going to be a Grandma, right?"

"Well, you are." I said to her.

"No, I mean, I can't be called Grandma. It's so, so old. It makes me sound old, and I'm not old Orlie."

"You could be a Nana." Michelle joked. Mum scowled at her.

"Or Granny Carla." I added. She scowled again. "I'm kidding, did you have something in mind?"

"Gammy." Michelle said. Mum lightly whacked her around the head.

"Shut up you. I thought either G'ma or Yaya." She told us.

"I think when the baby is young, Yaya will be easy for them to say." I said.

"She's got a point there." Michelle added.

"And what's Chelle gonna be?" Mum asked.

"Well, I had an idea about this." I said.

"Oh yeah, what's that?" Michelle asked.

"Do you remember what I used to call you when I was little?" I enquired.

"Oh no, not Chelley." Michelle said as Mum and I both giggled.

"Oh yes please." Mum said as she laughed.

"Alright fine." Michelle said. The two of them leaned down to my stomach and gently stroked it.

"Hey little one in there, say hello to Yaya and Chelley." I said as the three of us laughed. "I know I'm going to be ok with you two here." I said to them both.

"And me too, I hope." Peter said as he appeared in the doorway.

"Of course." I said, smiling. "Do you want a special name or are you happy with Grandpa?" I asked him. He looked rather shocked.

"You really want me to be Grandpa?" he questioned.

"Of course, I do, this baby is going to need some male influence surrounded by all of these girls." I said as Peter smiled.

"I have always wanted to be called Pops if I were a grandfather." He said, sitting down on the armchair, the beaming smile on his face still there.

"Pops it is then. Pops, Yaya and Chelley, you are the little village to help raise this baby."