Oliver stood in the lounge of his third floor flat waiting for his daughter to arrive. It was 6.30 on a Friday evening and she should be there soon.
He was 50 and a very successful lawyer specialising in corporate mergers and take overs. He thought back to earlier in the day when his daughter had called him to ask if she could see him later. She sounded upset but refused to go into any details on the phone and said she would explain everything when she saw him.
As he waited he took stock of his life. He had achieved a first class Law degree at university before being invited to join a very prestigious law firm in the City. He soon started to make a name for himself and advanced within the firm.
He was also helped by meeting, falling in love and marrying the daughter of one of the partners.
They moved into a flat in town and within a year their first daughter Helen was born and 18 months later Claire arrived. Sarah arrived another 12 months later. They settled to family life with Carol staying at home to look after the girls.
About five years later Carol's parents had been killed in a car accident and as an only child she suddenly found herself a wealthy lady. Oliver and Carol moved, with the children, into her large family home in Surrey. They decided to keep the London flat so Oliver could use it if he was working late.
With the sudden change of circumstances and the girls now all being at private schools Carol found she had more and more time on her hands. Before their marriage she had worked in HR and she decided to set up her own business initially from home. Soon she was working harder and harder and she and Oliver only seemed to meet up at weekends and for the occasional holiday.
Whilst they both made sure that the girls wanted for nothing they began to drift apart as a couple. Five years ago whilst initially coming as something of a shock Carol told Oliver that she wanted a divorce as she had found someone else.
They agreed that they would not fight each other over anything as they both wanted to girls to be as happy as possible.
Carol stayed at the house with the girls and Oliver moved into the flat. He made sure that he spoke to them regularly by phone and met and had them to stay with him at least once a month.
A couple of years ago he decided that he wanted to have more space and moved to a new flat in Kensington. This flat had three bedrooms so the girls could have more space when they stayed.
Since the divorce Oliver had had a number of relationships but none lasted more than a couple of months. He now considered himself to be a permanent bachelor
As he sat waiting for Helen he thought about her. She was 19 and had just started at Cambridge where she was reading English.
She was slightly shorter than him with long blonde hair. Even if he said so himself she was a very attractive young lady. At school she was very studious but as she started her A level studies she had met Jack who lived near by the home in Surrey.
Helen had told Oliver that she loved Jack and that they had agreed that when they went to University they would live together. Unfortunately Jack's grades were not high enough for him to take up his place at Cambridge and so he had gone to study at Swansea.
Oliver thought that in many ways this would be a good thing as it would give them time to be sure that they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together.
Suddenly he heard the front door bell ring. He opened the door and let Helen in. He stood see immediately that she was upset and had been crying.
He moved to her and took her in his arms giving her a fatherly kiss on the cheeks.
Looking at her he said, "Darling, you look upset. Go and drop your things in your room, freshen up and whilst your doing that I'll get you a drink."
Helen did as she was told while Oliver went to the kitchen and poured Helen a glass of wine. He also refreshed his own drink before returning to the lounge.
He stood waiting for Helen to come back and when she did she ran to him and threw her arms round his neck before bursting into tears.
He stood trying to comfort her and slowly moved towards a settee. He told her, "Darling sit down and then tell me what's wrong." He had a sudden fear that she was going to tell him that she was pregnant.
Once she was sat down she started to open up her mobile. When she found what she had been looking for she passed the phone to her Father.
Oliver looked at a photo which showed Jack lying naked on a bed with a girl who was also naked.
Helen looked at her father and said, "He said he sent it to me by mistake. Some mistake!"
Oliver looked at his daughter and could feel the hurt coming from her.
"Well at least you now know what sort of lad he really is."
As Helen calmed down she started to unburden herself. She told her father that whilst she had been with Jack she had never let him make love to her although he had tried on several occasions to get her to change her mind.
She had allowed him to touch her breasts and on a couple of times he had placed his hand between her legs which had excited her. She had told Jack that she was old fashioned and wanted to save herself until she was at least engaged and preferably married. Jack had seemed to accept this but from the photo he had sent it was obvious that as soon as he got to Swansea he had other ideas.
Oliver asked her if she had told her mother but so far she hadn't.
After a second glass of wine Oliver asked Helen, "Would you like to go out to eat or we can get something delivered?"
Helen replied, "I'm not very hungry but lets get some Chinese delivered."
It took about 30 minutes for the food to arrive and Helen found she was hungrier than she thought.
She and her father had sat talking whilst they ate finished the first bottle of wine and had started on a second. It had been a long time since they had chatted so openly like this.
Oliver felt that his daughter was calming down and wasn't surprised when at about 9.00 pm she announced that she was feeling tired and would have an early night.
They both got up and Oliver took her in his arms before kissing her good night.
He heard Helen go to her room and shortly after going to the bathroom. Then he heard her shut her bedroom door.
Oliver poured himself another drink and thought about what had happened and hoped that Helen would soon get over this upset.
He had brought home some papers that he needed to read over the weekend and settled down to go through them. He was part way through them but couldn't really concentrate so at 10.00pm he put the television on to catch the BBC News.
There was nothing major happening so quickly turned it off and decided he'd have an early night. As he left the lounge area he passed Helens bedroom. He stopped and listened but didn't hear anything.
He went to his own bedroom and got undressed. He normally slept naked but when the girls were around he kept his boxers on. He used the en-suite before getting into bed.
His mind was still buzzing and he knew he wouldn't get to sleep straight away so he turned on the bedside lights so he could read.
After about ten minutes he heard Helens bedroom door open and he expected her to go to the bathroom. However he then heard a soft knocking on his door.
"Can I please come in daddy?" Helen asked.
