‘The police haven’t been called. They won’t be unless a law has been broken. If you’re all saying, including Hailey, that she stumbled over a pothole then no one is at fault. If she changes her story, if it turns out you were able to easily access somewhere you shouldn’t have been, then the centre will potentially be investigated for breaching health and safety regulations, but I really can’t see it being taken any further. I’d say in the great scheme of things you’ve all been very lucky.’ She gave Connor that look. The look he’d seen a thousand times before. The ‘I know you’ve been eating biscuits before dinner’ look. The ‘I know it was you who broke my favourite mug’ look. The look that told him she knew that he was lying. The look that always shamed him.

The following morning, Mum took his hand. He couldn’t remember the last time she’d done that, not since he’d begun shaking her off after he’d left primary.

‘Mum?’

He looked to her to tell him everything was all right even though he knew from the expression on her face, from the way she was squeezing his fingers, that it wasn’t.

‘Mum?’ he asked again, more urgently this time.

‘I’m so sorry, Connor. There’s… there’s no easy way to say this.’ But she didn’t say anything.

He searched his mum’s face for a clue both wanting and not wanting to know.

‘Hailey…’ Mum faltered. ‘Hailey had a stroke last night. She had an underlying condition that I didn’t know about—’

‘But she’s okay, right?’

‘It was quite severe, Connor.’

‘She’s… she’s not…’

Mum’s hand was clammy around his. ‘She’s alive, but in intensive care. She’s unconscious right now. It’s hard to ascertain the extent of any… damage until she wakes up. If she wakes up. Connor, I am so, so sorry.’ Connor couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen his mum cry. She swiped away her tears.

‘Why are you so sorry? Is this your fault?’ He lashed out, angry and afraid.

‘No. But… she had high blood pressure and I didn’t know at the time that hypertension ran in her family. It’s usual for patients scared and in pain to have high blood pressure. I didn’t think it was odd. Had I known that Hailey had a family history of hypertension I might have… but unfortunately there’s no predicting this sort of complication.’

‘It’s not a fucking complication! This is Hailey’s life!’ Connor snatched his hand away. ‘You were her surgeon!’ Connor passed the baton of blame, unable to bear the weight of it any longer.

‘Connor… I… I did everything right. I promise you—’