It is a heartfelt speech from Connor and I’m wavering. Split with indecision. That Stretch Armstrong doll again. But what he said strikes a chord and suddenly I am incredulous that I ever thought this was a good idea. I am ashamed. Mortified at what I have done. Desperately searching for a way to put everything right. Wondering if my children, my husband, will ever forgive me, trust me.

Love me.

Connor has stopped speaking and is crying. Calling my name and rushing over to me with his arms wide open to hug me. I raise my hands to hug him back but he has reached me before I can position myself correctly. Before I have realized that I am still holding the scalpel in my hand. There’s a slight pressure against his skin, a tear.

His blood is warm as it spills over my hand.

Connor crumples to the floor. I raise my face to Aidan who seems to be moving in slow motion towards us.

I hear someone screaming.

I think it is me.

Part Three

Chapter Ninety-Two

Connor

Eight months later

The pain in his side makes Connor wince, the stitches have dissolved and he is healing but it still throbs. It was worth it though, to donate a piece of his liver to his brother. The second he had turned eighteen, Connor knew that was what he wanted to do and the surgery went well. Kieron is recovering and will be healthier than he has been for a long time. For that Connor is grateful.

He will have two scars now. The one from the operation and the one from the scalpel that had pierced his skin. It wasn’t Mum’s fault but still, he was lucky it missed his vital organs. Connor barely remembers it, the blood, the confusion. He has blocked it out.

‘Hey.’ There is a banging on his bedroom door. It’s Tyler. Tyler’s mum chose to stay with Liam, her boyfriend, and so he has been living with them – it’s almost like having another sibling. Not a replacement for Catherine – Tyler’s too butt ugly for that – but he brings a warmth to the house. A new sense of home.

Connor will miss Tyler when he heads off to uni in September. Connor has deferred his own place for a year. He thought about giving up completely on his dreams, but after everything that happened with Mum, he is more determined than ever to one day find the cure for diseases so no one feels the fear and the desperation his mum must have felt to even contemplate performing a transplant.

He’s trying to forgive her.

But often he wakes in the night, nightmares raking him with sharpened nails. A chilled voice whispering in his ear, The Taken.