When he regained consciousness, there was a small group of faces staring down at him. For one glorious moment, he forgot why they would be making such a fuss, until her face flashed before him. His little girl, smiling at him, laughing and then gone. Gone because of what he had done. Damned before she was even born. Dead so he could live. He had saved himself, and in doing so sacrificed his only child. The pain of the thought was too much to bear and he felt the room begin to swirl and the darkness descend again. He had to get up. He had to get out of here. He had to go to her. He pulled himself up with the help of the chair and a bejewelled arm, and started to walk towards the staircase. He held the banister and stumbled and staggered his way to the bottom. He fell through the front doors and arrived into a beautiful summer evening. He looked to the sky and didn’t understand. He didn’t understand how the sun could still shine. How could the sun shine when all the light had left his world? He walked into the gardens and fell to his knees in the dirt of the shrubbery. He tore at his shirt. He called her name. He screamed her name! He begged her to hear him, but she didn’t answer his cry.

When the ringing in his head had subsided, it was replaced by a buzzing in his chest. Then the buzzing in his chest stopped for a second and started again. It stopped and started three more times, before his brain collated it was the phone in his jacket pocket vibrating against him. He searched in his pocket to find it. He readied himself to throw it as far away as he could. He looked at the screen through raw eyes and snapped to his senses - MAGGIE!

He pushed the green button and slapped the phone to his ear.

‘How could you do it? You’re my sister, for fuck’s sake. She was my child. How could you do that to Annie? Do you hate me that much? You evil bitch - you’ll get what’s coming….’

She tried to speak, but he wouldn’t let her.

‘Where are you hiding? I’m coming to get you. You better hope the police get to you first!’

She was shouting now, screaming and crying down the phone. He paused.

‘Will you calm down and listen for a minute?’

He didn’t want to listen to her, not to her reasons and her pathetic excuses.

‘I won’t listen to you. Where are you?’

She was bellowing now.

‘It’s Maggie! It’s Maggie!’

He didn’t want to hear her name. She killed his child. She may not have been the one to do it but she was as guilty as Jack, or Liam.

‘I don’t want to hear your name ever again, you evil bitch. I never want to hear your name again!’

There was silence on the other end of the line, and then she spoke through her tears.