‘I’ll have what you’re having,’ she said, and he rubbed his hands together. ‘A feast for two.’ She sat in the window looking around at all the people eating burgers and talking amongst themselves. Are any of them heading to prison? she thought. Probably just me. It seemed so surreal. What are you doing, Molly? she asked herself, and she didn’t have the answer. She just wanted the pain and anguish to go away. Sergeant Fogarty arrived back to the table with a tray laden with food: two Big Macs, two fries, two six-piece chicken nuggets, two curry sauces and two chocolate milkshakes.

‘You’ll die in your sixties if you keep eating like this,’ she said.

‘Then I’ll die happy,’ he said, sharing out the food.

She was hungry; she only realised it when she was biting into a burger. It tasted good, like dessert dressed up as a main meal. ‘I haven’t eaten McDonald’s since the early nineties,’ she said.

‘Why’s that?’

‘No idea, it just didn’t occur to me.’

‘Do you want me to talk you through the procedure inside the jail?’

‘No,’ she said.

‘It can be invasive.’

‘Bringing three kids into the world is invasive.’

Sorry.

‘Molly—’ he said seriously, and she knew another lecture was forthcoming so she cut him off at the pass.

‘Chocolate milkshakes are my new favourite thing,’ she said, and he nodded. He didn’t try to intervene again. Instead they ate their way through a ton of food and she watched him finish his milkshake, while watching the clock. It was approaching five.

He drove her to the jail and parked up outside the reception door.

‘Tomorrow you’ll get into the van and go back to court and you’ll say that you’re sorry,’ he said.

‘Do you think?’

‘I do.’

‘Why’s that?’

‘Because whatever’s going on in your head, it’s not just about you. You’ve a family and friends waiting to get you home.’

‘I’m a stubborn old fool,’ she said.

‘So was my ma.’

‘But you loved her anyway.’

‘I did,’ he said, and he put on his hat and got out of the car. ‘Now let’s see about getting you locked up.’

Sorry.

Molly followed him through the reception doors and through the scanners and into the door on the right. There was a female prison officer waiting for her.

‘This is where I say goodbye,’ he said.

‘Thank you,’ Molly said.

‘Thank me by apologising to that haughty fuck on the bench tomorrow,’ he said, tipping his hat.

He left her alone with the woman, who introduced herself as Martina. ‘Now I’m sorry but I’m going to have to ask you to strip,’ she said, and Molly may have delivered three children, but she realised she was not prepared for this at all.

So sorry.

Chapter Seventy-Eight: Jack

Chapter Seventy-Eight

Jack