‘How the hell else am I supposed to take this?’ she shouted again.

‘Jesus, Sarah!’ Now Michael’s voice was raised. ‘Would you ever stop hearing what you want to hear and just bloody listen!’

Sarah was taken aback. In almost two years she had very rarely raised her voice in an argument. But it was something Michael had never done, and so his shout broke through her anger. It made her consider for the first time how hard this decision must have been for him.

‘I’m all that boy has,’ he continued, now in a gentler tone. ‘I’m all that’s standing between him and a life sentence for a murder he didn’t commit. There is nothing I can do to add to your safety. Nothing. But if I leave Simon Kash now his trial will fall apart, and all the progress we’ve made on the evidence will be gone and probably never achieved again. How can I run, Sarah? How can I run and hide when I know that’s the cost?’

Sarah hated what she was hearing. Both because it left Michael at risk and because she already knew she could not change his mind. One of the traits she most loved about the man was the strength of his convictions. The same strength that was now going to tear him from her.

She sat down heavily as Michael’s argument span through her mind. Back and forth. Right and wrong. She reached out for another cigarette. Another attempt to calm herself before speaking.

‘OK,’ she finally said, having taken time to form her argument. ‘I understand that you think you need to do this. And that Anne and I will be safe. But he could get near you. They can’t protect you if you insist on putting yourself out there.’

Michael smiled sadly.

‘I can’t let that stop me from doing what I have to do. Believe me, sweetheart, if you were put in any kind of danger by my decision then I would drop everything and I would run with you. But you’re not. You’re safe. Both of you are safe. Which just leaves me, and if I’m the only one at risk then I can’t abandon Simon Kash. Derek wouldn’t have. Derek would have stayed and he would have fought for the boy. But the boy doesn’t have Derek anymore. The boy has me. And if I do less than Derek would have done – if I run when he would have stayed – then I wouldn’t be the man you thought I was.’

‘Oh screw the man I thought you were, Mikey!’ Sarah could see that he would not be swayed. That his decision was final. Tears stained her cheeks as she fought the inevitable. ‘I’d rather I had a man who hid and lived than one who stayed and died. Screw principles.’

‘You don’t mean that, Sarah. And if I did it, well, you couldn’t live with it any easier than me.’

‘Shouldn’t I at least get the chance to test that? To see if I could live with it? Because it’s a whole lot less final than the alternative.’