Immediately after the fight, Jo had been so angry that she’d decided she never wanted to see her mother again either. But as the days went on, she realized the blame had to be shared. There was a kernel of truth in what had been said, as there always was in the most hurtful things: none of it would have happened if Joanna hadn’t given birth to Ruby in the first place. It took a week for the worst of Joanna’s anger to subside and be replaced once more with pity. She’d persuaded Marianne to give Ruby the space and time she needed. Joanna was convinced that if they did that, she would come home, she would forgive Marianne the way Jo had done. But it hadn’t happened in the twelve months they’d waited patiently. Ruby had just gotten further away.

As the looming apartment blocks appeared in her eyeline, she wondered if it was too late to make any of it right. Ruby had always needed her, not just as a sister. Jo should have admitted that sooner, when her baby was still a child, when it mattered most of all. Now she felt like she was being given a chance to do something to show how much she cared. Whatever Ruby had done, whatever crime, Jo could forgive her. More than that, she knew how she could help her stay out of prison. It was her duty as a police officer to apprehend and arrest suspects, but her duty as a mother came first.