She’d been inching through life ever since. Choosing men for their liquid assets rather than love. Her need for security stemming from the time she had nothing and nobody and the fear of ending up back in that dark place. She’d been lucky in her choices as her husband had been kind and amenable and while theirs hadn’t been an epic love story she had cared for him deeply.

It had been him who had helped her stay off the alcohol permanently. He’d made her see it had to be completely erased from her life otherwise it would always be there waiting to tempt her when she hit a low point. He had been the calm to her storm. Someone she had expected to grow old with. But that wasn’t to be. She saw losing her husband as Karma seeking balance. And yet something had brought Tom into her life and things had changed for a short period but now she was, once again, alone.

A whimper from the puppies brought her back to the present. She’d take them and Rusty back tonight. No need to keep them any longer with Tom gone. Savage would be looking to sell them as soon as he could. She just had one thing she needed to do first.

Maggie spent longer in the loft than she’d planned. Easily distracted by the past, she had lost most of the evening to old photographs and memories. But her search had been fruitful. She took the precious items downstairs, along with some tissue paper and a large envelope.

She laid out the tissue paper and carefully placed the items on it – River’s baby booties, a silver spoon and a crocheted rabbit toy. The toy hadn’t been his favourite. He’d taken that one with him; it had been the only thing that was permitted. She’d kept these things but rarely got them out because it was too upsetting to be reacquainted with what she’d lost. She popped in the few snapshots she had of him too and neatly wrapped up the parcel. She had her photograph in the frame that had pride of place in her sitting room and that was all she needed.

It seemed the right thing to do to send them to River now. She’d hoped one day to be able to sit down with him and share them and their stories but that was never going to happen. This was now the best solution. She took out a pen and paper and wrote the last letter she would ever send him. This time, unlike before, it was easy to write. This was goodbye. She’d been waiting to say this for such a long time and now that she could it was something of a release.