‘Call me if you need anything, okay?’

‘I have to go now.’ Claire hung up abruptly and tried Chris’s number. She wasn’t surprised when he didn’t answer. Opening a new message, she typed out the latest update.

Joshua about to be arrested. Call me now.

She didn’t need to wait long. Less than a minute later and her phone rang, Chris’s name flashing up on the screen. She picked it up.

‘Claire – what the hell is going on? I thought Julia was on it?’

‘Joshua is going to have to go in and give his side of the story. There’s a new witness who has come forward.’ Claire felt the steel in her tone, drawing upon every inch of self-control she had not to blast him. Selfish shit.

‘What? No! I thought it was being sorted!’

Chris sounded scared. He should be.

Claire didn’t respond and then the silence was broken with the words Claire had felt like she’d been waiting to hear forever.

‘I’m coming home,’ said Chris.

Claire hung up and went to her son’s room to wake him up with the news that his life would never be the same again.

43

‘It was freezing outside but once we left the club, Rose’s friend left with Armin. Rose was pretty pissed off and was screaming at her down the street that she was a bitch. I thought her friend would come back and there would be a catfight, but she kept on walking. Good job too the state Rose was in. We all tried to calm Rose down, but it took a while, then we tried to get taxis to go the party but there weren’t any, so we ended up walking. It took like fifteen minutes, maybe less. Personally, I thought it was a good thing – give Rose some fresh air and a chance to calm down and at that point, I was ready to just go home, but Rose was still pretty upset.

‘When we arrived at the party, it was already well underway and although Rose was pretty hammered, she seemed to get a second wind. I don’t know – maybe she took a booster or something. She immediately started dancing in the living room and Lee went to get some drinks. One of the floppy-haired guys started dancing with Rose, but she seemed irritated by him. He kept trying to put his arms around her and she kept moving out of them. And then Lee came and handed them some drinks. Rose started dancing with Lee and that’s when another argument started…’

May 2018

44