‘You can’t do that, Mum.’

‘No. There’s nothing I can do,’ she said. ‘That’s what breaks my heart. I would swap places with you in a heartbeat, if I could.’

‘I know you would.’

‘I realise you never intended to kill that man,’ she said, as she’d said in every one of her visits. ‘I know you would never have done that. It was pure impulse.’ She smiled ruefully. ‘You always did have a quick temper.’

‘I know, Mum,’ Mia replied.

‘Please, darling, please let Jess come and see you. As soon as you see her, you’ll know she can cope. Please. Do it for me. Then I can close it off.’

Mia shut her eyes, shaking her head a fraction. ‘Okay,’ she said eventually. ‘Okay, let Jess come.’

But as soon as the words were out of her mouth, she already wondered if she’d done the right thing.

Chapter Forty-Four

Mia had been refusing to see Jess, but not because she blamed her sister for being in prison. She had made that decision herself. Rather, Mia worried that any day now Jess would decide to tell the truth. And if her sister saw her here, there was a greater chance of that happening.

Mia had often wondered if, deep down, her mum knew the truth, or at least suspected it. She had seen a flash of something in her eyes that she hadn’t understood at first, but later realised it was the same look her mum used to give them as children. When she knew one of her daughters was lying.

It broke Mia’s heart that her mum thought she could do something like start the fire, but at the same time it would break her heart to think Jess had. It was a no-win situation.

Mia glanced around the room, at every other woman waiting for her visitor to arrive.

She had no idea what to expect when she saw her sister. She didn’t want to talk about the night of the fire, though; she wanted Jess to tell her more about her life now: what she was doing, how much she was enjoying living again. Mia wanted to see the life back in her sister’s eyes.

Still she knew it was a lot to ask, as she watched the first three visitors making their way in, catching her breath when she caught sight of Jess, a security guard holding open the double doors for her.

Mia lifted her hand in a wave, but when Jess turned, it wasn’t just life that Mia saw in her eyes.

Jess paused when she saw her, her face open, a small smile on the edge of her lips. She blinked once and inhaled a deep breath before she began moving again. All the time she didn’t look away from Mia.