Page 53 of The Happy Family

Suddenly, I don’t feel so down anymore. But that’s always the case when I think of yet another way I can make my life better whilst simultaneously making Sadie’s worse.

I know I wanted that woman dead at one point, but perhaps her being alive is better.

She motivates me to keep pushing to improve my own circumstances.

Where would I be without her? If I’d never met her? If I’d never aspired to have her life?

I guess we’ll never know.

Just like Sadie herself will never know what she forgot after she slipped and banged her head.

THIRTY-SIX

SADIE

I’ve completed another two weeks of rehab and I’m growing stronger by the day. That’s a good feeling, though not quite as good as knowing that I’m continually getting closer to taking my revenge on Luna. But while I still have to wait a little longer, I am hoping to do something today that might help me along with it. But it remains to be seen, though I’ll find out soon enough. I’ll find out in five minutes, to be exact. That’s when I am due to meet with the mysterious Jack, the man who messaged me saying that he wanted to talk about Luna. I replied to him to get more details, and he certainly provided those. He told me how he works as a prison officer and was close to Gemma before she passed. He also told me how he believed everything she said about Luna, and therefore, he’ll believe anything I say about her. I guess he knows some useful things, so we have agreed to meet here in this park at midday. The only thing he doesn’t know is that my memory is not as bad as all the reports have made out, but I will decide if and when to reveal that to him, depending on how our meeting goes and if I deem him to be totally trustworthy. But first things first. I need to lose my parents.

‘Is it okay if I just have some time to myself here?’ I ask Mum and Dad, both of whom have accompanied me from our house to this park, which is only a ten-minute drive from home.

I see them both look at each other, and it’s disconcerting, as if they view me as a child who cannot be left alone in a public place for more than two seconds rather than the adult I actually am.

‘I just want to sit here and think about things,’ I say then, indicating to the nearby bench that I have slowly steered us towards ever since we entered the park. That’s because this is the bench where I have arranged to meet Jack, and he will be here in four minutes from now.

‘We could sit with you,’ Mum suggests, as I should have guessed she would.

‘Come on, let’s give the girl a break,’ Dad says then, coming to my aid. ‘She doesn’t want her mummy and daddy hanging around with her every minute of the day.’

I laugh then as Dad gives me a kiss, and while Mum still looks unsure, I smile to let her know that I really will be fine by myself for a while.

‘There’s a coffee shop just around the corner past the trees,’ I say to them. ‘Why don’t you go and get a drink there and come back here in half an hour?’

‘Sounds like a good idea,’ Dad says, and he links arms with Mum before she can object, leading her away until I am mercifully on my own for the first time in a long time.

I slowly sink down onto the bench and feel the coldness of it seeping through. It’s another frigid winter’s day, but it is dry, so my meeting with Jack won’t be falling foul of the weather. I check my watch and see that he is due here in two minutes, before I glance at my parents, who are now a good distance away. I keep watching them until they disappear around the corner, Mum only looking back at me three times before she vanishes from view. Bless her. She worries about me so much, just like I worry about Arthur and Ruby so much. But as my watch ticks to noon, I start to worry about the more immediate issue.

What is going to come of this meeting with Jack?

I look around the park then to see if I can spot him and, sure enough, I see a solitary male making his way towards the bench. This must be him, and when he gets close enough, he confirms it.

‘Hi, Sadie,’ he says before looking at the space beside me on the bench.

‘Take a seat,’ I tell him and he does just that.

‘Thanks for agreeing to meet me,’ he says. ‘You’re looking well. Considering…’

‘Considering I could be dead or permanently in a coma?’ I add, finishing his sentence for him.

‘Exactly,’ Jack says, not shocked by the seriousness of what I just said, but seemingly expecting it. ‘Not everyone is as lucky as you. Like Gemma, for example.’

In his messages, Jack told me that he had been close to Gemma, but he had never let on it went beyond anything more than a friendly relationship between a prisoner and a prison officer. But looking at him now, I can see it definitely did go beyond that. He clearly had feelings for that woman, and while I’m not sure if he crossed the line and got closer than that to her, I’m not here to get him in trouble with his employer.

I’m here to see if he might be of some help to me when I catch Luna.

So, will he?

‘I’m not sure how much you remember about Luna and whatever was happening between you two before your injury,’ Jack says. ‘But Gemma told me everything. She told me all about your history, and she told me about the message she sent to you on the night of your accident. She also told me that she didn’t believe Luna’s story about you breaking in there and attacking her as if you were some crazy, jealous ex. She told me that you had most likely gone there to try and get your ex-husband and your children away from that woman, but she must have fought back before you got hurt.’

Jack certainly does know a lot, and I can see from his demeanour that he is being honest. Maybe it’s because he is a prison officer and has to be good at reading people too, considering he works in a dangerous environment where things can turn nasty at any moment, but he seems to understand what I have been through. The only thing he doesn’t understand is that I am not as vulnerable as he thinks I am.