‘You didn’t tell me?’
‘Uh, I didn’t think I had to. It wasn’t a big thing. And he’s fine to drive now, only Mum won’t let him. He’s been wearing shades everywhere since the op.’
‘Not the aviators?’
‘Yep. He’s gone fullTop Gun.’
‘Jeez!’
‘I know!’
‘It’s bonnet by the way.’ Joy delved into the bag and disappeared another Percy Pig.
‘What is?’
‘Bee in your bonnet?’
Patti shrugged this off. ‘Yeah, but what are the chances of that happening, you know? Blanket seems more realistic.’
Joy rolled her eyes. ‘What do Mum and Dad even want? Coming here? It’s… it’s…’
Patti shrugged. ‘They want to see you and Rads, I suppose.’
‘But they could see us any time.’
Patti shot her with a stare that saidReally?
‘OK, maybe not, but I don’t understand the rush? Why now? When they couldn’t forgive me before. They’ve just changed? After all these years?’
Patti shifted round, still cross-legged, so she faced her sister, setting down the sushi container and sending Joy into panic.
‘Oh no, what? There’s something wrong with Mum. Is she ill?’
‘No, god no, she’s fine. It’s not that. It’s…’ Patti took a deep breath. ‘I’ve been trying to talk to you about it for ages, but we kept missing each other, and it’s not something I could leave in a voice message or show you in a text or anything.’
‘You’re scaring me, Pats. Just tell me.’
She reached behind her for her backpack, the kind you’d take hiking up a mountain of a weekend, exactly the sort of thing Patti might be doing now if she wasn’t wild-goose-chasing her sister to Devon. She unzipped the bag. ‘Promise you’ll take a few breaths, OK?’ She slowly drew out a foldedEvening Standard, a bit dog-eared, definitely weeks old.
‘What’s this?’ Joy unfolded the newspaper.
‘Page two,’ urged Patti, her eyes fixed on Joy with caution, clearly afraid of how she’d react to whatever this was. ‘It’s good news, honestly, only I didn’t know how to tell you.’
Joy scanned the columns, not understanding. ‘This is all a bit weird isn’t it, Pa—’ She paused. Her mouth fell open.
There he was in black and white, cuffed and being led into a van by two burly court officers. Joy read the headline aloud. ‘Six-year sentence for serial girlfriend swindler, Sean Jackson.’
Joy’s eyes flicked to Patti’s, who looked back gravely, then back to the story. She read at speed under her breath.
‘A man who got off with a twenty-four-month suspended sentence and two hundred hours’ community service five years ago for the crimes of coercive control and bank fraud has today been sentenced to six years’ jail time after being found guilty of, amongst other crimes, forging a girlfriend’s signature multiple times to take out high-interest “pay day” loans she knew nothing about.’
Joy let the paper fold in her lap. ‘Five years ago? So when he disappeared after Radia was born, he was probably in court?’
‘Yep, I guess, and about to do a serious stretch of litter picking.’
Joy scoffed and shook her head. ‘And there was me wondering where the hell he’d disappeared to.’
‘You had no idea the police were after him back then?’
