Page 22 of The Happy Family

I’ll be sure not to thank my previous employer for that.

‘I need to get to work and you need to leave me alone,’ I say, turning to go again, but the man has more to say.

‘I understand that this might sound hard to believe, but please, you’re the only one in a position to find out for sure. Gemma is behind bars and Sadie is unconscious. That leaves you who can get close enough to Luna to find out if she is hiding something.’

‘She is not hiding anything,’ I say before I storm away.

Despite going into my office building, taking the elevator up to my floor and settling down into my chair, there is no chance of me getting any work done.

Not now I’m worrying that there might be something to what that man just said.

It would be easy to dismiss Gemma’s conspiracy theory that Luna framed her for the fire because she is a desperate woman who has to blame somebody. That’s why I dismissed it when I first heard it back at the prison many months ago. Now I think about what the man said. Specifically, about how both Gemma and Sadie are now in positions where they are unable to pursue their suspicions of Luna.

Is that a coincidence?

Or by design?

I wish I could focus on work. If I could, I wouldn’t be thinking a troubling thought.

I wouldn’t be thinking about how I might have to look at Luna a little closer than I have done so far.

That’s what Gemma wants me to do.

But can I do it?

FOURTEEN

GEMMA

Life behind bars is as miserable as any free person would imagine it is. But there are two ways that a prisoner can pass the time a little easier in here.

One, have a goal, and I certainly have that as I continue to try to prove my innocence and simultaneously find a way to explain how Luna could have been behind it all.

Two, find a little romance in the midst of this grim place.

As I sit in the common area where several of my fellow prisoners spend what free time we are allowed outside of our cells, I glance across the prison wing and see the man who has brought joy to my very dark life in here. His name is Jack, and the only reason he is present in this all-female prison is because he is not a prisoner. He is one of the prison officers here, part of the team responsible for ensuring this section of the prison stays under control. I took a liking to him as soon as I saw him, noting how he was much younger and far more handsome than the other officers tasked with watching over us. It was only when I noticed him taking a liking to me too that I realised there might be a way to make my time in here more bearable.

Yes, it’s against the rules for a prisoner and a prison officer to become involved with one another. But it’s also against the rules for somebody to frame another person for arson, and that happened to me, so why should I worry about rules?

As I stay in my seat by the pool table, where a couple of prisoners by the names of Sharon and Stacey play yet another game while we all watch, I keep looking over at Jack. When I do, I see him looking over at me several times, although we are both wise enough to not do anything too obvious in a public place like this one to alert anyone to the fact that we are romantically involved.

Our fling began when Jack entered my cell one morning to conduct a routine search. Just one of the many joys of being locked up in here with all your freedom and privacy stripped away. But while he conducted his fairly demanding and dull task, looking for any contraband in a place where there was none, he spoke to me. Not in the condescending, demeaning, or just downright rude way the other prison officers do. But in a caring way, as if he actually saw the human through the prison uniform and was treating me as such.

He asked me about my life on the outside. What I did before I came in here. I told him I was a solicitor. He said that was interesting. I said he obviously didn’t know what a solicitor did. We both laughed. I realised it was the first time I had laughed since I had been sent here for a crime I didn’t commit. After that, I found myself wanting to laugh again, which meant I wanted to be around Jack. Thankfully, this is a small wing, so I saw him plenty of times, in the canteen, the common area, and the prison laundrette where I work. It was during one of my shifts in the laundrette when we found ourselves alone, the other prisoners in the other room, surrounded by loud laundry rumbling away in the machines. It was too loud for us to hold a proper conversation, but as we looked at one another, it felt obvious that talking was the last thing we wanted to do.

Jack looked over his shoulder to make sure nobody was around and then he pulled me close.

We kissed.

I felt happiness and hope for the first time since my life was turned upside down.

And then our lips parted and I knew I couldn’t wait to be alone with Jack again.

The problem is, prison is not the best place to grow a relationship, so my private times with Jack have been fleeting. Stolen moments in my cell or the laundrette that barely last seconds, but seconds are better than nothing. But while we can’t be intimate with one another in view of the other prisoners and prison officers, we can talk. There are no rules against that. It’s during those conversations that I have explained to Jack what I believe has happened to me. How I believe that a woman called Luna, the current girlfriend of a man I was once interested in having an affair with, has framed me and also put another woman in a coma. Jack believes me and he has proven it by doing the favour I asked of him. He has spoken to Reid on the outside for me. I know that based on the nod he just gave me. Now all I need to know is how that conversation went.

I get up from my chair and casually walk over to the side of the common room where Jack stands. I’m ambling slowly, making it appear like I’m just stretching my legs rather than purposely seeking out a particular person. But eventually, I make it to the corner where Jack stands in his full prison officer’s uniform with a big bunch of keys hanging from his belt, and I let out a fake yawn.

‘Tired?’ Jack asks.