Page 7 of Unsuitable

My heart pounding, I continue to follow Officer Roman. I wait while she unlocks the gate, and then she takes me through, heading toward the reception area.

I haven’t seen this part of the prison since I arrived here.

I look out through the window. My heart pounds with equal measures of nerves and excitement.

I’m getting out of here. I’m getting my life back.

The life that was stolen from me.

Officer Kendall hands me a plastic carrier bag. “The things you came in with,” she tells me.

Opening the bag, I look inside.

My old phone that no longer works, a used lip gloss, my purse. I pick my purse out and open it. Inside is a twenty pound note.

I have twenty pounds to my name.

Sigh.

I spy my old house keys in the bottom of the carrier bag. I touch my fingers to them. The keys to my old home. The home I no longer have.

Tears prick my eyes. I blink them back.

“You okay, Daisy?” Officer Roman asks me.

Swallowing past my emotions, I nod my head and drop my purse back into the carrier bag.

“You know where you’re going from here?” she asks me.

“Yep.” I look at her. “I go straight to London Probation Service to see my probation officer…” I stall, trying to recall his name.

“Toby Willis,” she fills in for me. “Toby will determine the terms of your release and give you details of the hostel where you’ll be staying.”

“You mean, I’m not staying at the Ritz?”

I give her a look of mock-horror, and she laughs.

“Come on, comedian, let’s get you out of here.”

The officer inside the reception room buzzes us through. I follow behind Officer Roman as she leads me to the door that will take me out of here.

I watch, my heart hammering in my chest, as the final door opens.

I’m free.

I take in a deep breath. A lungful of free air.

I know it sounds stupid, but the air just feels better out here. Cleaner, fresher. Better than the air I was breathing behind those high walls that kept me prisoner for so long.

I take my first step toward freedom.

“I don’t want to see you in here ever again.” Officer Roman’s voice comes from behind me.

I glance back at her. “You won’t ever see me again; that’s a promise.”

A smile works its way onto her hard mouth. “Good. And good luck, Daisy. I hope everything works out for you.”

Yeah, me, too.