The Passengers(85)

Her mother Penny broke the silence. ‘Are you okay?’ she asked.

‘Yes, why?’

‘Because I’ve barely heard a peep from you all afternoon.’

‘I think I’m all talked out to be honest. I’ve pleaded guilty, now I just want this to be over.’

‘You just need to be a little more patient. You had to let your solicitor do her thing and explain your, oh, what’s it called?’

‘Mitigating circumstances.’

‘Yes, them. Fingers crossed the magistrate will be sympathetic and not want to make an example of you. She looks friendly, doesn’t she? I still think you should have pleaded not guilty though.’

‘And gone to trial? It’s not fair to put the kids under that level of scrutiny after what they’ve been through. Besides, I’d be saying I did nothing wrong and they’ve heard enough lies from their dad to last them a lifetime. They need to know that they have at least one parent who will step up and admit when they’ve done wrong.’

‘The Crown Prosecution Service had no right in charging you. How can this be in the public interest?’

‘Because I’m still public property. If the CPS hadn’t acted, they’d be accused of bias.’

‘Why are you always defending them?’

Heidi shook her head. ‘I’m not, but Mum, I did it; the world knows I did it. I was a police officer who blackmailed her husband and accessed highly sensitive data on a police computer for my own ends.’

‘I don’t care. That bastard husband of yours deserves every bit of misery you put him through. He should’ve been sent to prison for marrying another woman. In my eyes, a slap on the wrist and a suspended sentence isn’t justice.’

‘You have to let it go. What’s done is done. I’ve moved on and I don’t recognise that scorned ex they keep portraying me as in the papers.’

Suddenly, a shadow alerted them to someone’s presence. They turned to look up, and both were surprised to see Sam.

‘Heidi, can I have a moment …’ he began.

‘Speak of the devil,’ snapped Penny clambering to her feet. ‘You can bugger off and leave my daughter alone.’

‘It’s okay,’ Heidi replied.

‘No, it’s not.’ She jabbed at Sam’s chest with her finger. ‘You’ve destroyed her life, her career …’

‘Mum, you’re causing a scene,’ continued Heidi, rising to her feet. ‘Look.’

Penny glanced around her. The corridor had become hushed as spectators watched husband and wife together for the first time since the hijacking of their vehicles. Some brandished phones and others used their glasses to record what they were witnessing. ‘Go on, mind your own business,’ Penny chided and tried to shoo them away.

‘Just give me five minutes, then I’ll go away,’ Sam continued.

Heidi pointed to an empty side room further along the corridor. ‘Over there.’

As the door closed behind them, she removed her sunglasses and took him in. He hadn’t put the weight back on that he’d lost throughout the period she was blackmailing him. His temples were greyer and his receding hairline and balding crown had almost connected. She noted the plain, silver band on his wedding ring finger. Throughout their marriage he had refused to wear a ring, claiming he wasn’t a jewellery kind of person. She assumed he had told Josie the same thing. Now they were apart, he only had one wife to answer to and she assumed he was placating her. When he saw her eyes upon it, he moved his hand behind his back.

When Heidi looked at Sam, she didn’t see the man she was once in love with, only the one who had wounded her so deeply. All conversations since their release from their vehicles had been through lawyers. She knew that one day they would come face-to-face again but she wouldn’t have invited it. Now he was here, it wasn’t as awful as she imagined. She felt nothing for him.

‘I’m sorry to just turn up but you wouldn’t answer my calls or reply to my emails and I didn’t want to say this through our solicitors. But it’s important you know how sorry I am. I never meant for any of this to happen.’

‘You know what, I’ve come to understand that I don’t think you meant it to happen either. You’re not a bad person, Sam, you’re just a stupid, selfish, gutless one.’

‘That’s fair,’ he replied.

‘How is Josie?’

‘She’s okay; a bit weak these past few days, but doing well. The scar is healing and she finished her final round of chemo on Monday.’

‘I’m glad. And you and her?’ It felt peculiar asking her husband about the woman in his life, but it didn’t upset her.

‘We’re working on it. We’re in therapy.’

‘Wow,’ laughed Heidi, ‘you really are a new man, aren’t you?’

‘When all this is over, she would like to meet you, properly this time.’

‘I’m not sure …’

‘It would mean a lot to her. I think she just wants to reassure you that she didn’t know anything about you. And I know you don’t owe me anything but it would mean a lot to me too if you’d consider it.’

‘Let me think about it.’

‘Thank you. Have you heard anything about your job yet?’