Page 41 of Forgive Not Forget
Katherine avoided her eye. On closer inspection, she could see why.
“Katherine, look at me.” Anna placed her hand on Katherine’s face and tilted it towards her. Her gaze was met with a set of puffy, red eyes. “Why have you been crying?”
Katherine reached out. Instead of coming to Anna for a hug as she was expecting, Katherine snatched the letter from Rebecca’s hand and shoved it back into the bin.
“It’s nothing.”
The smell of whisky on Katherine’s breath caught Anna by surprise.
“Hardly,” Rebecca chimed in, reaching back into the bin to extract the letter. She took a couple of steps back, out of Katherine’s reach, and then passed the letter to Anna. “Read it.”
Taking the nearest stool, Anna sat and devoured the letter. She barely understood it but knew it was from the prison. She reread it more carefully, noticing out the corner of her eye that Katherine had sat beside her and was reaching for a glass of whisky.
She put the letter down, unable to fully take it in, and looked to Rebecca. “Can you just explain it to me please, in layman’s terms?”
Rebecca sat opposite her and topped up the glass of champagne left abandoned earlier by Katherine. She gestured the bottle towards Anna.
Anna declined. One of them needed to keep a clear head.
Rebecca took a couple of large swigs before answering.
“It’s called restorative justice. It’s a programme that brings together the offender of a crime and the victim in the hope that opening the lines of communication can assist in the rehabilitation of the offender. The idea is to bring closure for the victim, or at the least… some answers.”
“Kat doesn’t have to do it, though, if she doesn’t want to?” Anna asked, sensing this was what had drawn the tension into the room. She reached out and placed a hand over Katherine’s, pleased that it earned her a faint smile in return. She’d never pushed Katherine for details before regarding Helena’s death. She’d always been led by her willingness to talk about it, which was rare, and all Anna could do was respect those wishes.
Rebecca shook her head. “It can be requested at any time by either party, and it seems that it has been requested… and it arrives today of all days.”
Katherine’s head snapped in the direction of Rebecca.
“What’s today?” Anna asked, her eyes darting between the two of them as they glared at one another.
“It’s the anniversary,” Rebecca answered softly.
Anna closed her eyes and exhaled.Idiot!How could she have forgotten such an important date? “Why didn’t you remind me this morning? Oh, Kat, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have needed reminding, should I?”
“I didn’t want you to remember; I didn’t want to remember. I just wanted to get through the day, no fuss,” Katherine replied, wiping tears that sat in her eyes. “I’m sorry I’m such a mess. I just want it to go away, and I’m really trying —”
Anna stood and pulled Katherine’s trembling body into hers, rubbing her hand soothingly up and down her arm.
“I don’t want to go, Anna. Please don’t ask me to.”
“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.”
Her reply earned her a glare from Rebecca before she turned her attention to Katherine. “The fact that it is still too hard to talk about tells me you aren’t over it, Kat. Take this opportunity!”
“How many times… I’m not going.”
Anna pondered interjecting. Arguing wasn’t going to get them anywhere, and she feared for Katherine’s emotional state.
“It could help!” Rebecca slammed her hands on the work surface.
“Or it could make things worse!”
“How? How can it make things worse than this? It’s already preventing you from having children.”
Silence cut through the air like an executioner’s blade.
Anna blinked and pulled back from Katherine. “What?”
