It was the Easter Holidays for the girls when I was sat in the office of the bakery, with Tala on my lap and Ella on the sofa playing on her tablet. Isla was with Michelle and Rosie at a birthday party in town.
"Orla, there's someone here to see you." Faye called through to the office from the bakery. I lifted Tally off my lap and put her on the sofa beside Ella and walked through to the bakery, where the two police officers from Ben's case were stood by the door.
"Miss Connor, is it alright if we have a quick word, in private?" DI James asked. I knew them both by name now as I'd had so many interviews with them over the past few months.
"Yeah, yeah of course, we can go into the kitchen. My sisters are in the office, and I'd rather leave them out of this. Faye, would you keep an ear out for them." I said, leading them both through to the kitchen. No one was in there, so we had the room to ourselves.
"We wanted to let you know in person that Mr Lewis' plea hearing took place today and he has pleaded guilty to all charges. He will be sentenced next Tuesday. We're hoping that with a manslaughter charge as well as the possession of a highly dangerous weapon that he will get life." DI Morden told me.
"Ok, right ok, wow, I wasn't him expecting to plead guilty. I thought we'd be going through months of a trial, but wow. And what about Alex?" I asked, in shock at what they'd just told me.
"His case is slightly more complicated as he's been connected to some other acid attacks in the area in recent months." DI James said.
"Ok, well thank you for coming to tell me. I really appreciate it." I said to them before I showed them out of the kitchen and back through the bakery, where Mum was stood chatting to Faye.
"Hey, everything alright?" Mum asked after the police officers had both left.
"Yeah, yeah, I'll tell you later." I said to her. "Are you taking the girls home? I need to get to this meeting in town."
"Yeah, I'll take them home. Ella, Tally let's go girlies." She called through to the office. I went in and got them out while I grabbed my things to go to my meeting. While Mum took the girls over to the pub, I walked across the road to my car. I could see Mum watching me as I got to the car. I know she was worried. She had been, ever since all of this stuff happened with Ben.
When I got home that evening, it was late. I'd met up with a few of my netball friends in town for tea after my meeting before going home to the pub. It was Friday night, so it was busy in there. Michelle and Peter were behind the bar with Liz.
"Back room you now." Michelle shouted across the pub when she saw me walk in the front door. I rolled my eyes as I walked through the pub and round the back of the bar. The door of the back room was open, and I could see Mum sat on the sofa talking to someone. Grandma must be here I thought to myself. I hung my bag on the banister before walking into the back room.
"Orlie, this girl, Molly's here to see you." Mum said as she stood up and put her hand on my shoulder. "I'll leave you to it. I'll be in the bar, ok?" she said, squeezing my shoulder and then leaving the room, shutting the door behind her.
"Hi Orla, sorry to disturb you so late like this, it's just I have been searching for weeks to try and find you and I finally found an article in the press about you working at that bakery across the road. A lady told me I'd find you here. I'm not even sure you remember me." She began, as we both sat down on the sofa.
"No, no, I remember you, you're the girl from the club, you're Lena's friend. I'm really sorry, for Ben, for what he did to Lena." I said.
"It's not your fault, you don't need to apologise for what he did." She said. "I just wanted to come, wanted to find you to check you were safe. Ben treated Lena awfully and I just wanted to make sure the same didn't happen to you."
"I'm fine, honestly, I'm fine." I assured her.
"There's something else." She began before taking a deep breath. "We're having a memorial for Lena next week, I know you didn't really know her, but I just thought, I don't know, that you'd like to come. But if you don't want to then no worries at all."
"No, I'd like to come. You're right, I didn't know her but I wish I had, she really cared about me and she didn't even know who I was." I said.
"Ok, I'll give you my number and then text you the details." She got her phone out of her bag and then handed it to me. I wrote my number down in her phone as she stood up from the sofa. I handed it back to her and walked her out to the door.
"Thank you for coming Molly." I said, "I really do appreciate it."
"That's ok, I just wish it was in better circumstances." She said as I opened the door. She walked out and I watched her walk across the yard to the gate and then out. As I watched, Mum walked behind me and put her hands on my shoulder, resting her head there too.
"Hey, you ready to have a chat now?" she whispered before I shut the door. I turned around and Mum pulled me into a hug. "I've got you my girl, Mumma's got you. Come on, let's get a cuppa and have a cuddle." She led me into the back room and while I sat on the sofa, Mum went through to the kitchen to make a cuppa.
On Tuesday of the next week, it marked two months since Lena had died, which also meant it had been two months since the acid attack. I came home from work at the factory early that day and spent forever in my bedroom trying to find the right thing to wear. Black felt sad, too like death and I didn't want that, but everything else felt too bright and loud and disrespectful. Eventually, while Michelle was giving the kids a bath, she helped me decide on a navy-blue dress with little yellow patterns on it. I put on a pair of black boots and my favourite black jacket.
Mum was downstairs in the bar with Peter when I left, and she wished me luck and kissed my head before I left out of the front door of the pub. I drove into town, where the memorial was being held. I recognised the two police detectives stood outside and I said hello to them both before going into the town hall.
Molly was stood surrounded by girls who looked around her age. None of them were wearing black. Thank God, I thought to myself as Molly saw me and came over to say hello. She introduced me to a few of her and Lena's friends before we all sat down and people began to share stories of Lena and how much they loved her, how important she was in their lives and all of the things she'd achieved. It was sad, even for someone who only met her once, to hear so many people in one room share stories about someone who was loved by so many people. It was hard to hear. Hard to listen to people who felt so much pain of a friend or relative or colleague. It was hard when Lena's younger brother stood up and talked about his sister. I thought about the girls, about how closed off Isla would become if something happened to me, about Ella's little face when Mum told her, about Tally crying for hours in the hope I'd come back. I didn't feel right to cry, I didn't know Lena and all of the people here were bawling but I didn't have the right, but thinking about the girls, that brought a tear to my eye. Everyone shared their stories and then we lit candles in the town hall and let off some balloons outside.
When I got home that night, Mum and Chelle were waiting in the back room for me. Peter was closing the bar as I sat down on the sofa between them.
"How was it?" Chelle asked as Mum put her arms around me.
"It was alright. It was sad, I felt awful. I wanted to cry, I felt sad, and I wanted to cry but I felt wrong because I didn't know her, I didn't lose my friend. And then her little brother stood up and talked about her and I thought about the girls and-" I said, beginning to cry.
"Hey, hey, don't upset yourself." Mum interrupted as she pulled my head into the crook of her neck. Michelle lent over and stroked my forehead. "You're alright. Hey, you're alright." She whispered.
"But I could have not been ok. He so easily could have done that to me, and it could have been me that was buried in the ground instead of Lena." I said to them both. Mum pulled me tighter into her as she kissed my head.
"But he didn't Orlie, and now he will be in prison for the rest of his life, and he is never ever going to hurt you." Mum said as she wiped the tears from my face
"I know you feel guilty Ora. I know you feel like it was your fault, what happened to Lena and you feel like you could have done something to stop Ben, but you could never have known what he would do, no one could, except his friend and neither of them could have been stopped by anyone." Michelle said.
"Not even our super little Orlie." Mum added. "And we, me and Chelle, your biggest protectors,"
"And your biggest cheerleaders." Chelle added.
"We are never ever going to let anybody hurt you." Mum said, "Because we love you always."
