Chapter 14
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.
‘Yeah. Didn’t sleep well. Noise from the other cells.’
‘Yeah, I heard it was noisy last night.’
The reason we are making chit-chat is because there is another officer standing within earshot of us. But he either gets bored of the mundane things we are talking about or has some business to attend to elsewhere because he moves after a minute, leaving Jack and me to truly talk.
‘I spoke to Reid,’ he tells me.
‘Thank you.’
‘It was no problem. But I’m not sure he listened to me.’
‘You said what I told you to say?’
‘Yes, every word of it.’
‘Then that’s enough. He won’t be able to stop thinking about it now. We just have to give him some time to get his head around it and then see what happens.’
‘I’m not sure he’ll do anything,’ Jack replies. ‘He seemed angry.’
‘That’s to be expected. We’re accusing his girlfriend of being a criminal. He’s hardly going to be happy about that.’
‘I suppose…’
I sense a little uncertainty from Jack, or maybe it’s nervousness.
After all, he has taken a risk for me by passing on a message to somebody on the outside when he shouldn’t be getting involved in a prisoner’s personal business.
If his employer was to find out that he is trying to help me prove my innocence, he could lose his job.
He’d certainly lose it if they found out our relationship went even further than that.
But I’ll do my best to protect him, and he’s no fool either, so together, I’m sure we can make it work.
He wouldn’t have given Reid his name, so he won’t know who Jack is and how he is connected to me.
He’ll just assume he is a friend, perhaps.
He’ll never suspect I have a prison officer on my side.
But I’m a resourceful woman. Unfortunately, not quite as resourceful as Luna seems to be.
I couldn’t believe it when I saw the news about Sadie.
Television is one of the few things we get in here that connect us to the outside world, so when I saw the news bulletin about the woman in the coma and the names of the people involved, I knew something terrible had happened.
I also knew that what was being reported in the news was not factual, but simply what Luna had told everybody to report.
I am onto her, and I warned Sadie about her.
Within hours, Sadie was in a coma, one she may never wake up from.
No coincidence. Luna might not have attacked Sadie, but Sadie was at that house because she was trying to save her family, and Luna is lucky that she has been silenced.
Just like she has silenced me. But I’ll find a way to catch that bitch.
‘I checked in on your mother,’ Jack says then, switching subjects but to one that is just as important to me as Sadie and Luna.
‘How is she?’
‘Not good. I’m going to see if I can fast-track your application for day release to go and visit her.’
‘Thank you so much,’ I reply, genuinely meaning it.
That’s because time is of the essence when it comes to my poor mum, who is currently in hospital fighting a losing battle with cancer.
I got the news she was ill and was devastated, her diagnosis even harder to take when I’m stuck in here, unable to spend time with her.
Now she is deteriorating and I don’t know how long she has left.
That is why I have applied to visit her before she passes away, and it is possible that the prison might approve my request.
It certainly helps that Jack is working to expedite that process.
Of course, any visit will see me accompanied by a police officer so that I can’t try to escape and I will be brought back here as soon as the visit is done.
But the important thing is that I get to see Mum one more time while I still have the chance.
If she dies before I get to say a proper goodbye, it’s just one more reason for me to hate the person who put me in here.
That person is Luna.
I am convinced of it.
I don’t have any evidence yet.
But I will.
And I hope that bitch is ready when I do.