TOYL

time he had been happy. ‘Are you okay?’
    Edward nodded, although he looked anything but.
    She moved towards him and cupped a hand around his shoulder. ‘Were you shouting on the phone?’
    ‘A little,’ he said, looking down to his right.
    ‘With a client?’
    Edward snorted. ‘An ex-client.’
    ‘Oh.’
    He looked up. ‘Oh indeed.’
    ‘That’s the…’
    ‘Third client to leave me in two weeks,’ he finished, placing the mobile phone down on the desk. ‘That was Clive Monroe. Fifteen years I’ve been doing his books.’
    ‘What did he say?’
    ‘Oh, same old story – really sorry, but times are hard, gone with an accountancy firm that was offering an introductory deal.’
    ‘Maybe that’s the truth.’
    Edward shook his head. ‘Funny how people don’t want to be associated with someone who has been charged with possessing an unlicensed gun and inflicting grievous bodily harm.’
    ‘It could be a coincidence.’
    ‘Miranda, I know you’re trying to make me feel better, but it really is so bloody obvious, isn’t it?’
    She didn’t know what to say to that. He was right; it was obvious. Since the news had come out that Edward had been charged – his appearance at the Magistrates’ Court had been reported in the newspaper – he had been fighting a constant battle to hold onto his clients. Many had wobbled but had been convinced to stay (for now), but the danger was clear. His accountancy business relied on his character as much as, if not more, than his accounting skills. And what had happened had blown a hole in how people once viewed him.
    ‘I’m worried about you, Edward.’
    He stood up, shrugging off her hold, and paced to the window. ‘You should be worried about yourself.’
    ‘What do you mean?’
    He turned around. ‘You should be worried about how you and the baby are going to survive when I’m either in prison, bankrupt, or both.’
    ‘Edward, don’t, it won’t come to that.’
    ‘Won’t it? I could go to jail for what I did.’
    ‘But there were mitigating circumstances,’ Miranda protested. ‘Your lawyer said that, didn’t he? You were under extreme stress. You weren’t thinking straight. It was totally out of character – anyone can see that.’
    ‘I am guilty though. I pleaded guilty, stood up there in front of the magistrate and admitted it. So I’ll be punished by the court, just like I’m being punished by my clients.’
    ‘But the mitigating circumstances, they’ll take those into account.’
    ‘Maybe. Or maybe they’ll decide to make an example of me.’
    ‘I don’t think so.’
    ‘You don’t know!’ Edward shouted. He checked himself as Miranda shrank back, seeming almost physically wounded by his actions. ‘I’m sorry, Miranda, really sorry. I didn’t mean to shout, it’s just…’
    ‘It’s just that you’re shutting me out, as usual,’ Miranda said. ‘You’re trying to deal with this on your own, and cutting me off. You lock yourself away for hours at a time in this room, you don’t talk to me about things when you do come out, and the only things I get to know are snippets I overhear from your shouting matches with clients. Well, Edward, I’m sick of it. You might behave like no one else in the world but you is affected by this situation, but you’re not on your own.’
    ‘I know,’ he acknowledged. ‘I just, I didn’t want to worry you, not in your condition.’
    ‘I’m pregnant, Edward, not sick. I don’t need protecting, even if that were possible, which it isn’t. Do you really think you can stop me from worrying, from thinking about what could happen, about what all this might mean for our family?’
    Edward closed his eyes and grimaced as if in pain. ‘You’d have been much better off not meeting me. You could have met someone your own age, had a family with them, and lived a good life.’
    Miranda shook her head in disbelief and anger. ‘You selfish, selfish man! Do you know what you’re saying? You’re saying I’d be better off if this never happened. That this never happened.’ She gestured at her swollen abdomen.
    ‘I… I didn’t mean it like that,’ he backtracked. ‘Miranda, I’m sorry.’
    But she was past hearing apologies. ‘Is this just about the court case, or is it about the baby too?’
    Edward looked shocked. ‘I… I don’t understand.’
    ‘Well, you weren’t that overjoyed at the news,’ Miranda found herself saying. ‘Oh, you said you were happy, but did you look it?