Page 61 of The Gin Sisters' Promise

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Iris wasn’t sure how she could look and act normal for the mediation session with Myles. She’d been up since four-thirty in the morning and any notion of sleeping while they flew were dashed thanks to the worst turbulence she’d ever experienced on a flight. Even Georgie looked completely shattered after it.

Myles was already there when they arrived. It took her a second to place him, because he looked somehow strangely so much less of himself than she remembered. He was sitting in the corner, scrunched up defensively against the rest of the empty waiting room, reading a gardening magazine, when they both knew he had zero interest in any activity that meant getting his hands dirty. When she arrived, he looked slightly startled, obviously thrown by the presence of Georgie at her side. Iris didn’t think she’d ever heard such grudging greetings between two people as she did between Georgie and Myles. How could she have chosen this pathetic excuse of a man over her sisters all those years ago?

‘Right, let’s get this over with,’ Iris said, leading the way into the neutral greys of a room that was empty apart from three chairs and a pot plant. Catherine Dickson – the mediator – was a fragile-looking woman, with silver hair that marked her out as perhaps being in her seventies, but her eyes moved rapidly over them, as if assessing them and taking in all she needed to know with one quick glance. Catherine opened the meeting with a short time for reflection, an opportunity for everyone to catch their breath. Iris thought that she might faint; such was the pressure to relax. The silence of the room amplified each breath, making her feel claustrophobic.

‘Now, so we’re all clear. The intention of this session is not to patch up this marriage,’ Catherine said in a way that brooked no discussion. ‘The future of your marriage is of no concern in this space; what is of concern is that going forward you are able to communicate with each other in a more open and trustworthy manner.’

‘That’s right.’ Myles smiled his smarmiest grin. Iris almost snorted.

‘I’m given to understand that currently, there is some disagreement about the future distribution of your shared assets?’ Catherine asked, looking at Iris as if she might have the definitive answer to her question.

‘Yes. I thought that our assets at the end of our marriage would be divided equally. That seems fair to me, at least,’ Iris said.

‘And, Myles?’ Catherine smiled at Myles and although she looked like a harmless old pensioner, Iris could almost hear the soundtrack toJawsgearing up from the far corner of the room.

‘Well, yes, but here’s the thing: I’m about to have a baby, and we’re living in a tiny bedsit. It seems such a waste that we can’t just move into my house and get on with things…’

‘I’m sorry,’ Iris interrupted and for a moment, she wondered if she shouldn’t raise her hand like at school. ‘But, it’s not as if I’m living there myself and by renting it out, we’re paying the mortgage.’ She didn’t add that she didn’t think she could bear to stand in the place ever again. ‘There’s even a small surplus, which I’ve left there to make additional payments on the mortgage before it’s sold or to split evenly between us, which I think is fair.’ She almost sounded contrite.

‘So, you’re living elsewhere?’

‘Yes, for now. With my sister,’ Iris said evenly. It was not a lie, but it was hardly her fault if Myles construed that she was staying in some box room in Georgie’s London apartment, rather than holed up with both her sisters in the west of Ireland.

‘The lady who came along with you today?’ Catherine asked.

‘Yes. She’s been a great support.’ She enjoyed seeing Myles’s face crumple into something that signalled the fact that he knew he was no match for Georgie Delahaye.

‘So…’ Catherine looked at her watch and Iris supposed you had to be a master at keeping things on time and on topic in this job. She had a similar agenda herself, if the truth were known. ‘We were talking about your baby?’ Catherine turned to Myles.

‘Well, yes, you see, we have a baby due and there’s no way I can afford to buy another house and now Iris is insisting that she wants to take the car off me and…’

‘Can’t you rent like the rest of London? Live within your means, or move a little further out? Have you thought about other ways to figure out your future living arrangements with your new partner that don’t involve inconveniencing your soon to be ex-wife? And what’s this about a car?’ Catherine raised an eyebrow as she asked.

‘Well, I need the car for work,’ he said, jumping on the only part of that sentence that maybe didn’t put so much pressure on him to take responsibility for himself and his future family. And in that moment, Iris looked at him and felt deeply sorry for Amanda Prescott and even more so for their as yet unborn child. Pity was the last thing she expected to feel for the woman who, until so recently, she blamed for causing her such pain. Of course, she’d been wrong; she could see that now. Amanda had done no more than become an exchange prisoner in the cell that Iris had for too long feared to leave. She took a deep breath, knew she had missed half of what he was saying.

‘Are you okay? Would you like to take a break?’ Catherine leaned forward and patted the armrest of the chair that Iris was sitting on.

‘No. No need, I just… Sorry, can you say that again, Myles?’ And he looked at her as if it was some sort of trick.

‘I… well, I was just saying, that I need the car for work. I was explaining that I work mainly freelance these days for the news channel, and if I’m not there to cover the story first, they’ll pick up the footage from whoever is.’

‘Ah, yes, I see.’ Catherine looked across at Iris.

‘Yes. That’s true, except I paid for the car. It took me three years to pay it off. I took out a loan in the credit union and paid for it each week from my wages, the same as I’ve done for every car since we got married.’ She stopped for a moment, a flash of anger rising up in her. ‘Actually, when I think about it, I basically paid for everything. I bought all the groceries, paid the electric, the gas and the insurance for both the house and the car.’ How had she not added all that up before? When she was outlining her life with Myles, somehow the sundry details had become blurred or lost amid all the bigger-ticket items of their marriage, like fidelity, and honesty and, oh yes, love.

‘Have you outlined all of this for your own solicitor?’ Catherine asked softly.

‘Actually, no.’ Iris thought with the uncomfortable feeling that the woman was reading her mind.

‘Don’t worry. Mediation often brings up the most unlikely things. Lucky you came along, eh?’ She smiled at Myles, who looked as if he was fit to burst with rage.

By the end of the meeting, Iris felt much better. She thanked Catherine sincerely while they stood at the doorway watching Myles stomp off, probably back to the car that he knew for almost certain now he was not entitled to keep without making some sort of contribution towards it.

‘It’s not about the money, you know,’ Iris said to Georgie later.

‘I know that,’ Georgie said.

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