I wasn’t in the mood to talk and ignored the incessant ringing of my phone.

Get lost.

Finally, it stopped.

Thank God.

The ringing started again. I wanted to throw it against the wall.

Go away.

But the phone continued to ring.

I climbed sluggishly off the sofa, intending to switch it off, but made the mistake of glancing at the screen.

It was Matty. He’d rang four times. It must be important, so I’d better answer it.

“Hello,” I said.

“Is that Declan?” I didn’t recognise the voice.

“Yes, but who’s this?”

“This is Jake, Matt’s friend.”

Immediately, I was irritated.

“What do you want?” I asked, much less friendly than I should have been.

“Matt’s been in an accident.”

“Oh, my God.” I made the sign of the cross. “Is he okay?”

“It was touch and go for a while, but they’ve moved him to Intensive Care and he should be okay.”

“I’m on my way,” I said, running around the room, panicked. “Where is he?”

“The Royal.”

“I’m on my way,” I said, again.

“Don’t panic, Declan. I’ll wait outside for you.”

“How will I know you?”

“I’ll know who you are. Don’t worry and just get here. Matt will want to see you when he wakes up.”

“Thank you, Jake. You didn’t have to call me, but I’m thankful you did.”

“I’ll talk to you soon.”

I dropped my phone on the sofa. Now, what do I need? Jeans, shoes, jumper. Running up the stairs, I grabbed myself a set of clean clothes, splashed my face with water, cleaned my teeth, got dressed and grabbed my phone before running out the door. I was out the door in five minutes.

It was the longest drive of my life, and finding nowhere to park, I abandoned my car. I’d be clamped but didn’t care.

Jake was waiting for me, as he said he would be. I knew who he was straight away from the descriptions Matty had given.

“Declan,” he said, obviously recognising me too. He held out his hand. “I wish we were meeting under better circumstances.”

I shook his hand. “Jake, good to meet you too.” I was flustered and a little miffed at how good looking he was. “Any change?”

“I haven’t been up there yet – I was waiting for you, but before we go I need to warn you about something.”

I was intrigued. “Oh?”

“Matt fell outside his apartment building and fractured his skull.”

“Oh, no.” I said a silent prayer. “How did he fall?”

“He was trying to get away from somebody.”

“What?” Who would Matt be that scared of? “Why?”

“I don’t know the full story, but it appears his birth mother tracked him down and confronted him outside his building and in a rush to get away, he twisted his ankle and fell.”

“His birth mother?” I didn’t understand how she’d found him, and why, after all these years. “That can’t be right?”

“Trust me, it is. You can see for yourself.”

“She’s here?”

“Yep, waiting inside for news.”

God help me.

I approached the pretty blonde woman seated in the waiting room. She had her back to me. Dubious of who she really was, and her motives, I held my breath. She turned around and smiled at me. Bloody hell. The resemblance between her and Matt was startling. She was clearly related to him.

Jake took a seat on the other side of the room.

“Hello,” I said, approaching cautiously. “I’m Matt’s friend, Declan.”

“Carolann Anderson,” she replied, holding out her hand.

My mouth dropped open. “I can’t believe it. Why did you come back after all this time?” I didn’t take her hand, and slowly, she backed away. I scolded myself. Manners cost nothing.

“It wasn’t how I envisioned the reunion with my son to pan out.”

“You confronted him – how else would you have expected him to react?” I was angry with her.

“Hang on a moment,” she interrupted. “You don’t know…”

“Why didn’t you write to him?” I tried to keep my temper in check. “Surely you knew turning up out of the blue would upset him.” She tried to speak, but I carried on regardless. “He hasn’t seen you since you abandoned him when he was a small child.”

I had overstepped the mark. I knew that, but she had to know what she did couldn’t be rectified by her simply turning up and saying hello.

“I did what I thought was right for him and I won’t allow you to stand in judgement of me. Who the hell do you think you are? I know what I did, but my child was in danger and if you were a parent, you’d do anything to protect your child, even if it means leaving them behind.” Her jaw was now clenched tight shut and I could see she was holding back her tears.

“Danger?” I scoffed. “From whom, exactly?”

Carolann exhaled loudly. “Drug dealers my ex-husband got involved with.” She began to cry. “They threatened Matthew and the only way I could protect him was to let somebody else look after him. I was always going back for him, but my life…” She was too upset to carry on.

My empathy took hold. I didn’t want to comfort her, but it was part of who I was. “I’m sorry, Carolann. I didn’t mean to upset or judge you. I’m way out of line. Please forgive me, but I love your son very much.”

“We both love your son very much,” Jake interjected. “And want what’s best for him.”