Awkward Dinner

‘Sometimes I don’t know if I made the right call,’ I said. ‘Maybe bringing you out of the village was a mistake.’ Maybe Erin would have led an unhappy life in Graceville, married to a man more than twice her age, but she would be safe, free of a disgusting disease. I didn’t even want to know which one of the STDs she’d caught, or whom she caught it from. Erin Smith stopped being my responsibility the day she betrayed me. She sobbed uncontrollably and kept apologising. I wasn’t ready to forgive her, but neither could I watch her die. Erin picked up the card, bowed to me, then walked out of the café with her head lowered and shoulders hunched. There were about five hundred thousand dollars in that card I gave her, more than enough for her to get treatment. Of course, she could also use it on something else—pretty clothes, fancy makeup, or the fast life she imagined she wanted. It was entirely up to her. I’d just given her one last chance. I minded the shop till the afternoon, when I got