Forgiven

chapter 1

I groan into my pillow as the persistent knocking on my front door slowly filters through to my fuzzy brain.

"Mum it's the police at the door, they want to speak to you," Olivia my daughter yells from down stairs.

"I'll be right there" I yell back .

I slowly drag my lazy hungover ass out of bed and grab my dressing gown off the back of my bedroom door.

My head is pounding and my throat feels like I swallowed broken glass in my sleep. I smirk to myself when I think of the drunken antics my best friend Mel and I got up to last night. Mel and I have been best friends since school and she's always been there for me through absolutely everything.

So when I told her that my husband Michael was going away on a boys only weekend, she insisted that we have a girl's night. Olivia was staying at a friend's for the night so I thought why not. Two bottles of wine and a couple of Tequila shots later we were strutting our stuff and singing lady gaga on the Karaoke. I knew it was time to call it a night when Mel dared me to do naked star jumps on the Trampoline .I'm always up for a laugh but Mel's always been the loud daring one, not me.

"Come on Dannie she goads me ,don't be a little chicken shit ",

she gives me a big toothy grin and I just can't say no. So there I was boobs bouncing all over the place whilst crying with laughter. I smile at the memory as I reluctantly make my way down stairs wondering why on earth the police would be knocking this early on a Sunday morning.

I turn towards the officers at my front door and the somber looks on their faces tells me I'm not going to like this conversation.

"Olivia honey could u go to your room for a bit please, I'll make you some breakfast as soon as I've finished here."

I wait to hear her bedroom door close before looking back at the police officer.

" Mrs Harrison?" He says "Danielle Harrison"?.

With the over whelming feeling of dread in my stomach, I'm unable to speak so I just nod.

"Can I help you with something ?"I manage to mumble.

"My name is constable Clark and my coleague here is constable Claire Brady".

He nods in the direction of the plump lady stood next to him, she smiles warmly at me and I instantly know that she's here to calm me after they give me what I can only imagine is going to be bad news.

"Please come inside" I say leading them into the living room. They sit down together eyeing me nervously.

"What is this about officer" I ask "has something happened?".

"Mrs Harrison" he begins "last night there was an accident involving your husbands car and a Transit van. We believe the driver of the van may have fallen asleep at the wheel, swerved off into the wrong lane and collided with your husbands car."

I take a deep breath and ready myself for what he's about to say next.

"I'm so sorry to tell you this but your husband Michael he did'nt make it. He was conscious for a while , long enough for us to find out who he was ,but he had some internal injuries that were so severe he passed away before the emergency services could free him from the wreckage."

My entire body began to shake and I could no longer hear what the officer was saying, I could feel myself shutting down, withdrawing into myself, anything to escape the excruciating pain that was tearing my heart in two. I collapsed to the floor and just stared at them both for what felt like hours.