After Jessica and Kira had settled onto the low sofa by the window, the room quiet and warm around them, Jessica let out a long breath.
"I'm sorry again," she said. "For troubling you like this."
Kira shook her head. "You don't have to be sorry. You're not troubling me."
Jessica looked down at her hands, where her fingers were twisted together in her lap. "I am a bit. You've only just arrived and I've come up here and sent your children away." Jessica smiled awkwardly. "But I don't have anybody else to say it to. That's the truth."
"Go on. Say it. Whatever it is, say it properly, and I promise I won't be upset."
Jessica took a breath. "I just feel like no one understands what's going on in my head. And I don't want to come across as a bad person."
