And we're done! 20 years on, Jasmine finally gets her ending. Thanks for sticking with Jasmine until the end! I appreciate all of you!
— Silver Arrows, July 2026

I think of all a heart can take
And all the things that I have overcome
Forever seems so far away
But time for me has only just begun
— Natalie Imbruglia, Firebird

Ash and I held a commitment ceremony in Cnocán Coille before we went back to Cloud Magna. Aislinn lent me her wedding dress and Ash borrowed Francis's suit. Ma cried and cried at her little Ashley finding love. We would have loved to get married in Ireland, but the logistics were too complicated.

Speaking of logistics, Saffron had arranged to have a shotgun wedding in Greece at the end of August. She said it would be the only time to get there before she was too heavily pregnant to travel comfortably. There was no way was she having the family coming over to stay with her, so she would go over to them. She asked me to be her bridesmaid. It was all a bit rushed, and I could only stay for the weekend as I couldn't get any more time off work so soon after taking leave.

Ash said he'd never been to Greece before and he wanted to stay longer. I just knew he was miffed that we wouldn't be able to look at all the historical sites; we didn't have time for touring. I told him he could always stay on after I went back home, but he said he didn't want to be a gooseberry and he didn't like travelling alone. I promised him we would come again when I could get proper time off work.

My ex Kris was there, but luckily I managed to avoid him. Maybe Saffron told him to keep his distance from me, or maybe he was just as desperate to avoid any awkwardness as much as I was.

During the wedding weekend, Ash pretty much lived off the traditional Greek chickpea fritters and home-made bread that Saffron's Aunt Chloe made.

"I really wish I wasn't such a fussy eater," Ash lamented as he had to turn down most of the food he was offered. "I feel like I'm being so rude and picky, but I just can't help it."

Chloe was chuffed at how much he liked her cooking.

"You see, Theia Chloe is the best cook. Have another plate, good boy."

It seemed it wasn't just Irish and Indian mums that liked to fatten visitors up.

Ash resumed his teaching job in September. He said things were duller without the cheeky redhead there to torment him.

Ash and I got married at the end of October. We were aware we were rushing into it, but we felt life was too short and we'd wasted enough time already.

Melissa and Saffron were my bridesmaids. They helped me choose my gown and Melissa insisted I borrow her veil. Ash's whole clan came over from Sligo — even Tiarnán flew over from Canada with his girlfriend and daughter — and my whole clan came over from Leicester and France, and Dad even brought over a couple of cousins from India.

It was a social overload nightmare for Ash, so as soon as we'd got the photos and had some cake, we put our plan into action. We snuck out, changed out our wedding clothes, grabbed our suitcases and legged it to the airport. By the time the others had realised we'd gone, we were already on the plane to Dúlainn.

Saffron and Joe had a baby daughter, who they named Felicity Jane. Amazingly, Saffron didn't buy a single pink garment for her. I couldn't believe it. I asked Joe if Saffron had been abducted by aliens and replaced by an imposter.

Candy and Steve left town. They never left a forwarding address. I managed to catch Candy as they were leaving. She was quiet, nothing like she used to be. I tried to let her know that what happened to Tina wasn't her fault and she didn't have to let what happened define her. She nodded. Maybe she was still traumatised. Maybe she felt I deserved some of the blame for what happened that night. I realised I couldn't do anything about that. I wished her the best as she got into the van.

About a year later, she sent me a card. It was postmarked Coventry. She didn't write much, just a note thanking me for being her friend. I hoped she was doing better.

Jack Faerie's Amber got arrested for wasting police time. Apparently, she was out at night while high as a kite and stopped a couple of bobbies on the beat, telling them that her baby was missing. The coppers wasted a full twenty minutes helping her before realising she was talking about one of her imaginary pixies. She was let off with a fine and a warning to behave.

Somehow, this inspired Jack to create another exhibition's worth of art. Sadly, Annalisa Chèng didn't come this time.

I found out what Ash and Jack Faerie had bonded over. Jack had told Ash his mother could trace her ancestry back to the Inkan emperor, Wayna Qhapaq, and Ash went all Johnny 5 on him and needed more input. Which explained why Ash suddenly knew so much about the Inkan empire and Qhichwa. Whether or not Jack's claim was true, it was great that they could build a close friendship over it.

The next spring, Ash and I announced to Melissa and Tony that I was pregnant, only for Melissa to announce that she was pregnant too.

"This is crazy," Ash said. "I'm going to be a grandfather and a father again at the same time!"

I gasped. "Crumbs! That means I'm going to become a mother and a step-grandmother at the same time, too! I'm only thirty, I'm too young to be a granny!"

Melissa and I spent a lot of time at Saffron's place.

"Good, I can finally get some sleep," Saffron laughed. "Wake me up when she needs a feed."

Since I wouldn't really be able to work in a garage while I was pregnant, I had to put my plans for mechanic training on hold. On my days off, I spent a lot of time baking and working on new dairy-free sweets and desserts. I'd rented out my old place to a nice elderly couple and I used the income to upgrade to professional equipment. Ash had a separate kitchen built for me on the side of the house so I could have a proper area to cook in. I started to branch out a bit into other allergy-friendly sweets and treats. Once I'd got food-hygiene certified and insured, I persuaded the fancy chocolatier in Canterbury to stock my sweets. It was a nice little side earner.

The scans showed we were having a baby boy. Ash asked if I'd like us to name him Liam, after my brother. I told him I'd like that very much, but my brother's full first name was actually William — Liam was just for short. My William books used to be his, that's why he'd started collecting them, because of the name, and why I was so fond of reading them. I was surprised that I had never told him that before. We decided we would still choose Liam for our child's name. It was what we always called my brother, and it would be a nice nod to our son's Irish heritage.

I decided that as soon as my maternity leave was over, I'd hand in my notice. During our trip to Ireland, I had fallen in love with the west coast, and I wanted our child to be in touch with both sides of our families' cultures. Ash and I discussed it, and we decided that once our son was a year old, we would spend a year living in Sligo. We wanted our son to grow up fully bilingual. It was really important to Ash to keep his language alive. The only thing stopping me committing completely was all the people I'd miss back in England, especially Dad. Ash was also torn between wanting to be back home and wanting to be close to Melissa and Tony and his first grandchild. We decided we'd see how it went. I could start my mechanic training in Sligo City part-time, and after a year, we would see how we felt about staying on or going back to Cloud Magna.

Even after I started maternity leave, somehow I still ended up staying in the coding world. Tony had some Computer Science student friends at uni who wanted a mentor. He made a point that being able to program was a good skill if I ever needed something to fall back on. I even ended up joining a free software community online and contributing code and bug fixes. Somehow, it was still a lot more fulfilling than coding booking software for corpos. It still reduced me to tears at times, but I suppose life gets dull if you don't suffer at least a little bit now and then.

I visit Mum and Liam's graves every Saturday, updating them on my life: my marriage to Ash, our new baby and grandkid on the way, my plans to retrain and my side business making sweets. I wish Mum could have met her first grandchild. I'm sure Liam would be happy to know he's going to be an uncle.

I visited Tina at the cemetery yesterday. I laid a single white calendula on her grave, a symbol of the pain she caused, yet at the same time, a small tribute to the happiness she once brought to Ash and Melissa.

Because sometimes, the only difference between surviving and succumbing are the people you have around you.