‘I’ll just take the crystal earrings for the time being,’ she smiled.

As the salesgirl turned, Deborah surprised even herself by daringly slipping the tiny pair of diamond earrings into her handbag. She then followed the girl to the other side of the counter.

Once the earrings were prettily wrapped and paid for Deborah thanked Tammy, as she insisted that Deborah call her by name, promising to be back.

Once outside Deborah took a huge breath, not believing what she had just done, then slowly she headed for the escalators. Her heart was beating so fast, that she could barely hear for the pounding in her ears. How could she have been so stupid and so daring? Then from the corner of her eye she saw the shopping mall security guard coming towards her.

‘Madam, could I have a word with you please?’

Deborah pretended she hadn’t heard, frantically thinking of what she would say once he caught up with her. She could feel the beads of sweat slowly forming on her upper lip and her hands were clammy.

People in the mall were beginning to stare and Deborah wished that the ground would open and swallow her. She felt like a trapped animal.

‘Madam, please, one minute!’ She should have got onto the escalators instead of walking by. Well she’d better stop, as this wasn’t the movies where she could make a clean getaway! Imagine stealing diamond earrings. John and the girls were going to make minced meat out of her. Oh! For the embarrassment.

Deborah slowed down, her shoulders sagging ever so slightly. Well she’d asked for it hadn’t she? Nicking items from the supermarket was one thing, but this was now really going too far!

The security guard, caught up with her. ‘Madam, for a moment there I thought you were trying to get away,’ he laughed. ‘You forget your credit card at the jewellers and Tammy insisted that I find you, as she couldn’t leave the shop alone, you know how it is in a jewellery store, people always trying to pinch something,’ he said and handed Deborah her credit card.

Deborah literally had to stop the sigh of relief from escaping her lips, consciously dabbing her upper lip with her fingers.

‘Thank you, that was really kind of you,’ Deborah managed through a mouth that felt like sawdust.

‘No problem, any time,’ the handsome security guard said waving.

Deborah felt faint from the sheer effort of all this stress. Boy was that a close call!

This couldn’t go on any longer Deborah thought; tonight she would start working on getting herself pregnant; to hell with what John would think. Better pregnant than on parole!