Abbey Forrest and her partner Inderpal Sohal wanted four children, but were parents for just 19 days before their lives and that of their baby girl Ivy were taken in a deliberately-lit fire.
“Their last breaths will haunt me to my dying days,” Ms Forrest’s mother, Elizabeth Forrest, said.
She lost half her family in December 2020, when Jenny Hayes set fire to a Point Cook townhouse.
Ms Forrest, 19, and Mr Sohal, 28, were asleep upstairs with baby Ivy in their newly rented townhouse and could not escape the deliberately lit blaze.
They died from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Mrs Forrest still calls her daughter’s phone, knowing she won’t answer.
Sometimes she pretends the young couple have taken their daughter to visit Mr Sohal’s family in India, something they had planned.
“I know it’s not true but on the hard days it’s easier to comprehend than what really happened,” she told Victoria’s Supreme Court on Monday.
Ms Hayes was furious about a sexual encounter ending badly when she set fire to the townhouse just before 2am on December 2.
The downstairs bedroom was free to be used by one of Mr Sohal’s friends, who had hired Ms Hayes, a sex worker.
Services were provided by Ms Hayes and paid for by the friend, but the friend left after a dispute.
Ms Hayes claimed she had been raped by the man and he had taken money from her handbag.
She sent him a series of angry texts, including telling him she would set fire to his house.
Ms Hayes set fire to the bed and took photos as the room caught alight.
The blaze quickly spread and even as she drove away, she took another picture.
“I’m so sick of people thinking they can do this s*** to me and nothing happens to them,” she sent in a text.
“So I took what he had.”
Mr Sohal, who was born and raised in India, had been living with the Forrest family in Geelong during Melbourne’s COVID-19 lockdowns.
Ms Forrest, an aspiring paramedic, fell pregnant during her gap year.
She longed to be a mother, Mrs Forrest said.
Ivy’s arrival marked the beginning of family life together.
Her father Alan paid tribute to Ms Forrest’s cheekiness and competitive spirit, revealing he sobs through Sunday family dinners without her.
“There is no getting over it, no closure. Our hearts are broken forever,” he said.
Neighbours reported hearing Mr Sohal crying out for help after the fire started.
Despite attempts to get into the home, they could not be saved.
Hayes pleaded guilty to three charges of arson causing death.
“It was only a little flame on the bed,” she told police after her arrest.
“I provided him with a service … I f***ing started burning his mattress because he took my money.”
Ms Hayes said she didn’t know there was anyone else in the house, but prosecutors say Mr Sohal’s friend told her she had to be quiet because his friends were sleeping upstairs.
The hearing continues.
