The tears sting at the corners of my eyes. ‘Why didn’t she just stay in Brighton, once she’d escaped? It sounds like she had built a life there for herself. Why did she come back?’

Oscar pauses. ‘You really want to know?’

‘Of course.’

He inhales. ‘The father of Eva’s child was also her pimp – he was an old family friend from her village who persuaded her to come to London. He was a friend of her sister’s and they had trusted him. He joined a gang involved in trafficking women and he targeted Eva and her sister, promising them a good life in London. When Eva got here, he blackmailed her into prostitution. Eventually, he got her pregnant – she knew he was the father because he was the only one she slept with without contraception. When she discovered she was pregnant, she ran away to Brighton to start a new life.’

‘Fuck. She told you this? But it doesn’t explain why the hell she came back.’

Oscar nodded. ‘The baby was ill. Eva wanted to be near her sister, and so she came back to London and the baby went into hospital, in the Royal Free. She was sleeping at the hospital to be with the baby and one day, in the early hours of the morning, this prick shows up. She was terrified that he would hurt the baby, and so she went with him. When they were outside the hospital, he told her he was taking her with him, that she couldn’t take the baby with them and she tried to run. Apparently he caught up with her somewhere here, near where you saw them. They started to fight, he was saying she had to get back to work, that she had a debt to pay off. He threatened her and the child. She says she can’t remember what happened after that but the next thing she knew, she had hit him with a rock. Then she looked up and saw you …’

We stand in silence for a minute, watching the men in paper suits ducking in and out of the police line.

Finally, I say, ‘And the baby?’

‘The baby’s fine. It had pneumonia but it seems OK. That was the child at the house – and he’s stayed with her sister.’ He clears his throat. ‘For now at least. Social Services have been informed.’

Isobel shakes her head. ‘All this time I just thought that if I could just do this one thing, if I could just atone for Jess in some way … I’m a fucking idiot.’

I raise my eyes up to the sky, hating myself for not being able to keep it together, on top of everything else.

‘You know, the thing that happened with us … I’m not sorry,’ I say, before I can think better of it. ‘It was my body, my choice …’