As the Prius reversed out, Georgia heard her parents in the hallway. Her mum had already said she was too exhausted for an hour-and-a-half’s drive home and was going to stay the night. But the only spare bed was in Sophie’s old room and she couldn’t stomach sleeping in there.

For a horrible moment, Georgia thought her parents were going to share their old bed, but she heard her dad say he’d get some bedding and her mum saying the sofa is fine, because it’s only one night and it’s not like I’m going to sleep anyway.

John came up to get bedding from the boiler cupboard. Instead of going straight back down, she heard him creep up to her door. Georgia loved her dad, but she couldn’t face more cheesy life-goes-on, arm-around-the-back stuff, so was relieved when she heard him start down the stairs.

‘Think Georgia’s settled,’ John said, in one of those whispers that carries more than a normal voice.

Georgia remembered reading that having your kid die is the most emotionally devastating thing that can happen to anyone, but she was too angry about all the secrets to feel sympathy.

Despite being awake since five, sleep felt unlikely. Georgia was satisfied with her choice of comfy old pyjamas and felt the next step down this road was to get her laptop and snuggle under the covers, watching something brainless that she’d seen at least three times before. But not Friends, because she watched that with Sophie when she was little and that would wreck her.

I’ll never hear Sophie’s voice again …

Georgia blotted tears as she stepped close to the window and fished out the cord for her phone charger that had dropped behind her bedside drawer unit. She’d normally check her phone before putting it on charge, but couldn’t face social media. Sophie had a zillion friends and Georgia could imagine the bland sentiments and tearful emojis from obscure cousins, med-school acquaintances and girlz she’d met once at a hen party in Tonbridge …

As Georgia snapped in her charging lead, she noticed movement on the driveway. She peeked through her blind as a stocky male figure headed for the front door, then changed heart and darted sideways towards the bin store. She’d only caught the figure’s outline but felt sure who it was.

After pushing feet into a pair of tatty Chucks, Georgia moved swiftly downstairs to the front door, half expecting the bell to ring before she got there. Her parents were busy pulling a cover over the spare duvet in the living room and didn’t see their daughter step into the dark.

‘Zac, is that you?’ Georgia asked, shivering as night air hit still-damp hair.

As the gravel crunched under her sneaker, she swiped her dad’s keys from a shelf over a radiator, then quietly pulled the front door shut.