‘Yes,’ Anna relented. ‘I can see that.’ She stood across the room from him, glad that she’d put off getting changed. ‘What d’you want to know?’

‘I don’t know what there is to know. I mean I’d never heard all that stuff about your mom before. The only thing she talks about in the past, really, is my father.’

‘And was that the great passion she’d like us to believe?’

Krish looked up at her warily. ‘How would I know?’

‘Of course, how could you?’

‘She’s got no letters though. He didn’t keep in touch with her. She probably just wrapped herself round him like a creeper – the way she does with everyone.’ Anna was disturbed by the harsh way he spoke.

‘But downstairs you were – you seemed so close.’

Krish seemed uncomfortable at her mentioning this. ‘We can be, sometimes. She’s very good company, as you’ve seen. But there’s something . . . She’s just not normal, is she?’ He spoke in a sudden rush. ‘It probably sounds stupid to you but it’s taken me until now to realize – these past couple of years. When I went to college I heard a lot about other people’s mothers. At school she wouldn’t let me go to visit other people. Wanted me to herself – ’ He broke off. ‘Look, can’t you sit down?’

He sounded so wretched that she came and sat on the bed. ‘It must have been very difficult for you.’

He sat looking down at his hands for a moment in silence, twining his fingers together. The next thing she knew, he was pushing her back on the bed, hands moving clumsily and hard on her thighs as he half lay across her, his tongue pushing into her mouth.

In reflex she drew up her knees and shoved as hard as she could. ‘Who the fuck d’you think you are?’ she yelled at him as he regained his balance. ‘What is it with your family? You all think you can just take what you like. You rip into other people’s lives . . .’

‘Shut up for God’s sake!’ He rushed at her, clamping his moist hand over her mouth. ‘She mustn’t hear.’

Anna yanked his hand away. ‘Don’t do that to me.’ She marched over and opened the door. ‘Just get out of here, you stupid little git.’

Krish slunk out of the room. ‘I’m sorry . . . I really did want to talk.’

‘Don’t ever try anything like that again,’ she hissed at him. She watched him disappear into his room.

Turning, she jumped again, and with even more force. At the other end of the corridor, dressed in something long and pale, Olivia stood quite still, watching. Her face was set in an expression of such hatred that Anna felt her knees turn weak.

‘So.’ Olivia’s voice snaked along the corridor. ‘I can’t even trust you.’

Anna felt something give in her, come flooding out. ‘You’re all bloody mad,’ she shouted. ‘All of you. I’m getting out of here.’