‘I thought I would come home sometime, to you and Dad, but I just couldn’t let you go through all that again. I only wanted to protect you. And then it got harder and harder to say anything, and I got the job here, but I was using the name Anna Cox and it was all so complicated, so I kept on pretending to you that I was still there . . .’ I stop, not sure where to go anymore. ‘I didn’t want to disappoint you more than I already had done.’

‘Charlie, you have never disappointed me – I might not have always agreed with your decisions, but it doesn’t mean I’m not proud of what you’ve achieved. What happened in Killin – it doesn’t change what I think about you. You’re my daughter, and I love you, I know that you never meant for that boy to get hurt. None of that matters anymore. What does matter though is what’s happened to Laurel – and what’s going to happen to you. I’m worried about you, Charlie.’

‘I know. I don’t know what to do, what to think. We all just want her back. I can’t think past that at the moment.’

‘I understand that, Charlie, I really do, but you need to think about what is best for you. I don’t want to see you caught up in all of this, not again. If it all becomes too much, I think you should consider getting away from things for a while. I’m sure the Jessops would understand.’

I glance towards my suitcase, still only half unpacked, and then to the birthday card on the bedside table that Laurel drew for me, what seems like a million years ago. ‘I can’t come home, Mum, I can’t leave Fran. Dominic hasn’t come back from the station yet, and things have been a little . . . fraught round here today.’ As I say the words, the thought of going home, hugging my mum, sitting in the kitchen letting her fuss round me is all too tempting.

‘You’re not on your own, Charlie, you’ve never been on your own in any of it. We’re here if you need us, me and Dad. Or, if you don’t want to come home you can always go to Aunt Lou’s holiday home – she’s not been back there since Uncle John died and I’m sure she’d be grateful for someone to look after the place for her. Just a thought.’