‘Massively. Dad was always this big, loud, imposing figure. You know, the sort of person who can fill a room even before he steps into it. He had that kind of energy. He commands respect. I guess that’s why he did so well in the army. We were that typical “wait until your father gets home” family. That’s not to say that Mum was a wallflower though.’ She shakes her head, remembering how her mum would puff out her feathers the moment her dad stepped out the front door. ‘She was his second in command, always backing him up, never, ever taking anyone’s side against him. If Dad was a tank, barrelling everyone out of his way, then Mum was a sniper on the sidelines, taking people out before they even knew she was there.’

‘That sounds like a challenging environment for a child.’

‘You adapt, don’t you? If there’s a tank and a sniper roaming around you make yourself small, so you’re not a target. And you make out you’re on their side. You don’t want to be the enemy.’

‘Was Fran the enemy? Your sister?’

Jenna looks at him thoughtfully, mulling over the question. She’s never really thought of Fran like that before. Fran didn’t break ranks and desert the family, she dug a hole under the fence and escaped.

‘I don’t know,’ she says eventually. ‘Maybe once. Not anymore though, they just let her get on with her life.’

‘Do they let you get on with yours?’

She laughs dryly.

‘Okay …’ Tom nods. ‘We’ll come back to that. Let’s go back to you confronting your mum about the results of the ancestry test. How did that go?’

‘Not well.’ Jenna reaches for her glass and takes a sip of water. ‘Have you got anything stronger? I’m not sure I can do this without booze.’

‘Stay with the feeling. It’s important.’

‘But it’s horrible.’ She balls a hand into a fist and jabs herself in the diaphragm. ‘It really fucking hurts.’

‘I know it does. But you need to work through this if you’re going to heal.’

There’s a part of Jenna that wants to tell him that she’s never going to heal. Instead, she says, ‘She denied it, at first. She said of course Fran and I were full sisters and then I pushed the printout across the table and she laughed.’

‘She laughed?’

‘At the bit where it said we were cousins. She said it was rubbish and I should throw it in the bin. So then I told her what the customer support woman had said. She stopped laughing then.’

Tom nods for her to continue.