‘I went back to the store, after my food ran out. I wasn’t as scared as the first time. I didn’t shake as I handed the assistant the money. The third time I went, I didn’t just grab things and rush out. I looked around and that’s … that’s when I saw the front page of the newspaper and Tom’s face, staring out at me in black and white. What had happened had made the news. I had no idea. I hadn’t bothered going online. My brain was enough of a mess without social media adding to the noise. I realised that Mum and Dad were probably wondering what had happened to me but I couldn’t ring them. I wrote letters instead, dozens and dozens, and they all ended up in the bin. I couldn’t find the right words. I was so angry about the DNA test. I still felt betrayed.’

She hears Fran inhale noisily through her nose and then grunt irritably. ‘And I’m still so cross with myself. If I’d have just checked … if I’d have logged onto that site to look at your results … I’d have seen what you saw. I’d have understood what you were going through and why you wanted to talk to me. I can’t stand the thought of you here, dealing with everything alone.’

Jenna looks back at her sister. ‘It was the only way I could deal with it. I started going for walks. I’d walk round and round the city until I was exhausted – mentally and physically – and then I realised where I’d gone wrong.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I’d spent my whole life trying to be what other people wanted me to be, Mum and Dad especially. I didn’t want to let anyone down or be a disappointment so I went along with things instead of saying no. There was a lot of pressure on me, after you left home, to be the perfect daughter. That’s not a criticism of you,’ she adds quickly. ‘I would have left, too, if I were you. But I was young and I loved them and I felt like their marriage, their life, was perfect. I thought Mum was impossibly glamorous and Dad was this … this big, strong, powerful man. They had their faults but people looked up to them, they were respectable and they were honest. I tried to be the person they wanted me to be and I only realised how cruel Mum could be when we fell out in my teens. But I never stopped wanting them to be proud of me, even though it made me unhappy and then … then you gave me the genealogy test …’ She tails off, aware that her older sister has slumped down on the sofa.