Martin never tried to lock us in because he knew he didn’t have to. We stayed because we were terrified what would happen if we tried to leave. And now Amy’s mum thinks we’re too scared of her to fight back.

I try to see the thoughts behind Nia’s eyes, but she won’t look at me. She’s staring at the road, her lips moving just enough for me to understand. So I do the same through the other window, remembering every tiny detail of where we are and where we might have been.

Jane isn’t with us. She left in her own car while Chris and Amy sit silently in the front seats of this one.

I reach out and hold Nia’s hand and she gives me the briefest sad-smile and a squeeze.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper, and my sister squeezes harder. She doesn’t look scared. She looks furious.

84

Jane’s car is in her driveway as we pull in, and I can see Aaron’s face through the back window.

Nia yanks on the handle, but it won’t budge.

“Open the fucking door!” she yells, and, when Chris turns off the ignition, she bursts out and runs to her brother.

She’s saying something I can’t hear through his closed window, and that’s when I notice Logan sitting next to him.

He could run. He could bring Jane’s lies crashing down. But time and fear can change people, and I’m not sure he knows who he is anymore.

Aaron clambers out and giggles like this is all a game.

“Where have you been?” Nia says.

She hugs him so hard that he says, “Ouch,” then looks at her funny as she sniffs away her tears.

“Are you okay?” he asks.

She breathes out and says, “I am now.”

“We were naughty,” Aaron says. “But Will’s mummy found us.”

Jane is staring at us with that terrible fixed grin, and I hate her because she’s thought of everything.

“I found them wandering the streets,” she says. “Lucky I was there to bring them home.”

Nia turns to me, and I can see the fight flicker and fade behind her eyes. I hear a shout, then turn to see Mum and Jay running toward us.

Jay pulls Aaron into a hug his son tries to wriggle out of. But he holds on, his eyes pushed tightly closed as if he’s terrified that, when he opens them, his boy will have disappeared again.

“Where was he?” Mum asks.

Before we can answer, Aaron says, “I was with Will. He showed me the hole in the fence, but then we got lost, and I was a bit scared but not really. Then Jane found us.”

Nia looks frantic, and I want to scream the truth, but this is a warning.

“We should leave you to it,” Jane says.

“Thank you so much,” says Mum.