“Shall we take a break before dessert?” Jane asks, and her husband and son stand in silence, then sit down on separate sofas.

The scene looks so different from the one I see every night through my window, when Will is always between his mother and father.

“Come on,” Amy says, and I follow her back to her room. Every other door upstairs is closed, but she was right—there are no holes and nothing suspicious. The only thing that’s odd is how clean it all is. “Can I use the bathroom?” I ask.

“It’s that one.”

I don’t need to go. I need to breathe. And I can’t do that down there with her parents. It’s as if they don’t know how to talk to people, and I don’t feel welcome here. Her dad acts like he hates me, her brother has the same vibe as Nia when we first met, and Jane is trying too hard.

It was Amy’s idea to invite me, but she knew what I’d see. Unless that’s the point.

When I open the bathroom door, the hallway is empty, and I can hear Amy humming to music in her room. I might not get another chance, so I walk to the nearest door and hope the handle is as new as it looks.

Please don’t creak, I think as I gently push down and pray.

It opens in silence, and I hold my phone up, spraying its flashlight through the darkness. It’s her parents’ room, and everything is perfect. The bed is made and the closets are closed and there’s nothing out of place.

I close the door and move to the next one, quickly glancing up the corridor to make sure Amy’s not there.

Her singing grows louder, and I smile to myself because it’s cute, then open the next door. The light is on, and it catches me by surprise, but no one’s there.

This must be Will’s room, because there’s loads of Marvel stuff. He has a thing for cars, and there are gadgets everywhere. He has his own set of decks, a guitar that Nia would be jealous of, and a massive unit full of Funko Pops and Blu-rays.

Amy’s room is practically empty compared to this, and I walk over to his desk where there’s an open sketch pad.

He’s good. There are loads of drawings of superheroes and animals and his family. There’s one of the photo downstairs, and he’s managed to capture it perfectly. Except something’s different. Downstairs they’re all smiling. But, in this sketch, they are flat-lipped and serious.

He’s got Amy spot-on: the sadness in her eyes that creeps in when she thinks no one’s watching.