Ada smiled kindly. ‘It’s not a matter of what I want, Lena. It’s about ensuring Nicole has a safe home to return to. We need to balance her physical safety with her emotional and psychological safety. For someone with hoarding disorder—’

‘Wait, is that an actual thing? Hoarding disorder?’ Will asked.

Ada looked so disappointed she might as well have been Lena’s mother. ‘This was all in the literature I sent home with your sister.’

‘Nic herself says the only thing she cares about is getting back home. So can you just tell me, please, if the house passes and, if it doesn’t, exactly what I need to do to get it right?’

Ada nodded. ‘Let’s take a look at the rest.’

In the bathroom she turned all the taps on and off, flushed the toilet, tried to slide the bathmat under her feet before taking more photos. The kitchen caused some tense moments as Lena explained the fridge situation. When Ada asked about the (emptied and scrubbed clean) oven, Lena lied that there was a repairman coming tomorrow to check it was safe to use, which seemed to make the social worker inordinately happy. More photos then into the living room, which was ‘not ideal’ because of the cord running across the floor to the bar fridge, the blankets piled up on the lounge, the still over-full cabinet behind the TV and the crates (a quarter of what there had been!) under the windows and across the back wall.

‘Maybe for the best, though,’ Ada said. ‘Enough clutter to help Nicole feel secure but not enough to impact her safety.’

‘So we shouldn’t keep going in here?’ Lena asked. She had hoped to get rid of the rest of the crates at least before the skip got picked up in a few hours.

‘I wouldn’t. The more Nicole can feel that her home is unchanged, the easier the readjustment will be.’

‘It’s actually very, very changed, though,’ Lena pointed out.

Ada looked sceptical. ‘Well, it’s not empty by any means, so …’ ‘So that’s good, yeah? Middle ground and all that.’ Will was like a goddamn puppy, bouncing up and down for approval.

‘Maybe. You do need to be prepared for—oh!’ Ada had reached for the door of the spare room before Lena could stop her. She froze, silent, hand still on the knob, door only half open, which was as far as it would go. Now you get what it’s been like, Lena wanted to say. Now you can see what I’ve been dealing with!

‘Yeah, we haven’t worried about that one,’ Will said, right at Ada’s shoulder. ‘Aunty Nic doesn’t use it day to day, so we figured it wasn’t a priority.’

‘As if you know what Aunty Nic does day to day,’ Lena muttered. Will had the gall to look hurt.