She opens the wardrobe door, stares at the perfect line of hangers and walks her fingers through the rainbow of clothes hanging off them, from navy to pale pink with a dazzling mix of colours in between. She reaches up on her tiptoes and slides her hand across the top shelf. What is she looking for? Beth’s private journal, her innermost secrets neatly written down, like Kat used to do? As if it would be that easy. All she finds are a collection of Tiffany boxes filled with trinkets and jewellery. Saved for when Martha becomes an adult and has her own standards of beauty to retain. Eventually Kat closes the wardrobe door and turns back into the room.

The bed is unmade, so she pulls the duvet up to the pillow and strokes the creases out. There are two distressed wooden photo frames on the bedside table. She picks them both up and sinks onto the bed. One shows a couple, a younger Beth, much more similar to the girl Kat remembers, but with an added whiff of privilege, and a blond man wearing jeans and a racing green polo shirt. That must be Simon. The other photo is of the same older couple from the frame downstairs, clearly Simon’s parents. Kat wonders why there are no pictures of Beth’s family on display.

‘Kat?’

She whips her head around.

‘I’m sorry,’ Beth says, giving Kat a warm smile. ‘But what the fuck are you doing in my daughter’s bedroom?’

‘I’m sorry,’ Kat parrots back, buying time.

‘What’s going on?’ Panic rises in Beth’s voice as the strangeness of the situation sinks into her just-woken brain. ‘Where are my children?’

Kat needs to stem her fears before they escalate, before Beth throws her out. ‘They’re at school. They’re fine, I promise.’

Beth’s eyes flit around the room until they land on Martha’s wall clock, then they widen. ‘How can it be half past nine? Why didn’t they wake me? And why are you here?’

‘I was passing, I knocked, to see if you wanted me to walk Luna,’ she stutters. ‘It’s my morning off.’ She stands up and smooths down Martha’s bed for a second time. ‘Ava saw me. They told me you were sleeping, and I thought it would be nice, for me to take them, you to get more rest. After everything.’ She tapers off and stares pleadingly at Beth.

‘You took them to school? What about their PE kits? And an extra bag to bring their artwork home in?’ She rubs the heel of her hand against her forehead. ‘They didn’t mind you taking them?’