Like meeting Beth at the unit eighteen years ago, or Ellie as she called herself then. Kat had been broken when she first arrived there, slash wounds on her wrists and deeper ones inside her. But then Ellie sought her out, and gave her just enough hope to see a sliver of light. Ellie was damaged, like her, but also beautiful like Becca, with smooth skin and eyes big enough to listen as well as see. And for some unfathomable reason, Ellie wanted to be her friend. Kat couldn’t understand why – not until the day Ellie fully explained it – but she bathed in the glow of Ellie’s attention. From that first group therapy session, they slowly became inseparable. Kat didn’t comment on Ellie washing her hands a hundred times a day, and Ellie didn’t seem to mind Kat knocking on her door with a similar regularity. In fact, she seemed to like it.

Their friendship came to an abrupt end when Kat left the unit. It all happened in such a whirlwind. She found out the police had dropped all charges on the same day Dr Sharp confirmed that she was well enough to leave. On finding out the news, her dad announced that he’d booked her an airline ticket to Australia, and her mum offered to pack her stuff so that Kat could avoid going back home. Her whole life changed in twenty-four hours, but still, her last encounter with Ellie – with all that emotion coursing through her – was what she remembers most. And how utterly devastating it was.

At least now she’s got a chance to make things right.

It felt like fate when Ellie’s face appeared on the computer screen at work. She didn’t look exactly the same of course – she was older, richer, more polished – but the post underneath her photo gave a bigger clue. After what she went through with her brother, stopping for a homeless heroin addict was exactly the sort of thing she’d do. Ellie didn’t like to talk about Eddie much at the unit, but she’d given Kat the facts of his death, and how it led to her mysophobia and anxiety spiralling out of control – that and the newspaper article which followed. Ellie didn’t bring any photos with her to the unit, so Kat never knew what her brother looked like. But the picture that she found in Beth’s shoebox earlier today must be him; the resemblance is too stark for it not to be.