‘Women sometimes kid themselves,’ says Michael. ‘Listen. The world of adult problems is … complicated. Don’t you get caught up in all the rules and have to’s. Love is beautiful. In whatever form it takes.’

‘I don’t get how you can make out that a relationship between an adult man and a fifteen-year-old girl is okay,’ I say. ‘It’s not beautiful at all. It’s a power imbalance.’

Michael pulls open the front door with force. ‘So what are you, Liberty? Just a little Lorna parrot? Is she telling you what to think now? Has she sent you here and put words in your mouth?’ His eyes go wild suddenly, swimming in their sockets. ‘Just get inside the house, for goodness sake.’

I take a step back. ‘I say my own words. And I know my own mind.’

Michael studies me for a moment. Then he shakes his head. ‘Sorry. You’re right. Look, I didn’t mean to lose it. But it was such a hard time, you know? For everyone. And I don’t know how to explain Annalise to you. I didn’t expect you to work out she was your birth mother.’

‘So what were you going to do? Just keep me hanging on, desperate to know who my real mother was?’

‘To tell you the truth, Liberty, I didn’t have much of a plan at all. Come on, let’s get things back on track. You’re a great artist. You and I should be talking about music, not arguing.’

‘Do you have any idea what happened to Annalise?’

‘Nobody knows, love.’ Michael considers the front door, with its iron studwork. ‘Cat and I have spent millions of dollars searching for her.’

‘I saw Cat at the party. Does she know—’

‘Cat doesn’t know about you. And I for one am not going to tell her. She’s just given up drinking. I don’t want to send her straight back to the bottle.’

‘Oh, so you have a virtuous reason. Nothing to do with not wanting her to know that you slept with her fifteen-year-old daughter?’

Michael gives me big, earnest eyes. ‘Look, maybe I sound like I’m excusing my behaviour. You’re right. Me and Annalise – it wasn’t right. She was too young and it wasn’t okay. When you’re a rock star … people make you into this sort of godlike figure. Normal rules don’t apply. It warped my thinking. But losing you … it was God’s punishment, you know? For the life I was living. It put me straight. And I’ve been straight ever since. Can you forgive your old man for being the devil who made all those mistakes?’

‘I don’t know. I’m still trying to get my head around everything.’