Bonnie hugs her tightly, unfettered happiness creasing her face. I hardly dare look at her, but I also can’t seem to drag away my eyes. I am acutely aware of David standing to one side, awkward discomfort radiating off him in waves, and wish that he would say something – anything to make this situation less weird. Feeling desperate, I turn towards Kit, who has folded his big arms across his bare chest and is peering at my adoptive dad with friendly intrigue.

Mumbling something about needing to clean myself up, I begin to move away, only to feel a hand on my arm.

‘Wait,’ says Bonnie, her confidence wavering when I don’t return her proffered smile. ‘Please don’t run away before we have a chance to talk.’

‘OK,’ I croak, stepping out of her grasp. My limbs feel stiff. David falls in beside me as we all begin walking slowly towards the yard and starts saying something jolly about how much he likes my hair, but I barely register his words. While I am glad to see him and relieved that he is OK, I can’t deal with him being kind to me – I’m only just holding it together as it is. All I want to do is collapse against my dad and beg him to make it all go away, but I also want to know how he came to be here in the first place. Did he come with Bonnie, or is it purely a coincidence? And if it is the former, why didn’t he warn me? Why did he disappear and not reply to any of my messages, knowing how much it would worry me?

Despite the solid heat of the day, my teeth begin to chatter, and I wrap my arms around myself, trying to draw warmth from Kit’s huge shirt. Everything is going to change again, I think despondently. Bonnie might be curious now, but once she’s met me properly and satisfied her curiosity, she may not like the idea of me hanging around, taking up space in her life. I will probably have little choice but to return home to England and never see Tui – or Kit – again.