‘It’s happened before,’ she tells me, rolling her eyes. ‘Quite a few times.’

‘Shit happens,’ I murmur, and Bonnie laughs.

‘You’re not wrong there – and that is exactly what Kit would have said. I can tell you’ve been spending a lot of time with him.’

‘He’s been great,’ I tell her, my voice wobbling.

‘He is one of the good guys,’ Bonnie confirms.

Tui has got her socks back on and is lying on her back in the hay, Beavis held aloft in her outstretched arms.

‘Thank you,’ Bonnie says to me, stroking a hand through her daughter’s wild hair. ‘For finding her. Kit says I have you to thank for saving Beavis, too.’

‘It was no trouble,’ I mumble, but Bonnie quite rightly scoffs in disbelief. To be fair to her, there is no denying the state of me. I am a horror.

‘Did you say thank you to Genie for rescuing you?’ Bonnie asks Tui, who sits up with a great beaming smile on her face.

‘Uh-huh.’

‘You love her, don’t you?’ Bonnie surmises with pleasure, and Tui shakes her head.

‘I think so, yes,’ she replies, appraising me with her big dark eyes.

‘Shall I tell you a secret?’ Bonnie asks, looking not at me but at Tui.

‘Uh-huh.’

‘Genie is your sister.’

There is a pause as Tui takes this in, frowning at her mother in confusion. Beavis has padded across on to my lap, and I pat him mindlessly, unsure what to do or say. There is a great torrent of emotion building behind the dam of my senses, and I’m afraid that if I open my mouth, or blink, or even move, then it will erupt.

Tui scratches at a scab on her ankle and hums tunelessly to herself. Then, turning to me, she traces a finger over my forehead and across my cheek.

‘The same eyes as Mum’s,’ she says wonderingly.

‘That’s right,’ Bonnie says. She sounds choked, close to tears herself now, but I can’t muster the courage to look at her. I had been preparing myself for the moment she said she wanted nothing to do with me – but this proves that she must. Now that I am faced with acceptance and genuine welcome, I feel thrown, and I’m not yet sure whether it’s a good or guilty feeling.

‘Oh Gee-nie, my sister, what are you sad about?’ demands Tui, pulling me into a fierce, one-armed hug. ‘Don’t cry. There, there.’

I cling to her, to this wonderful girl that I love so much, and I cry for all the years of her life that I have missed, and for all the times that I longed for her before I even knew she existed. Tui only lets me go when my sobs have ceased, and even then, she holds Beavis up to my face so he can lick away what remains of my tears.