‘It mean she could have the seizure. Is serious. She can die. Can happen fast, like that.’ He clicks his fingers and I wince. ‘We hope that her head does not bleed inside from the trauma of the blow, or that the bleed is small. We hope she will recover in a few days.’ He spreads his hands and shrugs. ‘We cannot tell at this precise moment. Even the CT scan will not help yet; it is too early to say what happen. So we wait and we look. She go to Grosseto tomorrow, if she need the scan. Or she stay here one more day, two days maybe, go home with you, have the scan in England. We must watch, because she could have the seizure at any moment.’

The palms of my hands are clammy and I wipe them on my jeans. I need Amy here, I’m not the right person for this. I don’t know what I should be asking. Amy ought to bring Luca with her. He could speak to Dr Virgili in Italian and maybe we’d have a better understanding of what he’s trying to say. I’m jiggling my foot up and down; the laces of my Converse are ragged and dirty at the ends and there’s a sticky stain on one toe, where Lotte spilt ice cream on me. I push my knee down to stop myself.

‘There is something else, Signor Flowers.’

I shrivel inside. I want to tell him to stop, to wait for my sister, because I don’t want to hear whatever he has to say.

‘When she arrive to the hospital we ask if she has been sexually assaulted,’ he says.

I close my eyes and grip the armrests of the chair.

‘She is completely dressed.’

I let go and release the tension from my shoulders. I realize I was holding my breath.

‘Who found her?’

He shrugs as if this is not important. ‘A holidaymaker out for the walk. But,’ he continues, ‘when we examine her later, we find she has anal fissures. This injury is consistent with the rape.’

I don’t want to hear this about my sister. I can’t sit still any more. I get up and go and stand by the window. My pasty-white reflection stares back at me.

‘I don’t understand. You said she wasn’t sexually assaulted.’

Dr Virgili inclines his head. ‘I cannot say for sure. Because she had the clothes on, we do not check exactly when she arrive to the hospital. It can be she was rape last night, or it was another time, very recent. Maybe she say yes, or yes at first, but it is extremely forceful sexual intercourse. You understand?’

I think I’m going to be sick.

‘For now, your sister needs rest. You can see her later.’