The twins beamed, bringing everyone in, and spoke together: ‘All of you, you’re our family too.’

The stillness continued to creep over everyone, the dust of the twins’ words settling over the room, and Lottie wanted to smile back, to say yes, but all she could think of was the postcard from her dad and its scent of cheap alcohol. And right behind her was a shadow she could never get rid of – the Goat Man, telling her that even these happy moments were only a mask.

‘I’m going to tell my dad that Saskia’s my girlfriend,’ Anastacia announced, immediately covering her mouth, as if she was shocked at what she’d said.

Saskia nearly fell backwards off her seat in surprise.

‘I want to give him the chance to accept us, to do the right thing,’ Anastacia explained, a blush creeping on to her face that was entirely out of character.

‘But what if he doesn’t?’

‘It doesn’t matter any more. Lola’s right – we have other family.’ Anastacia tried to hide her red face behind her teacup, and when that failed she gave everyone a stern look. ‘You can only give people so many chances, even your parents, and I want to know for certain if there’s no hope with him.’

For Lottie, the cakes and candies began to slip out of focus, their sweet smells replaced by the sickly scent of rum, the room blurred and she caught a glimpse of herself in the black Assam tea. She didn’t look anything like her father. All she could see staring back was her mother’s side of the family and the wolf round her neck sparkled white in the sunlight from the window.

Lottie knew Ellie had been right, that she couldn’t ignore the postcard from her father, that doing so was only prolonging something she should have done a long, long time ago.

‘That’s a really brave and good idea, Anastacia.’ The look Lottie gave Anastacia let her know she understood, only Lottie had already reached her threshold when it came to chances, and it was time to stop pretending otherwise. ‘Now, would you excuse me? I’m just going to pop to the girls’ room,’ she announced.

Ellie immediately clocked on to her. ‘I’ll go with you,’ she said, standing up and following Lottie out of the room so fast that the door barely had time to shut behind them before Ellie began her tirade.

‘I could practically hear the cogs turning in your brain in there.’ Ellie’s voice followed her while Lottie continued firmly on to the bathroom, shuffling awkwardly between confused Conch students while Ellie pushed past them, indifferent to the scene she was causing. ‘What are you thinking? Did what Anastacia said get to you? Are you going to speak to your dad?’