I glance down at Chloe’s text once more; once more before I’ll choose to delete it. I can hear footsteps inside the flat. Freya is up, she is coming, she’s just on the other side of the door. I take Charlie’s hand again in mine and pull him to me, huddling him against my ribs.

I can hear the sound of the door being unlocked. In a moment it will open.

I have to scroll down to see the last part of Chloe’s text, the final part where she has written the name.

I hear the click as the door opens and then she is standing right there before us.

I see the words, so stark on my phone.

I feel the floor beneath me upend. She is standing right there in front of me.

Sarah’s cousin’s name is Freya, the text says.

Chapter 35

‘Freya,’ I say.

I want to burst into tears with the shock. It feels as though a hundred walls are collapsing within me, flood banks crumbling, a tidal wave of pounding water breaking through.

‘I know …’ The words fall out of me. ‘I know who you are.’

She looks at me with shock on her own face, and then – what else? – is it fear?

Everything is spinning backwards, my whole world rearranging itself. I lift Charlie up, holding him to me. He is so heavy yet so tiny in my arms. I have come to the person who I thought would help me, who would protect us, who would save Charlie. Instead, she has been lying to me all along. The twisting wrench of it sends a flare of pain through my head and it feels as though it is blinding me. Is this what it feels like when your mind finally splinters, when it finally breaks irreparably in two?

I have no idea what is going to happen now as I stand there, arms wrapped around my son. She never expected me to turn up here. How could she? I should never have had her address. She would never have known about the licence card I stole from her, that impulsive, crazy move in Starbucks. Even I didn’t know what I was doing at the time.

Here we both are, face to face with each other, so many things falling terrifyingly into place. And so many questions still so nakedly unanswered.

‘I’m sorry,’ Freya says. ‘I really am sorry.’

In my arms, Charlie begins quietly to cry. To my amazement I can see tears forming in Freya’s own eyes.