‘No, Beth, I can’t let you do this,’ Eva insisted, grabbing sharp hold of her arm, but this time it was Bruno who pushed her away.

A hard shove; Eva stumbled backwards, feeling the queasy softness underfoot, the shrill scream of the puppy. ‘Eh! Attention!’ Bruno shouted.

Her heart kicked out in fright, but still she tried with Beth.

‘Don’t be so fucking stupid. Mum and Dad will kill you.’

‘I don’t care.’ Beth’s voice sounded dreamy and faraway.

Eva wanted to slap her. To shake some sense into her.

‘It’s fine! It’s okay!’ Corinne laughed but it was a nervous trill.

‘You’re seriously going to do this?’ Eva persisted with her sister. ‘Here? In this hovel? You could get hepatitis. You could get HIV.’

But Beth ignored her. She turned away and offered up her flesh.

‘I’m calling Mum,’ Eva said, hurrying away from them.

She stumbled out into a small clearing that might have once been a garden. A clump of nettles brushed against her bare calf – a sudden rash of stinging lashed her skin. She fumbled in her bag and found her phone. Thumbing the screen, she saw a message there – she hadn’t heard the ping of receiving it – but she could see that it was from Ross.

A snap of dry grass underfoot, and she turned and saw Corinne coming towards her.

‘Don’t call your mother,’ she said quickly, her voice coming out in a breathy rush. ‘It will be okay – you’ll see. She needs this.’

Eva ignored her, inputting her pin.

‘I needed it too,’ Corinne went on. ‘I wasn’t always brave, you see. But Anouk brought me here. She knew that I needed to do this. And Bruno is careful. He knows what he’s doing.’ She pulled up the hem of her vest to show her own tattoo. An inked flower, Eva glanced at it, unimpressed. She didn’t like tattoos or body piercings, thought them cheap. But Corinne didn’t notice the look of disgust. ‘Anouk knew that it would be good for me—’

‘Well, I’m not like your fucking sister,’ Eva said, cutting her off. ‘I actually care about my sister’s health.’

The expression on Corinne’s face faltered, the light in her eyes dimming. ‘Don’t say that—’

‘All this talk about Anouk – the way you go on and on about her. It’s so fucking boring.’ Eva turned away from her. ‘And as for your deranged notion that I am somehow like her. Please! You might mean it as a compliment, but she sounds like a complete asshole. Self-centred, erratic, a fucking nutcase—’