Eva exhaled. Darkness had crept over the room. She wanted to get up and turn on the lights, but part of her didn’t want to break the relaxed mood they had fallen into.

‘At least you will get to visit Anouk again. Maybe she’ll be better now,’ she said, wanting to offer the girl some sort of hope. Whenever Corinne spoke of her sister, a helpless optimism came into her voice, a tenderness to her recollections.

‘I don’t know if she will ever get better.’

‘Don’t say that, Corinne. You can’t give up hope.’

‘The day before I came here – the first time, at Easter – I went to see Anouk. She was so bad that day, I couldn’t stand it. I told Guy and Valentina that I believed her. The things she was saying – even the really crazy shit – I believed it. That it was true, and they had locked her up just for telling the truth.’ She shook her head. ‘I must have seemed crazy to them too.’

‘That’s why your mum rang that night,’ Eva said, and Corinne nodded.

Eva felt for Corinne’s hand and squeezed it, and Corinne kept on holding Eva’s hand, turning to look at her. ‘You remind me of her,’ Corinne said, her voice softening. ‘Anouk, how she was before. As soon as I met you, I felt I knew you already.’ She smiled shyly. ‘When I’m with you, it’s like I have Anouk back again, the way she used to be. The sister that I loved – that I adored.’

There was an intensity about the way she was looking that made Eva uncomfortable. She was suddenly aware of the clamminess of their hands, but she didn’t want to offend the girl or push her away. Not after what Corinne had just admitted to, all she had shared. Instead, Eva tried to lighten things, saying:

‘We both have crazy sisters, huh? You heard what Beth did to herself at school? Stabbing herself? Fucking nuts.’

She turned her gaze back to the ceiling, and then she remembered something, frowning to recall it correctly. Corinne, seeing the frown, said: ‘What is it?’

‘Something my mum said. Before everything kicked off today.’ She tried to bring her mind back, to access the exact words spoken. ‘We were talking about Beth, and then she started asking me all this stuff about Melissa. About what I thought of her, and what did I think Beth used to do anytime she was over there. She was talking like Beth had been abused by Melissa or something …’ Her thoughts ran on, even though her words had stopped.

Corinne’s eyes flickered over her. The grasp of her hand tightened.

‘And?’