‘Good morning,’ PC Oaks says. ‘How did you sleep?’

‘Fine thanks,’ I reply, warily, not looking away from the screen. I instinctively know that I’m not going to want to hear whatever it is they have to say and so I try to put it off as long as possible.

They both pull up chairs and sit next to my bed. ‘Would you mind turning off the TV?’ Ellie, the social worker, says quietly. ‘I’m afraid we have some bad news.’

I point the remote control at the TV and switch it off, a feeling of dread rising within me.

Ellie reaches out and takes my hand. ‘I’m sorry to have to tell you this, and there’s no easy way to say it, but the man who we believe you called your father is dead.’

What? ‘Dead? No, he can’t be,’ I say. I feel myself start to shake. Not Dad. No.

‘The police were called out to a farmhouse after some ramblers reported … well, you don’t need to hear what they reported right now, but they found your … a man’s body there.’

My breath catches in my throat. ‘A body?’

‘Yes. I’m sorry to have to tell you this, it very much looks like he killed himself.’

Tears rise in my eyes and start to fall down my cheeks. I don’t wipe them away.

‘But how do you know it’s Dad?’ I ask. ‘He could be anyone.’ They’ve got it wrong. They must have.

‘Samples taken from you while you were still asleep match those found around the house – on tissues, a hairbrush and your toothbrush,’ PC Oaks says gently. ‘It seems that we have almost certainly found where you were living. So by extension, the man … found there is believed to be the man you were living with.’

‘But you said he’s dead? He can’t be!’

The officer pauses before saying, ‘That’s the other thing. This will come as a shock, but I’m afraid that while you appeared to have been living at the house, the man whose body we found could not be your biological father. But we think we know—’

What? What are they saying? ‘Know what!’ I cry. ‘You said my dad was dead and now you’re saying he’s not my dad! Which is it?’

PC Oaks takes a deep breath. ‘As I was saying, we think we now know who you are. The man who you appeared to be living with is dead, I’m afraid, but he was not your natural father. We know this from the same samples taken from you. We have also checked your samples against our databases—’

I shake my head. ‘I don’t understand. You say he’s not my father, but you don’t know who I am either.’

PC Oaks sighs.