She gives me a sympathetic smile. ‘That’s understandable. But there’s nothing to be nervous about. The family is delighted you’re safe and can’t wait to see you again. But everything will go at your pace and nothing will happen or be decided today.’ Yawn. How many times has she said this? ‘After the meeting, when you’re ready, we’ll go through the options again and you can decide what you want to do.’

Tears fill my eyes and I brush them away. I want to go home to Dad but that particular option isn’t on the table, and never will be. I sniff and Ellie puts her hand on my shoulder. ‘I know,’ she says. ‘It must be a lot to take in.’

‘I’m OK,’ I lie, straightening my back. I can’t stay in hospital forever – I understand that things will need to move forward in one way or another at some point soon.

There is a gentle knock on the door and a woman and a boy – I guess my mum and the brother I’ve been told I have – come in with PC Oaks. The woman’s hand immediately flies to her mouth and tears start running down her cheeks as she murmurs ‘My baby!’ I shift awkwardly. I don’t know what to do. The boy glances at me, gives his mum a look of exasperation and the two of them sit down on two chairs which had already been brought in before their arrival. The woman is wearing a headscarf and I remember being told she has cancer. She is still crying, silently, and the boy pats his mum’s shoulder, whispering, ‘Mum! Please! We talked about this.’

‘Laura – meet Karen and Jesse Roberts,’ Ellie says formally. It annoys me when she calls me Laura because she always says it in a weird way as if to make the point that she doesn’t consider it my real name, but then again, I don’t want her to call me Anna either. I can’t think of myself as Anna. It’s hard to imagine I ever will be able to.

My legs feel wobbly and I’m glad I’m sitting down. This is the first time I’ve been out of bed properly since I arrived in hospital, except when I’ve been wheeled around for tests and scans. My head starts to spin. I try to smile at Mrs Roberts and the boy whose name I’ve already forgotten but I think it probably looks like some kind of hideous grimace. Mrs Roberts still has her hand over her mouth and tears are streaming down her face. None of us has said a word and even Ellie seems at a bit of a loss as to what we should do now.