‘She’s here!’ Mrs Roberts trills, ‘Laura, you remember your broth—, I mean, my son Jesse? He came to the hospital with me.’

I smile benignly, hoping it covers the unexplainable panic I’m feeling. ‘Um, nice to meet you again,’ I mumble, feeling my face go scarlet. The boy gets up and comes over to me.

‘We’re so glad to have you back,’ he says, looking straight into my eyes. Is this really my brother? Unexpectedly, he suddenly puts his arms around me and hugs me tight. I feel a bit uncomfortable as I don’t know him and I can’t think what to do so I kind of pat his back gently and after a few seconds he lets go. He squeezes my arm and says, ‘We’re all looking forward to getting to know you again,’ and goes back to his seat. It sounds like something he had preprepared to say. I wonder if his mother drilled him.

‘Would you like a drink, Laura?’ Mrs Roberts says. I get the feeling she is deliberately using my name to show that she can cope with not calling me Anna. I can imagine her and Ellie discussing that, how best to handle me. ‘Tea? Coffee? Juice?’

‘No, I’m fine thanks,’ I say, shuffling my feet awkwardly.

‘OK. How about we show you your room and let you settle yourself in?’

‘Uh, yes, that would be great, thank you.’ I suddenly feel like there is nothing I would like more than to be back on my own again.

‘Great. I’ll take you,’ Mrs Roberts says. ‘You’ve had a long journey and I imagine you’ll want some time to … well.’

I follow her meekly out the kitchen, into the hallway and up a flight of stairs. After the blank sterility of the hospital everything here feels very colourful. There is a small landing at the top with four doors off it. She pushes one open saying, ‘This is yours.’

I step inside. Karen wasn’t joking when she said they had kept it as it was – it is very clearly a little girl’s room. The duvet cover on the bed is plain white but the headboard and curtains are pastel pink and there are stuffed toys everywhere.

‘Bathroom’s out on the landing,’ she says, vaguely indicating the bedroom door. ‘I’ve put a toothbrush and toothpaste, shower gel and shampoo, a hairbrush, towels, sanitary products and everything else I could think of that you might need in here for you,’ she adds, opening a wardrobe door and pointing at one of the shelves where all the things she mentions are stacked. ‘I hope you don’t mind. If you’d rather use your own stuff then that’s fine too.’

I shake my head. ‘No – I don’t really have any of my own things. So far I haven’t been allowed to take anything from the house.’