‘I’m not your family and I’m not your darling. You’re a stranger to me. I didn’t come here for you, I came here for me. Do you have any idea what it’s been like for me? Knowing that I came from this … evil? It was bad enough when I thought it was just him. Was my whole life a complete lie? I felt so guilty for what happened to Dad, for taking him away from you, despite what he was. But now I realise I should have killed you too.’

‘Do you relive that moment over and over again? Do you savour it?’ she asks, a glint in her eye. She misses it.

‘No! I’m not like you,’ I say. As my mother’s words hit me I realise I did the right thing and the guilt I have felt over killing my father all those years ago disappears. If anything, I wish I had seen what kind of person my mother was and dealt with her too. Maybe then Mandy Green wouldn’t be missing. I wonder how many more girls would have died if my father and mother had been allowed to continue. I wonder if I ever would have found out, if it wasn’t for Tim coming into our lives and exposing them. I feel bad for the things they are saying about him in the papers; he wasn’t who they said he was.

‘Then we must have done something right. Look at you. You’re more beautiful than I imagined you would grow up to be.’

‘Where is Mandy?’ I ask again. ‘Is she here?’

‘You call yourself Felicity now?’ she asks, ignoring me. ‘She was a good friend to you, it’s a shame what happened to her. I know it’s hard losing someone you care about.’ There’s an edge to her voice. I know she is thinking about my father again.

‘I didn’t lose her, I watched Dad kill her.’

‘You changed your hair to look like hers,’ she observes. ‘You always did look a lot alike.’

‘I couldn’t be me anymore. I didn’t want you to find me. I didn’t want anyone to know where I came from. I thought when Dad’s body turned up that he would get found out and I couldn’t bear the thought of anyone knowing I was associated with him in any way. But it never did turn up, did it? I sometimes wondered if maybe he survived and managed to get away. Start again with someone else,’ I say, and for the first time my mother’s mask slips, her face distorted with anger, not an expression I have ever associated with her. I have hit a nerve.

‘Don’t be ridiculous. If your father were alive he would have come back to me.’