A coldness seeps through Marina’s body. Can he be serious? She studies his face and concludes he is. He has a certain arrogance. Isn’t that what Victor had said? Paranoid too. Always thinking that people from the past are out to get him. Is that what is happening here?

‘You are not what you seem,’ he concludes, fumbling with the papers again, trying to get them back into his case.

She stays completely still, eyes fixed on his. ‘It’s a detail,’ she says carefully.

‘It’s more than that, I’m afraid. It’s a lie.’ The papers flutter from his hands. He rocks on his feet, steadies himself, but makes no attempt to pick them up.

Her mouth drops open. ‘That’s an exaggeration.’ She speaks quietly, still wary of upsetting him.

He closes his briefcase despite the missing papers. She considers gathering them up, but decides against it. She senses a change in his mood but can’t identify what it means for her.

‘I think you should leave my house.’

The air shifts about her. ‘I have a contract.’

He picks up his cane and leans on it heavily. So heavily, Marina thinks it might snap. She is wrong about him not needing it: he might not need it physically, but he certainly needs it metaphorically; the cane is his prop.

‘In my opinion, the contract is null and void on the grounds that you didn’t disclose your information directly on the form.’

She opens her mouth, incredulous again. ‘You are trying to evict me?’

‘If you like.’

She laughs in disbelief. ‘You are kidding.’

‘I am not.’ He looks around the room and his gaze falls again on the spot in the middle of the rug, lingers there before moving back to her.

She shakes her head. ‘You can’t do that.’

He shrugs. ‘We’ll see.’

Despite her instinct to be cautious, irritation is rising. ‘I have rights. I won’t go.’

‘It’s better if you do.’ He tucks the briefcase beneath his arm and makes to leave.

Marina shivers. His voice is ominous. It veils a threat. Yet there is more to this, she thinks suddenly. He can’t possibly believe that he can get rid of her on such a flimsy excuse.

‘If you know my name is Marina,’ she blurts suddenly, ‘then you probably know who I am. In which case, you know why I’m here.’

He hesitates and stares back at her. ‘I have no idea why you are here.’

‘But you don’t deny that you know who I am.’

‘Marina is an unusual name.’

‘So, it’s obvious. You know that I was the baby that was abandoned in this house.’

He bows his head, conceding the point.