‘I could cheerfully kill her, Mum, for this. From what I can gather from Joanie, she’s been taking drugs since her last year at school. No wonder she didn’t want to stay on and make something of herself.’ Kate clenched her fists. ‘If she was here now I’d tear her apart. What a foolish, foolish girl!’

Dan walked from the room, his head reeling.

Lizzy on drugs? His Lizzy? He sat at the top of the stairs as the news sank in. A little while later Kate’s sobs had subsided and Evelyn pushed past him to make her daughter a coffee. Inside the bedroom Kate began once more to search the room. She had just found Lizzy’s birth control pills when Dan came back in.

‘Look, Dan, she’s on the pill. Another first for Madam Lizzy. When she gets home I’m going to slaughter her.’

‘It’s because of you, Kate. You were never there for her. You should have dedicated yourself to bringing up your child . . .’

Dan’s trite speech was what she needed to bring herself down from her temper. She turned to face him. Her voice was deadly calm as she spoke.

‘You dare to tell me what I should have done, Danny Burrows? You dare to tell me about my child?’ She poked herself in the chest. ‘Yes, my child. Never yours, Dan. You were never here for her. My mother and I brought her up and she brought herself this low. Where that girl is concerned I have nothing on my conscience. Nothing.’

But Kate knew that no matter how many times she told herself that, she would always blame herself. Always.

She began to pull all her daughter’s clothes from the wardrobe, searching the pockets as she went.

‘Look at you, you’d think you were at a suspect’s house instead of your daughter’s bedroom. You haven’t even tried to hear her side of it.’ Dan’s voice was disgusted. He turned and walked from the room.

Kate followed him on to the landing and shouted: ‘You’re another one. You can take your stuff and get out. I’ve had enough of freeloaders. She’s like you, Dan, that’s the trouble. She looks like an angel and she’s a slut . . .’

She heard him slam the front-room door and went back into the bedroom. The Paddington Bear wallpaper that had been on the walls for years was mocking her. On a shelf over the bed were Lizzy’s dolls from childhood. Picking up the Tiny Tears she grasped it to herself, cuddling the cold plastic head to her face.

Oh, Lizzy, Lizzy, when did it all start to go wrong? How could she not have noticed what was going on under her nose? What had come over her child?

She licked the salty tears from her lips and, taking a tissue from the box by the bed, blew her nose loudly.