I saw surprise register on her face. For a few seconds there was absolute silence, and then she did something I hadn’t expected her to do in a thousand years: she started to cry. As I looked on, amazed, at the tears rolling down her face, she put the biscuits down and came over to where I was sitting at the table. She took the seat opposite mine, put her head on her arms, and began to sob.

Funny to think that I still loved her then, that the sight of her in pain could make my heart twist in sympathy as though it were my own that was breaking. ‘Oh, Hannah,’ I said. ‘Oh my darling, what is it?’ I reached across the table and took hold of her hand. It was the first time she’d let me touch her in years. ‘Tell me, please, tell me what this is all about.’

It took her a while to compose herself. When she did, she wiped her eyes and said in a voice so small and desolate that it brought a lump to my throat, ‘I just want them to love me – my real family, I mean. I want to know them, to understand where I come from.’ Her eyes brimmed with tears again. ‘Ever since I found out about my real mother and father, I’ve felt so confused.’

I was astonished. This was the first time she’d ever brought up what she’d overheard all those years before. ‘I had no idea you felt like this,’ I stammered.

And then, suddenly, and to my horror, a wide smirk broke across her face. ‘Jesus, you’re stupid,’ she said.

As I recoiled she snatched her hand away and slowly shook her head as though dumbfounded. ‘You actually bought that, didn’t you?’ She laughed loudly, a harsh, ugly sound. ‘I always knew you were a fucking idiot, Beth,’ she went on, ‘but I didn’t know you were quite this retarded.’

She got up and, walking around the table towards me, leant down and put her face so close to mine that I could smell the cigarettes on her breath. ‘What I actually want to do is to fuck them up,’ she said quietly. ‘And not just the Lawsons – all of you.’

‘What do you mean?’ I asked, my voice shaking.