Jake shrugs. ‘The doctor said she’s okay. She’s breathing on her own and he doesn’t think she’s done any damage to her brain, heart or spine but –’ he touches his throat – ‘she’s got a red speckled mark that goes all the way round her neck. I couldn’t look at it.’

‘Thank God you came home when you did,’ Mark says, looking at me. ‘If you’d have stayed at your mum’s like you were supposed to …’ He shakes his head. ‘It doesn’t bear thinking about.’

‘No, it doesn’t.’

‘Are you going to text Liz again and let her know that Kira’s woken up?’

I nod but, as I do, a cold, sick feeling twists in my stomach. I still haven’t told them everything that happened yesterday. When Jake arrived at the hospital with Mark last night he was in a terrible state, demanding that the doctors let him see Kira, begging them not to let her die. It tore me up, seeing him like that. I tried to convince myself that it wasn’t my fault she’d tried to hang herself, that I still didn’t know for sure whether she was the one I’d sent the text to. I kept telling myself that, all the way home after a nurse told us that Kira had been stabilized but we wouldn’t be able to see her until visiting hours today.

The second I got in I plugged my phone charger into the wall. It took for ever to flicker back to life and my hand shook as I scrolled through my list of contacts.

The number on the new phone matched a number in mine.

I’d sent the text to Kira.

Before I could decide what to do next Liz popped in to see how we were. She told me what had happened after I’d shouted at her to ring Mark and then clambered into the front of the ambulance with the driver.

She’d called him straight away and told him to get to the hospital with Jake. A couple of minutes later the police arrived. They spoke to Liz and Caleb at length about what had happened. Liz told them that she’d heard glass breaking and she’d come round with Caleb to see what was going on. She described what she’d seen and said it was definitely a suicide attempt. The police seemed convinced and told her they’d contact the hospital to check Kira had survived and would be in touch if they had any concerns. After they left she locked up the house with her spare key and Caleb nailed some wood over the broken panel in the door.

‘How’s Jake?’ she asked as I slipped the new phone off the kitchen counter and into my pocket.

‘Not good. Mark’s with him in the living room.’