‘Come and sit down.’ Matt takes my arm and tries to lead me out of the hall.

‘I need to clear up the dinner things.’

‘Leave all that. Just come in the lounge for a minute.’

I do as he asks and plonk myself onto the sofa. Matt turns off the TV and stacks all the empty plates and bowls on the coffee table. The room is a mess, but I don’t care.

‘What’s going on, Rachel?’ Matt sits opposite me.

I know I’m going to have to tell him my theory, but I also know that he’s going to be sceptical.

‘Rach… you were acting really weirdly in there with them. Talking about their daughter and genetics and all that stuff. What’s going on? Is it…?’ He tails off and gives me a long look.

I know what he wants to ask me, and he’s right of course, but I feel paralysed.

He takes a deep breath. ‘I don’t want to ask this, but is it about what you told me the other day? About your daughter?’

I run my tongue over my teeth. I need to brush them. My mouth tastes sour.

‘Rachel, will you talk to me?’

‘Yes,’ I murmur. ‘Yes, all right?’

Matt sits back in his seat and pushes his hair off his forehead. ‘So… is it because we talked about Holly? Is it all coming back to the surface again? Do you need some kind of help, I mean to talk to someone? I don’t feel like I’m supporting you properly. I feel useless.’

I shake my head. ‘Matt, I’m not cracking up or having a breakdown. Something’s happened. Something that’s going to be hard to believe. But I need you to trust me.’

‘Okay. What? What is it?’

I feel sorry for Matt, for dragging him into all this. He didn’t sign up for any of this when I met him. He thought I was just a single mum who’d had a rough time. He had no idea about the trauma. He had no idea that one day he’d be put in this situation. ‘This is going to sound mad, but I need you to listen to me.’

‘Just tell me, okay.’

‘I think Kate might be the person who abducted my daughter.’

My boyfriend doesn’t respond. Even his facial expression doesn’t change.

‘Matt? Did you hear what I said?’

‘I heard. I’m just… I’m thinking about it.’

‘Her eldest daughter, Bella… I saw her the other day and, oh my goodness, Matt, you should have seen her. She’s the spitting image of my daughter. I mean, there can’t be two people in the world who look so similar. Unless they were identical twins. And I didn’t have twins.’

‘Rachel, how old was Holly when she was taken?’