Neighbours gather in my garden, cheering, welcoming Amber home like she’d been gone for over a year. Amongst them, my father. What is he doing here? How did he know Amber was missing? I didn’t ring him; who did?

He walks over to us when we get out of the car. ‘Is she okay?’ Dad rubs Amber’s head.

‘Yes but…’ I don’t ask, I’ll wait until things calm down. ‘Are you coming inside?’

Looking around at the crowd, he declines. ‘I’ll ring you later when all the fuss dies down, I just wanted to be here in case you needed me.’ Dad leans in and hugs us both before walking out of the garden. Turning my head, I watch him leave, his step slower, his shoulders slumped.

The cops have taken Joyce to the station and this time they won’t be letting her go. They still have no knife, no proof she murdered her sister. She’s being held on abduction charges.

Amber is saying very little about it all. Which is unusual, I do hope she’s not broken. That she hasn’t left her sarcastic smart answers behind in that apartment. I don’t want her to change. Amber is Amber. She’s what I love.

Tom hasn’t left her side. He’s like a puppy following her around. She had to ask him to get out when she went to the bathroom.

Later that day when the police have left the house, things relax a bit. I relax a bit. Two hours of sleep should be enough to help me paddle through the day.

I’m well aware there are still questions to be answered. The biggest one being, who killed Claire McCarthy? But for now I need to be alone with my family and just enjoy the fact that we’re all together again.

That evening, Amber is in her room scrolling down the screen on her laptop when I walk in.

‘I hate that picture.’

‘What picture?’

‘The one of me that’s been shared across the whole of the country. Could you not have got a better one?’

‘Amber, you were missing, it wasn’t a beauty contest.’

‘Still.’ Closing down the screen she pushes the laptop to the side and turns to me. Her head resting on the pillow, her eyes half closed. ‘Were you scared?’

‘Yes, Amber, I’ve never been more scared in my life and I never want to be.’ I move closer and sit on the side of the bed.

‘Did you think I was dead?’

‘No, I never thought that.’

Amber turns to lie on her back, her gaze fixed on the ceiling. ‘I think she’s telling the truth.’

‘Who.’

‘Joyce, my abductor.’

‘What truth?’ I’m on high alert again, blood rushing through my veins.

‘About Kenny, I think she is his mother.’

‘What makes you think that?’