I trail off as I peer through the stained-glass window to her side, snatching fairy-like glimpses of neat hallway, cut flowers, bright children’s trainers. Whose are they? Hers? Or do they belong to the sister? They should be mine … I look away but catch the nameplate, practically laughing in my face at the very idea. The Jolleys. Even their name sounds like they should be from another planet. I stumble backward as she steps towards me, dislodging another shower of jasmine.

‘Look, Marie, this is difficult for all of us, especially Katie. I’m sure that’s all you care about, isn’t it? She’s not well – nothing critical, but she needs to rest, and much as I know how important these visits are, I also know I’m entitled to reschedule them if it’s in her best interests. Which, I can assure you right now, it is.’

I stare at her, suddenly brick set and stout, sharpening the fluff on her cardigan. Marie and Katie. She’s supposed to be talking about us, but these are girls I still don’t know yet, no matter how hard I try.

‘You’re part of a life she doesn’t remember,’ she says, brushing 188petals from her hair. ‘You must understand how hard that is for her, and surely even you can question what good it does reminding her of it all? If you want the best for her, that is. We’ve definitely turned a corner now, in terms of how she’s settling down to life with us, but there’s still a long way to go.’

‘What corner has she turned? The one where she stops screaming in her sleep? Where she stops cutting herself just to feel pain? Where she washes her hands because the soap smells nice, instead of scrubbing until she bleeds?’

Even she can’t answer back to that in time as the door cracks open behind her, breath lodging hard in my throat as wisps of white-blonde hair curl with the jasmine round the doorframe—

‘Go back inside, sweetheart…’ More wisps, whiter than a ghost, fringe the face that peers round the door. The shape of a heart, the colour of paper.

‘Katie, darling. Come on now.’ I freeze as Mrs Jolley bends to scoop up a ball of tiger-striped fluff rubbing round my leg. ‘Here, go and take Peaches for a cuddle.’

The cat fixes me with a stare as she settles in skinny arms, elbows sharp as the bitten fingernails scratching behind its ears.