Her mum pursed her lips and took a moment, as if she was trying to recall what they’d been doing. In reality Mia knew she was wondering how much to say.

‘Go on. Please,’ Mia urged, because she did want to know.

‘Well, last week we took a picnic to the beach. We went all the way to Sandbanks – over on that ferry you both used to love when you were kids.’ For a moment she was caught in the memory and her eyes sparkled as she spoke of it.

Mia nodded encouragement.

‘Jess loved it there, but then it started raining, so we came back and went to the cinema. Oh, and then Thursday she got us tickets to the theatre. Can you believe that? They had one of those London shows come to the Mayflower. Jess spotted it online; she said it was one she’d wanted to see for ages.’

Mia smiled. ‘That’s brilliant.’

But the light drained from her mum’s eyes as she said, ‘It doesn’t feel right.’

‘Yes, it does. You should be thrilled Jess wants to do all this.’

‘How can I be thrilled? How can I be happy about any of it, when you’re here? I don’t seem to be able to live my life without one of my daughters in a prison, do I?’ As soon as the words were out of her mouth, her mum’s face dropped. ‘Oh dear God, I shouldn’t have said that. I’m sorry, love, I’m so sorry.’

‘It’s fine,’ Mia brushed a hand through the air.

‘No. It isn’t fine at all. Why on earth do you want to hear all these things we’ve been up to, when you can’t – you can’t even …’

‘I do want to hear them. I love knowing what you and Jess are doing. I want to know she’s beginning to live her life again.’

Don’t you think that’s why I’m in here? she thought, though she didn’t say it.

‘So you need to make sure she carries on,’ Mia urged her. ‘Show her how much there is to live for. This is no more than Jess deserves, you know that. She deserves a bloody life at last.’ Mia’s eyes welled with tears as her mum closed her own.

‘What’s the point of it all?’ she said, so quietly.

‘What do you mean, Mum?’

‘I’ve gained one daughter and lost another, so what’s the bloody point?’

‘Mum, you can’t talk like that.’

‘This is what I don’t get.’ She shook her head, opening her eyes and searching Mia’s. ‘I don’t get it at all. How you can talk about your sister with all this love, but then refuse to see her?’

Mia flattened her mouth and dipped her head. She didn’t want to go into this again.