‘You were right,’ she said. ‘I can’t do this. Please come.’

By the time the train had ground to a halt her father had arrived at the station. He didn’t ask any questions. If he wondered where Max was, what had happened, how his daughter could have crashed out of university so spectacularly, he didn’t ask. And if he noticed the bruises that she had covered with make-up, he said nothing.

Her phone vibrated incessantly. Chloe called. Texted. Called again. Messages begging her to answer, asking where she was, threatening to call the police. Zadie watched the display light up but couldn’t convince her fingers to move to open the phone. And even if she did, what would she say? Guilt hung heavy in her stomach. The first real, proper friend she had ever had, and look where it had ended. But this was what she did. She ruined things. She curdled the things she touched. It was stupid to think that she could belong here, that she could manage it. She would be safe at home, far away from people who she could hurt. Or people who could hurt her.

Her father didn’t want to take her back to the house. He said he would send someone for her things later. But she had to go. She unlocked the door with shaking hands. Put the ring, in its box, on the kitchen table. Max’s parents wouldn’t leave her alone until they had it back. Then her keys next to it. She put her phone in the kitchen bin, where she had put so many bottles before, then poured a bottle of water over it for good measure. It stopped buzzing. Chloe’s name disappeared from the display. ‘Bye,’ Zadie whispered. ‘I’m sorry.’

On the way home, Zadie lay down in the back of her father’s estate car. She watched the dappled sky move past the car window while her father played Classic FM on the radio, occasionally humming. Neither of them spoke.

At last, they grew close to their family home. He indicated and turned into the drive, the drive she had run up and down as a little girl, walked up to get phone signal as a moody teenager. ‘Thank you,’ she said. Her father caught her eye in the wing mirror and smiled.

‘That’s all right,’ he said. ‘You’re going to be okay.’