My eyelids flipped open. The bedroom was flooded with light. For a few seconds, I didn’t recognise the room or know why I was there.

‘Evie?’ I called, coming to at last. No answer. ‘Evie!’

I pulled on leggings and a T-shirt and rushed downstairs. The TV was on but the living room was empty.

I ran through to the kitchen to find the back door slightly ajar, the key hanging loosely from the lock on the inside.

In places, the sun had broken through the thick cloud covering and now weak shafts of light shone through the opaque glass in the door, illuminating the kitchen flooring in random patches. It felt like mid-morning but there was no clock in here so I couldn’t be sure. How on earth had I slept so long?

‘Evie!’ I yelled as I shoved my feet into the flip-flops by the door and half fell into the tiny yard. I scanned the scrubby grass lawn and the edge of the ugly panelled fence.

I could see immediately that she wasn’t there.

My breathing became erratic. I just couldn’t seem to suck enough air into my lungs. I leaned heavily on a broken plastic garden chair near the door. One of the damaged legs gave way and I stumbled, twisting my ankle slightly.

I yelped in pain.

‘Mummy!’ Seconds later, a beaming Evie emerged, crawling on all fours, through a hole in the hedge that had been masked by overgrown foliage.

‘What on earth are you doing?’ I rushed towards her. ‘Where have you been?’

‘My fault, sorry.’ The head and shoulders of a tall, skinny young man appeared over the hedge. He grinned, revealing blackened teeth. ‘She wanted to see the new puppy.’

The oldest trick in the book, which every parent in the country warned their kids against.

‘Who are you?’ I snapped. ‘I’ve been looking for her everywhere. I thought—’

‘I’m Colin,’ he said, the grin turning to a frown. ‘Mam said she’d met you the day you moved in, yeah?’

This must be Sal’s eldest son. The convicted criminal.

‘You alright?’ He stared at me with cold eyes. ‘You look like you’re about to pass out any second.’

‘Of course I’m not fu—’ I looked at Evie, who was wide-eyed, taking it all in. I bit back my language. ‘I’m most definitely not alright. I come downstairs and find that a strange man, who I’ve never seen before, has taken my daughter out of the garden without my permission.’

‘Now, just hold on a minute.’ I noted the seamless switch to a more aggressive tone. ‘The kid crawled through the hedge when she heard me playing over this side with our Buster. She’s been out here on her own for bloody ages. More to the point, where have you been?’

‘Evie,’ I called in clipped tones. ‘Inside, now.’

‘Mummy, no! Colin said I can help him feed Buster.’

I bet he did.

‘Inside. NOW!’ I raised my voice.

Infuriatingly, Evie looked at Colin in the hope he might support her pleading.

‘You’d best go inside, flower,’ he told her. ‘Looks like your mam’s about to have a bloody hernia.’

I held out my hand in a gesture of affection to Evie but she stormed past me, back inside the house.

‘It’s NOT FAIR!’ she yelled as she slammed the kitchen door behind her.

I turned and glared at Colin.

‘Lovely little girl you’ve got there, missus,’ he smirked, taking a deep drag on a roll-up. ‘Sweet as sugar, she is.’

When I got inside, I felt grimy just from talking to him. Evie was back in the living room and had closed the door.

‘Evie,’ I said softly, walking in. ‘Don’t ever go out there again on your own without telling me. Do you understand?’

She sat under her ‘wasp shield’, as she now referred to her blanket, and ignored me, staring blankly at the TV. An empty cereal box lay on its side in the middle of the floor, a spoon flung further still. Evie still had on her pyjamas with grass stains on the knees that I could tell would never wash out. Her hair was tousled and loose and dry crumbs had collected at the corners of her mouth.

It was ten thirty. My daughter had probably been up on her own since 7 a.m.

I reached for the remote control and flicked the TV off. The silence reverberated, as if an invisible wall sat between us.

‘Do you understand what Mummy is saying?’ I tried again. ‘You mustn’t go outside on your own like that again, poppet. It’s dangerous.’

‘I tried to tell you, Mummy.’ Evie turned to face me, her eyes wide and glistening. ‘But you were still sleeping and you wouldn’t wake up.’

I clamped my hand over my mouth and closed my eyes. A hot thread of revulsion wrapped itself around my throat like a burning wire.

Who on earth was I turning into?