‘I gather you’re not making breakfast. Shall I grab a couple of bacon sandwiches from the buttie van?’ Roy asked as he pushed Christina’s bedroom door open. The buttie van had been one of their regular treats before Christina had left.

Julia looked up from her daughter’s pillow. ‘Do what you like. I don’t want anything.’ She wanted him to hurry up and leave for work, like he did every morning, especially after their argument in Worcester over the posters. She wanted him to leave her alone with her thoughts. Instead, he walked over and sat on the bed.

‘Shall I call in sick? Maybe we could go out for breakfast.’

The last thing she wanted to do was go out and waste money they didn’t have on something that was no good for them with a man who had given up on her daughter. Since she left her job, they only had his income coming in. She shook her head and stared at the wall.

‘I’m sorry about yesterday,’ he said. ‘It just all got too much for me. I don’t want to lose you.’

He was trying to make it up to her but his efforts weren’t enough. He’d left her alone in Worcester to catch the bus home. He hadn’t cared about how she’d felt. No one did.

Everyone shared his views on her daughter, even her parents. Yes, the girl had been hard work, yes, she was plain rude most of the time and, yes, she could be hurtful when she didn’t get what she wanted. But Julia knew the little girl she’d brought up, mostly alone, was still there somewhere, underneath the shower of hormones and anger. The neighbours had been fed up with the door slamming and the sound of her music blaring out of the window, which led to reports of noise pollution to environmental health. The school were never happy with her. She never tried hard enough, bunked off, had been cheeky to the teachers and didn’t care if they gave her detentions. Roy fell into the category of not caring. She’d seen that for herself. While he was whistling around the house looking like he’d won the EuroMillions, she’d been sinking into a depression. ‘I want you to go to work. I need to be alone.’

He leaned over and kissed her on the head. For the first time, she felt nothing. ‘If you need anything, just call.’

She needed his help yesterday while she was breaking down in Worcester. She needed someone to tell her everything would be okay. He could stick his empty promises. She listened as he thundered down the stairs in his heavy work boots and slammed the front door. Rolling off the bed, she watched as he got into the car and drove off.

Christina’s room was exactly as she left it. Her clothes were still strewn all over the floor. The towels she’d last used to dry herself on were still hanging over her desk chair and a half-eaten packet of cherry drops had spilled onto her bedside table. Julia had been through everything, carefully placing each item back after searching through it. There were no clues as to where she might be.

Her mobile lit up. It was one of Christina’s school friends.

‘Mrs Dawson—’

‘Have you heard from Christina?’ Blood rushed through Julia’s head as she listened to the girl shouting at her younger brother to get out of her room.

‘No, it’s just something I was thinking about the other day.’

Julia’s fingers began to tremble as she gripped the phone. ‘What do you know?’

The girl paused. ‘It’s not much. She made me promise not to say but I thought I should call. I thought she’d come home by now. She hasn’t even called me back. I’m so worried.’

‘Look, you did the right thing. Tell me what you know.’

‘She called me a week after she left…’

Julia waited, open-mouthed as her heart began to pound. What had Christina been hiding?