I cried with my face in my hands, feeling the fear I’d kept packed away since the registry notice.

The children arrived in a white agency vehicle with two bags of clothes and a cardboard box of belongings.

Lucas stepped out first, holding Sophie’s rabbit.

He looked at the porch, the windows, then at me.

‘Do we have to leave on Friday?’ he asked.

‘Not this Friday.’

‘Next Friday?’

‘We have a review later, and I’ll tell you what I know when I know it.