His face clouded, as though this was new information, and Nina was momentarily thrown. This wasn’t the first time she’d shared her feelings with him, she’d told him so outside Le Sacré Coeur that day, and later in bed that evening, but he was rubbing a hand across his temple and frowning, as though confused. Maybe it was possible that his feelings had once been as deep for her as hers were for him.

What a mess, she thought. She felt sad at Alice and Ted’s separation, at her friendship group imploding. They had built something together, the four of them, from that chance encounter in a hotel restroom, and seeing Ted like this gave her a dizzying sensation of the foundations of it crumbling, the scaffolding coming loose. It would make it easier, at least, to tell Alice what had happened.

‘I’m going to tell Alice,’ she said. He raised his head and met her eyes, a sense of reckoning in the room. ‘And, there’s something else you need to know.’

*

Jules

Jules would marvel later that she thought she’d reached rock bottom that morning in Ralph’s office after Paris. She still had her home then. She still had her job.

It hadn’t taken long for the charity to email the fund, chasing up Jules’s share of the ASD money. They’d assumed they had the wrong email for her, or their emails were slipping into her junk mail. It wasn’t the amount of money that was the problem for Ralph, it was the glaring evidence that Julia Frey-Jackson was totally out of control.

And it hadn’t taken long for news of her demise to reach Paul. ‘I’m putting the house up for sale,’ he said. ‘I can’t watch you do this to yourself. I need a clean break.’ And that was that. The house was under offer within a week. Jules had no savings for a deposit elsewhere, no income to secure a mortgage.

‘It’s theft, Jules,’ Ralph said flatly.

‘I reinvested it,’ she insisted.

‘Where is it then?’ he asked impatiently, and she stared down at his desk. For the first time she realised her actions could be construed as a crime.

‘HR wanted to contact the police,’ he continued. She gasped and he raised a placatory hand. ‘I’ve convinced them not to. The money has been taken care of, the charity has it now so they’re none the wiser, and I could do without the police or an internal investigation. But…’ He looked down at himself now and Jules felt dismayed, returning her eyes to the swirls of wood beneath her fingertips. Ralph had hired her as a graduate. Had always had her back. She knew he wouldn’t be enjoying this. ‘You can’t keep working here, Jules. Please resign, so I don’t have to…’

Her head flew up. She needed to keep her job. She had to work. It was all she had left. ‘How about a different role?’ she suggested, desperate. ‘A non-risk-based role?’

She could feel the sweat gathering around her hairline and bulbing on her forehead; trips to Dr M were no longer a possibility. Her skin was breaking out too, she couldn’t afford the medication or the laser treatments and facials she had come to rely on. She would have to sell all her clothes, she thought suddenly. Her accessories collection! It must be worth a fortune. Ralph pushed himself back in his chair. He couldn’t look her in the eye.