‘Have you lost your—!’

The plate smashed against the wall inches from his head.

‘That’s it, Jemima. You’ve lost me forever too!’ he said as he ducked a metal tealight holder, which thudded into the wall sending plaster dust into the air.

‘GOOD!’ Jemima yelled as Miles bustled out of the front door.

She watched him spill down the stairs and out into the street, darting around, unsure where to go or what to do.

‘You’ll always be alone, Jem-Jem! You’ll always be running away. Go to LA. No one cares!’ he hollered from the street.

Jemima marched through to the bedroom, gathered up Miles’s clothes and stomped back to the living room. She yanked the window open and threw everything out, enjoying the sight of his underwear fluttering to the ground.

‘You’re a lonely, pathetic lunatic. Always have been. Always will be!’ Miles wailed.

‘Here, catch,’ Jemima said as she balled up his designer jeans and threw them out too.

She pushed down the window blocking out the sound of Miles’s banshee-like cries and exhaled. Running her fingers through her hair, Jemima looked at the shards of glass and ceramics scattered everywhere. How had she made such a god-awful mess?

Chapter 42

Meagan

Meagan loitered in the corridor outside her office, watching the lift. It was less than twenty-four hours after the showdown at Jemima’s and she had already set the legal wheels in motion. The only missing piece of her puzzle was Todd. She glanced at her watch. He was three minutes late. If they were going to stop Jemima’s pile-of-crap novel going to press, they had to act fast.

Jemima had messed with the wrong people and it didn’t matter how far she ran, Santa Monica, Saint Lucia or the Sea of Tranquillity, Meagan was coming for her. With every recognisable trait, conversation or story Meagan read, her fury had grown. She was not just angry at Jemima’s full-blown betrayal. She was furious at herself for ignoring her instincts, which she’d done for weeks. Now, it was all so embarrassingly obvious. Why would a chronic singleton suddenly want to start dating? Well, it was over now. At the end of the corridor, the lift doors opened and Todd paced towards her, his face fixed. Good, she thought. He means business just as much as she does.

‘What’s going on?’ he fumed.

‘Don’t worry, I’ve got it all worked out,’ she said, hobbling behind him into her furniture-less office. ‘We can get her on defamation of character, invasion of privacy and unreasonable publicity. That’s just for starters. There might be something we can do around libel too.’

‘Meagan, we can’t do anything because you’re not supposed to have read the book,’ said Todd.

‘Then why did you let me see it?’

‘Look,’ said Todd standing even taller than normal. ‘I get that you want to have it out with your mate but this cannot happen.’

Meagan pounded her fist on a print-out of Jemima’s manuscript which still sat on top of her filing cabinet. ‘I’m going to do more than have it out with her. I’m going to bury this.’