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Back Because She Loves Me Save as PDF
Chapters (50)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Page
  3. Dedication Page
  4. Contents
  5. One
  6. Two
  7. Three
  8. Four
  9. Five
  10. Six
  11. Seven
  12. Eight
  13. Nine
  14. Ten
  15. Eleven
  16. Twelve
  17. Thirteen
  18. Fourteen
  19. Fifteen
  20. Sixteen
  21. Seventeen
  22. Eighteen
  23. Ninteen
  24. Twenty
  25. Twenty-one
  26. Twenty-two
  27. Twenty-three
  28. Twenty-four
  29. Twenty-five
  30. Twenty-six
  31. Twenty-seven
  32. Twenty-eight
  33. Twenty-nine
  34. Thirty
  35. Thirty-one
  36. Thirty-two
  37. Thirty-three
  38. Thirty-four
  39. Thirty-five
  40. Thirty-six
  41. Thirty-seven
  42. Thirty-eight
  43. Thirty-nine
  44. Forty
  45. Forty-one
  46. Forty-two
  47. Epilogue
  48. Letter From the Author
  49. Acknowledgements
  50. About the Author

I texted Charlie to tell her what had happened, but she didn’t reply so I guessed she was in a meeting. I didn’t want to hang around for three hours waiting for her lunch break so I headed home, the buses half-empty now, my head reverberating from the shock of what had just happened. Beneath the concern for Victor was a little self-interested voice: what was I going to do for money now? How long would it take for the mess to be sorted out? And if Victor didn’t come back quickly, would Emma or whoever was in charge now decide they didn’t need me after all?

By the time I got home I was in a muted state of panic. I checked my bank account online. I had enough to keep me going for another month, but that was it. Apart from Victor, and Karen, I hadn’t done any work for anyone for over six months. My contacts book was so creaky it wouldn’t have mattered if Charlie had left it on a bus instead of my bag of mementoes. I was going to have to send some emails, go fishing for work.

I made myself a coffee and tried to rein in my growing panic. This whole thing might blow over by tomorrow. I could afford to wait a day or two to see what happened before I started reaching out for work.

As I was about to switch off my computer, I remembered something: Karen still hadn’t told me if she liked the new site, meaning I couldn’t invoice her yet.

And that triggered another memory, something I’d completely forgotten. Just before I’d passed out from taking the sleeping pills, I’d received a text from Karen. What had it said? I tried to recall . . . Something about calling her urgently?

I checked my phone. There was no such text. The last text from her was from the day of our last meeting, when we’d been arranging where to meet. That was it.

I stared at the screen of my phone. I must have dreamt the text, hallucinated it as I’d slipped into my twenty-four-hour slumber. I sent Karen another reminder email and temporarily forgot about it.

At lunchtime, I called Charlie and gave her a rundown of the situation. She was shocked.

‘I’m worried about money,’ I said. ‘If this doesn’t turn out to be a big mistake – which I’m praying it will, for everyone’s sake – and whoever takes over from Victor decides they don’t need me, I’m going to be in deep shit.’

There was a pause at the other end and I knew what she was going to say before I heard the words. ‘Maybe I could move in. Then I could pay half the bills. I mean, I’m there all the time anyway.’