Right now, Harri is not ultra-alert. There is too much on her plate. The Know has been demanding more and more of her. If anyone has made a mistake, she’s entirely prepared to put her hands up and say it’s probably her. Did she dream that Imogen filed copy? Has she got the day wrong? No, it’s definitely here, filed at 2.42 a.m. last night.

Now, it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that Imogen left the naked speed dating event at midnight and stayed up writing while the whole thing was fresh in her memory. But it seems unlikely.

Once Kim’s gone, Harri opens Imogen’s latest piece, and reads it again. Well, for the very first time, really. She realises that the sense didn’t sink in before, she was simply skimming for typos.

She’d hoped, so hard, that it couldn’t be true, but her heart is sinking. It’s fine. If it had come from a freelancer, she wouldn’t question a word of it. But she knows it doesn’t sound like Imogen. It sounds like a press release. Until the final paragraph.

Harri’s eyes alight on ‘Longing, dreaming, waiting, craving…connection and intimacy. I don’t know why I can’t wear my heart on my sleeve…’

How dare she? How fucking dare she? Rounding off a load of lies with talk of intimacy, of hearts. This is utterly unbelievable. Everyone betrays Harri. Everyone leaves her, or lets her down, and she thought her staff at least could show some fucking integrity…Harri is shaking, her joints are jerking, she can’t even plant the soles of her feet on the floor and steady herself. She’ll have to fire Imogen. At least that will save Harri from having to explain that Imogen won’t be in Vogue Italia after all. She has let The Girl down. What’s wrong with Imogen? The piece isn’t confident, or aspirational. It’s the work of a desperate, vulnerable, struggling woman. It reads like a cry for help.

Oh.

It is a cry for help, isn’t it?

Still vibrating, Harri removes herself from the office. She has failed her Girls. All of them. She simply had to keep a cool head, and a warm heart, and get to work. But she got it wrong. She got lost. The Know isn’t reflecting its readers. It’s becoming just another media monster.

If Mackenzie wants to destroy it, maybe Harri should stand back and let her. She is so, so tired.

She takes herself for a brisk cry in the furthest Pret she knows.

Chapter Forty-Five

Something Else Has Happened

Harri