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Chapters (64)
  1. Cover
  2. About the Author
  3. Dedication
  4. Chapter One
  5. Chapter Two
  6. Chapter Three
  7. Chapter Four
  8. Chapter Five
  9. Chapter Six
  10. Chapter Seven
  11. Chapter Eight
  12. Chapter Nine
  13. Chapter Ten
  14. Chapter Eleven
  15. Chapter Twelve
  16. Chapter Thirteen
  17. Chapter Fourteen
  18. Chapter Fifteen
  19. Chapter Sixteen
  20. Chapter Seventeen
  21. Chapter Eighteen
  22. Chapter Nineteen
  23. Chapter Twenty
  24. Chapter Twenty-One
  25. Chapter Twenty-Two
  26. Chapter Twenty-Three
  27. Chapter Twenty-Four
  28. Chapter Twenty-Five
  29. Chapter Twenty-Six
  30. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  31. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  32. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  33. Chapter Thirty
  34. Chapter Thirty-One
  35. Chapter Thirty-Two
  36. Chapter Thirty-Three
  37. Chapter Thirty-Four
  38. Chapter Thirty-Five
  39. Chapter Thirty-Six
  40. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  41. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  42. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  43. Chapter Forty
  44. Chapter Forty-One
  45. Chapter Forty-Two
  46. Chapter Forty-Three
  47. Chapter Forty-Four
  48. Chapter Forty-Five
  49. Chapter Forty-Six
  50. Chapter Forty-Seven
  51. Chapter Forty-Eight
  52. Chapter Forty-Nine
  53. Chapter Fifty
  54. Chapter Fifty-One
  55. Chapter Fifty-Two
  56. Chapter Fifty-Three
  57. Chapter Fifty-Four
  58. Chapter Fifty-Five
  59. Chapter Fifty-Six
  60. Chapter Fifty-Seven
  61. Chapter Fifty-Eight
  62. Chapter Fifty-Nine
  63. Epilogue
  64. Acknowledgements

‘This is your fault,’ she whimpers. ‘None of these people would have even heard of The Know, if you weren’t on telly. I thought I’d left all of this behind me. And it was finally going to come together, and…I’m exhausted. I’m so tired. I thought, if I got to Vogue, I could finally leave Tanya behind for ever.’

I’m puzzled. ‘Why does this matter? Why can’t you just be Tanya?’

‘Tanya is a nobody. Tanya could barely get a fortnight’s work experience on a home shopping catalogue. But as soon as I changed my name, I started to get jobs. I started to be seen. I know that Condé look at everyone’s socials. They’re going to see this. They’ll probably cancel my interview.’

Good. Serves her right.

Does it?

Cautiously, I rest a palm on her shoulder. ‘I don’t want to give you advice, and I don’t think you’ll take it, anyway. But tell them. Own it. I don’t think Vogue will care if you’re Tabitha or Tanya. Still, you might feel better if you open up. We’re all pretending, one way or another.’ I take another good look at her shoes. ‘In fact, tell them it was all performance art. They’ll probably ask you to run the magazine.’

Chapter Fifty

The lines are warped

Harri

Never, ever, ever have ‘one last look’ at your emails. It’s 8.03 p.m., and Harri is on the brink of calling it a night when she makes the mistake of refreshing. At 7.59 p.m., Mackenzie emailed her. Mackenzie wants to set up an appointment to ‘formally discuss the future of The Know’ with regards to ‘a failure to meet targets consistently’ and ‘the publication of explicit content’ which is ‘bringing the brand into disrepute’. She has attached graphs. She has gone to the trouble of manipulating the figures—so rather than focusing on the highest highs, Imogen’s huge hitters, those which have brought untold traffic, and glory—the lines are warped. It looks like The Know has had a couple of OK days, and barely half a reader. Harri knew Mackenzie was touted as some sort of financial genius—she didn’t realise she could use maths to lie. ‘You have two weeks to make significant improvements, otherwise there will be serious consequences for you and your team, with a view to termination.’ It makes no sense at all.

Harri writes five furious half sentences before giving up and gathering her notebooks together. She’d forgotten about the Whittaker-Chambers media pack. She’d been using it as a bookmark. She’s on the brink of binning it, but she feels compelled to try Google again.