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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

‘Thanks, Mum. I’m going to go now. Love you.’

Chapter Fifty-Eight

Like family

Harri

Linda Morris is becoming increasingly impatient to get Harri back inside the Hudson boardroom. It’s not quite 8 a.m., and she has just sent an email asking if Harri got the three voicemails she has left over the last twenty-four hours. The longer Harri waits, the bigger the Panache offer becomes. She’s scared to listen and hear what she’s thinking of turning down now. Linda has probably offered her the lease of the building, and a quick go on any Hemsworth brother profiled by the magazine. She’s in limbo, really. There have been days—well, weeks and months—when she’s stared at the walls that surround her, or felt the life force drain from her as she’s passed between floors in the lift. She’s got stuck in the automatic doors, she’s breathed through her mouth while she opened the tiny kitchen microwave, she’s stared at the post and packages and piles of press releases and thought oh, to be anywhere but here. It has been her crucible, placing her under improbable pressure—but it has protected her too.

She thinks of what Giles said. For Harri, the glamour and status has been incidental. She loves an upgrade, a canapé, a free handbag, as much as the next person, but that isn’t what Hudson means to her. It’s been her safe space. Every day, she’s had somewhere to go. She belongs. ‘We’re like a family!’ Will had said once, years ago, and Harri gave him a sharp look, and worried and wondered about his actual family. But he was not wrong. Families are dysfunctional, or rather, they function awkwardly, unfairly and chaotically—but they do somehow function. There’s love there too—if love really means never having to say you’re sorry. But no matter how broken, cold, manipulative or overbearing your workplace family can be, they keep a roof over your head. They give you somewhere to go at Christmas—even if you work for a magazine and Christmas takes place in July. They can define you, even if you never stop feeling like a rebellious teenager, determined to be the opposite of who they say you are. If she walks away from all of this, who will she be?