‘You want to know the main reason for the eclectic guest list tonight?’ I called after him. ‘Because each one despises you. Once I’ve spilled my guts about all the nasty little shenanigans you’ve used to rise to the top, you may be able to bully, bribe or barter with some of them to keep them quiet, maybe even most of them. But not Sephy. Not if there’s the slightest chance of you and her daughter getting together again. Sephy will move heaven and earth to keep the two of you apart – and all she has to do is tell Callie the truth about you. So, whichever way you look at it, you lose.’

‘Ah, but the game is not over yet, Dan,’ said Tobey softly.

‘It is for you,’ I said, smiling.

Tobey and I regarded each other as the temperature in the study dropped by several degrees. Without saying another word, he left the room, closing the door quietly but firmly on our past and our future.

I stared at the door long after it was shut. I deserved better from Tobey. I’d thought he and I were solid. How wrong I was. Even though I’d planned for this outcome, I still didn’t want to believe that it was not only our business partnership but our friendship that was permanently out for the count. Only now did I finally admit to myself how much Tobey cutting me loose had burned. To hear from Bella, of all people, that Tobey considered our friendship a liability, and was looking to distance himself from me after the election, had cut bone-deep. And then the knowledge that I was definitely about to be set adrift had been confirmed by a third party, one of Tobey’s close-protection officers who was also on my payroll. That I hadn’t even heard it from Tobey first made it that much more brutal. After all these years, I expected better. Maybe we both had, but this is what it had come to. I’d meant what I said. Every word. If Tobey didn’t change his mind about dropping me, I would set fire to his career and all his political ambitions. He wasn’t the only one who would scorch this earth in pursuit of revenge.

I was about to make a powerful enemy, but so be it. Tobey was a man of Meadowview like me. We didn’t do love, hatred, friendship or retribution easily, but, when we did, it was with our whole chest. And, when we made enemies, we made them for life. It struck me that Bella and I maybe weren’t so different after all. Neither of us handled rejection well.

Tobey and I were heading for a showdown and the only thing certain was that neither of us would emerge unscathed.

nine. Circulating