Thinking of Hugo’s constant absences and how busy they had both been, Evie wondered if they were destined for the same fate? In recent months they’d barely been in the same country for more than a few days.

‘Chloe and I, we’re both proud people. And when I said we should end things, neither of us was really willing to take responsibility for how terrible things had become. We were hurting and we were angry and ready to blame the other person. We—I—said some …’ Hugo paused. ‘Some hurtful things I wish I could take back.’

Evie waited for him to say more, but when he didn’t, she said, ‘Then why put her in your acknowledgements?’

‘What?’ Hugo paused, taking a moment to consider what she was asking. ‘We may have broken up, but that didn’t erase what we shared. Chloe was a big part of my first experience with writing, and I guess I wanted to find a small way to express that. And to make up for what a prick I was.’

Evie watched Hugo silently for a moment, trying to weave all the pieces together. ‘So that’s what all this is about? She’s just not over you? She needs closure?’

Hugo sat still for a moment, frowning anxiously. ‘Please don’t get mad when I tell you this.’

‘Hugo, no good ever comes from a conversation starter like that!’ Evie said, her own anxiety peaking.

Hugo paused, gathering his thoughts. ‘I may have played things down a bit, well, a lot, when Chloe first turned up. It’s a bit of a bad case of unrequited love gone bad, I think.’

‘What does that mean?’

‘Chloe never got over that we broke up. She became obsessive, unrelenting; she seems hell bent on trying to destroy my life. I think she’s, well, jealous,’ he said, getting up and beginning to pace back and forth. ‘Deep down she’s always wanted to be a novelist. Whenever she tried to get an agent, they raved about her short stories but said she’d need to write a novel first to establish herself. But she found long-form prose too hard. I think between the breakup and my work being so high profile, she’s become a bit unhinged.’

‘Unhinged? Come on, Hugo. I thought you were above those character tropes.’

‘Evie, she’s been barraging me with texts and phone calls for weeks now. She’s threatened to find you and I don’t know, fake an affair. She said she’d go to the press and say that she wrote Henrietta, not me, or spread some other vicious rumour. She’s appeared at my gym, Deja Brew, everywhere I go. I’ve started to get worried about what she’s capable of.’

Evie was shocked. That this was happening. That Hugo had kept it from her.

‘Why would she do all of that?’