‘Near the end of my relationship with Chloe, my writer’s block almost killed me. I had played around with a few ideas, but nothing seemed to go anywhere. I thought I was actually going to go mad with the frustration of it all. Plus, I had my parents on my back, threatening to pull my allowance if I didn’t get back to the firm soon. My grace period was close to running out.’ Hugo took a long jagged breath. Evie sat frozen next to him.

‘On one very emotionally bleak day, I was sifting through some of the stories Chloe had emailed for me to proofread, when I came across this one.’ He gestured to Evie’s phone, which now lay on the floor between them like a lead weight. ‘Something twigged when I read it. I instantly connected with the characters, and it was like this floodgate opened up in me. I started typing and typing; the story just bloomed before me. I tried to make changes as I went, tried to convince myself that I was just inspired by her premise, but I guess, deep down, I knew it was Chloe’s story.’

Hugo paused and shook his head, his body trembling just slightly. ‘That same afternoon, Liam called. He was fed up waiting for me to send him something. The only reason he’d signed me in the first place was because my dad had done some work for his uncle back in the day, and he felt obliged. But Liam isn’t known for doing favours, and he was running out of patience. I knew if I lost Liam, it’d all be over. I’d never get another agent to sign me. So I sent him the chapters I’d written that day.’

‘Why, Hugo? How could you have ever thought that would be a good idea?’

‘I was just trying to placate him while I came up with something on my own. I even deleted the file from my computer. I had no intention of going further with it.’

‘So why not leave it at that?’ Evie asked. Watching Hugo, she felt a mixture of sadness, pity and fury, but mostly she just felt detached, as if somebody had severed the invisible string holding their hearts together.