‘I did! I stopped working on it that very same night. And when I didn’t hear back from Liam, I assumed he’d hated it and that was it. I was relieved, of course, but I also couldn’t seem to get the story out of my head. I found myself awake most nights, writing chapters in my head. And then, out of the blue a few weeks later, Liam called. He’d sent the chapters I’d written to a few of his publishing contacts, and they were obsessed, apparently. He wanted me to write more, to get as many chapters out of me as soon as possible. I said no. Evie, you have to believe me: I tried to talk him out of it. I told him about my other half-hearted ideas; I lied and said the story was a dead-end, but he wasn’t buying it. You know Liam. He doesn’t faff about.’

‘Why didn’t you just talk to Chloe about it? Maybe she would have understood if you’d said something,’ Evie said, desperate to make sense of what he was saying. ‘You could have been co-authors or something!’

‘God, Evie, co-authors? Really? That never works. Plus, I was ashamed! So ashamed.’

‘So what, you just pulled the pin on your relationship with her? Stole her idea and walked away?’

‘I was a twat, okay? A giant, awful, talentless twat! I was trapped. Liam would have killed me if he’d had to go back to the publishers and pull the chapters. If anybody’s ego is bigger than mine, it’s his. I had no choice.’

‘There’s always a choice.’

‘I know, I know. Don’t you think I realise that now?’ Hugo said, looking devastated.

‘Does Liam know all this?’

In barely a whisper, Hugo replied, ‘Yes. That night you came over, when Liam was there and I was all worked up about the book.’

‘You waited until then?’

‘By the time I admitted what I’d done, he said it was too late. The contract had already been signed, the advance paid, marketing rolled out. He said it would ruin us both if we pulled out. He assured me that we’d find a way to keep it all under wraps. He organised for the story to be … professionally wiped from her computer.’

‘Oh my god. Hugo, that isn’t just unethical. That’s illegal,’ Evie said, gobsmacked by what she was hearing. ‘It’s not too late to make amends, Hugo. You could speak to the publisher, get Chloe’s contribution properly acknowledged, get her a stake in the royalties. You can fix this.’

‘I can’t!’ Hugo yelled, the hollowness of his words reverberating off the walls. ‘I can’t. I’ll be ruined. How could I ever come back from that?’