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Back In Pursuit of Happiness Save as PDF
Chapters (45)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. Prologue
  4. 1
  5. 2
  6. 3
  7. 4
  8. 5
  9. 6
  10. 7
  11. 8
  12. 9
  13. 10
  14. 11
  15. 12
  16. 13
  17. 14
  18. 15
  19. 16
  20. 17
  21. 18
  22. 19
  23. 20
  24. 21
  25. 22
  26. 23
  27. 24
  28. 25
  29. 26
  30. 27
  31. 28
  32. 29
  33. 30
  34. 31
  35. 32
  36. 33
  37. 34
  38. 35
  39. 36
  40. 37
  41. Epilogue
  42. Acknowledgments
  43. More from Freya Kennedy
  44. About the Author
  45. About Boldwood Books

All Jo could do was smile. She doubted Harry would ever change and that wasn’t a bad thing.

35

The Invention of Lying

‘I found some stuff out,’ Lorcan said as they sat in Once Upon A Book drinking coffee. ‘About Ewan. More information about what he has been up to. I know this all feels really horrible now, but I think you might have had a lucky escape,’ Lorcan remarked as he pushed his hair back from his face.

It did indeed feel horrible, but that didn’t stop Jo from being completely intrigued. She wanted to make sure that Ewan could never do to anyone else what he had done to her. She wanted all his dirty little secrets to come out.

‘I did a few basic searches last night,’ Lorcan continued. ‘Remembered some of the forums that we had found some info on before. Unfortunately, a lot of those forums have closed or have gone so quiet they might as well have closed. Thankfully, though, a lot of them have left some sort of digital trail. Now, obviously I was a bit limited because it was via my laptop, using my phone as a hotspot, but I did find some of the posts and reached out to the posters.’

Jo watched him and listened, totally fascinated by how he worked, but also so touched that he had gone to this effort. She loved how his brow crinkled as he tried to explain some details about IP addresses and VPNs and things she couldn’t say she had ever thought about before.

‘I didn’t expect anyone to come back to me at all, never mind so quickly,’ he said. ‘But within an hour, I had an email from a woman who says Ewan “borrowed” heavily from some work she’d shared with him in a one-to-one mentoring session, and had blocked her and cut her off entirely when she questioned him about it.’

Jo shook her head. Ewan was a shit. A really shitty shit at that.

‘This was, like, fifteen years ago and she didn’t have the digital trail people might have now. She had a handwritten manuscript. She hadn’t even typed it up, never mind showed it anyone else or submitted it. She wasn’t able to prove he had used her ideas. The whole thing made her so disillusioned she decided to give up on writing altogether.’

‘No!’ Jo said. ‘She didn’t, did she? That’s awful!’ Jo understood the devastating effect that being used like that could have. And it made her very angry. She just needed to work out what she was going to do about it. Should they go to the press? Tell their story to Twitter? Or just pass all the information on to Graham, and possibly the police?