‘You’re leaving me for Simon Langley?’ she said with bitterness. Then she stood up and I took a step backwards on instinct. ‘That dinosaur? He thinks more about caring for his authors than making money,’ she said with a dismissive wave of her hand. ‘He might molly-coddle you but he won’t teach you to get the best deals, Freya. This was your opportunity here. But you’re now wasting it. You know what? Any thoughts I had about helping your career are definitely over now.’

I raised an eyebrow. ‘You didn’t give me any indication when we spoke about it the other day of wanting to help me at all.’

Her cheeks turned red. ‘You’re throwing everything I’ve done for you in my face,’ Hayley spat out now. ‘Maybe Simon “Grandad” Langley might be willing to give you a job but good luck being an agent who can’t get in to see any publisher!’

‘What do you mean?’ I asked, uneasy about the now triumphant expression on her face.

‘I’ll make sure no publisher deals with you,’ Hayley replied, her red lips curving into a smile.

‘Don’t you dare,’ came a voice from behind me.

I jumped and turned to see Jake in the doorway of Hayley’s office. I had no idea how long he’d been standing there but with the door open, he’d clearly heard Hayley’s threat.

Jake stepped fully into the room as Hayley’s smile vanished from her face. ‘Freya helped my career so much in New York. I sat back in our meeting and let you ignore what she did and take all the credit for it but I won’t stand back and allow you to ruin her reputation in our industry,’ Jake continued, sounding like his usual calm self but I could hear the edge in his tone, and I was sure Hayley did too. ‘She deserves this new job and a break in her career. And if you try to stop her, I will tell everyone you took the credit for what she did for me. Whose reputation will suffer then?’

Hayley’s mouth fell open. ‘Jake, you don’t understand⁠—’