‘They will,’ I said, but my eyes followed his to the door, a heavy feeling growing in the pit of my stomach. I had been so focused on how we could salvage Jake’s good name, I hadn’t thought about a scenario when we wouldn’t be given the opportunity to actually do so.

‘I don’t know, Freya. I think I might have ruined it all. Now they know that article was true, would anyone want to read a romance book from me again?’

I bit my lip, hating that things were going so badly. Was it really all lost? Then an idea popped into my head. ‘You could do a shout-out on social media? Ask your readers to come here today so you can explain why you said what you did about romance books. Ask them to give you a second chance. If that’s what you want.’

‘I don’t know,’ Jake said, shifting in his chair nervously.

‘As you say, you’ve confessed that article was true. You need to say something at this point. You can’t keep saying what Hayley told you to. If you want readers to want to read any more books from you,’ I said, as encouragingly as possible. ‘We could film a quick video and then post it online. See if we can get readers in here to listen to you.’

Jake thought for a moment. Then he nodded. ‘Okay, I’ll make a video and see if we can get some people in here.’

Hope lifted my heart that he was finally going to take my advice and be honest with everyone. I pulled out my phone. ‘Right then.’ I opened up the camera, training it onto to Jake beside me. ‘Tell everyone why they should come in here. Let’s get you an audience.’

Jake took a deep breath then gestured for me to go ahead.

I counted him in and then he took a breath and faced the camera. ‘Hi, everyone. I am about to start my reader session in room 10B. I understand that after the panel I took part in yesterday, there will be a lot of you who may have come to this session that have changed your minds. I can’t blame you but I’m asking you to please come and join me. I want to explain what happened with that article that I know you all are aware of. I respect my readers with all my heart, and I want to be honest with you all. I hope you will give me a second chance.’

I stopped filming once he had finished speaking. ‘That was great.’ I quickly uploaded the video to Jake’s social media, tagging the conference and everyone I could think of who might share it, including Hayley. I hoped she would at least see how much we were trying to make things right.