She stared at the list for a long time, adding up termination fees.

K-blast and Zenblood.

She juggled numbers around, sometimes factored her mum’s upgrades in, then immediately factored them out. Thought of phoning Karen. It would be easy – so very easy – just to tell her mum, “Hey, yeah, I’m in some difficulty . . . ”

It would be hard, impossibly hard, to phone her mum and tell her the truth.

She was a coper, after all. The Meads didn’t get in trouble; they didn’t crack under pressure. They coped.

Eventually, she called up Fullife and terminated a bundle of medium-cost upgrades, watching the money vanish from her account as quickly as it had appeared, and the purchase list on her phone grow a little shorter.

That left her with £28 spare a month. She’d be fine.

She’d be fine.

Chapter 27

It wasn’t blackmail in the end.

Blackmail is such a wicked word.

Jiannis just put up some old photos of her he had. He’d liked taking photos of her, a bunch to celebrate each upgrade, even the upgrades that were . . . intimate.

OH WOW, IS THAT YOUR EX? SHE IS HOOOOOTTTT!

Jesus, what a slut.

Get a load of that!

She only heard about it three or four days after he started posting. She’d blocked him, lost his number, his email address. It took a friend of a friend texting her with, “Don’t know if you know, but your ex is doing something shitty on Facebook. You should check it out.” for Harmony to discover the truth.

She called him that evening. “What the fuck are you fucking doing?!”

“Oh, so you can call me, can you? I’ve been worried about you. I’ve been sick with worry.”

“What the fuck are you doing with my pictures?”

“I’m just posting some photos, remembering the good times. You want to meet up sometime?”

“No, I do not want to meet up. Take those fucking pictures down right now!”

“Uh, no, it’s my Facebook page.”

“It’s my body.”

“Given how much time I spent working on it, I’d say it’s our body.”

“I’m going to report you.”

“Babe, there’s no need to be like that. I miss you, OK? I’m in pain, and I miss you – I’ve been so low without you, you don’t understand how low I’ve been. I was angry with you at first but I’m not now. I understand that I did things that you think hurt you. There are things about me you don’t know. There’s been real trouble in my life. Meet me and I’ll explain it all.”

“I just want those pictures gone.”

“Forget the pictures, OK? Forget the fucking pictures. Come over tonight.”

“No.”

“Listen, I forgive you, OK? You don’t have to be frightened. I forgive you for everything. I love you.”

“Please. Please. Just . . . just get rid of them.”

“Babe, babe, you’re not listening to me. You’re not listening to me. Babe . . . ”