The steel in Amanda’s voice sharpened. “How you manage money is not our responsibility, but we are in the business of managing ours.”

A heavy sigh. “I see.”

“I’m sorry it didn’t work out. Sometimes first-time authors stumble across a great idea but they can’t follow it up.”

The anxiety of his unspoken secret blossomed into terrifying life. Handing back the advance meant he’d lose his house. If he came clean about No Secrets coming from Howard, he would lose a lot more than that. He signed off and cut the call.

He saw movement in his office doorway. Anna slipped into his office and closed the door behind her. “We need to talk.”

What now?

She sat down heavily on Daniel’s couch and stared at the carpet, wringing her hands as if ordering her thoughts. “I’ll get straight to it. I’ve overheard everything this morning. The yelling match with your client. That conversation with your editor. What’s going on?”

The idea of finding sweet relief in a shared burden toyed with him, but pride wouldn’t let the words come. As each second ticked away, he realized Anna was studying him from behind that raised eyebrow and analyzing his silence. Goodness knew he’d done the same thing enough times.

He laced his fingers behind his head. “I’m behind on the deadline for my next book.”

“By how much?”

“Nearly twelve months.”

Anna’s second eyebrow shot up to join the first. “Twelve months? How could you possibly be that far behind?”

Her silence doled out enough rope for Daniel to either climb out of the hole he found himself in or hang himself. Ghosts of couples past chuckled as he got a taste of what it was like to sit in his office with someone else pulling the strings of the conversation.

“It’s taking me longer than I first thought.”

Daniel knew how the mechanics of silence worked, but now he appreciated why.

“No kidding, but I don’t think you’re being honest with me.”

Daniel wanted to fill the silence but was tackled by a sense of pride, unwilling to be cut down to size.

Anna’s voice cracked as it rose. “Why won’t you tell me? Why is it so hard for a bestselling author to write another book?”

He had to be honest with her, at the very least to release the pressure pounding inside his head. But that release came with a huge price. Several huge prices.

“And what’s going on with your house?”

At last, a question with an easy answer.

“They want their advance back. That was our down payment, and without another book, we can’t keep it.”

Anna’s brow furrowed, her silence extracting answers from Daniel. Answers he did not want to hear out loud. This had to end.

“Anna, I can’t deal with this right now. Trust me, I’ll fix it.”