Her throaty voice then switched from high-pitched, excited squeak to something far syrupier. “Now, I know we’ve had our disagreements, Leonie. I have to be honest here and say I was very disappointed when you upset Esther Drew and the debacle with Tilly Crabtree. Both most unnecessary.”

I opened and closed my mouth. The bloody cheek! “Sorry?”

Athena ploughed on, regardless. “But I have to say a huge congratulations to you. You really have excelled yourself with this story—”

“Athena,” I interrupted, struggling to keep the frustration and irritation out of my voice. “I’m sorry, but I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. What exclusive?”

Her tinkle of indulgent laughter annoyed me further. Had she taken something? Or maybe it was one of her long liquid lunches again.

“Chandler of course,” she rasped. “We now know who he is.”

The blood in my veins froze. I gripped the phone tighter to my ear.

I snapped my head round in a blind panic to look at an unsuspecting, handsome Flynn only feet away. How the hell did she know? How had she found out? This wasn’t happening.

“His alter ego is the artist Flynn Talbot, isn’t it?” she giggled. “Oh, go on, stop teasing me!”

She breezed on, ignorant of my horrified, gut-wrenching silence. “It’s a bit of a disappointment he isn’t someone more high profile to be honest, but we can work with it. Now, I want you to do a write-up about it and how you infiltrated the family.” She let out a tinkle of self-indulgent laughter. “You really should have alerted me to this earlier, you naughty girl, but I’ll let you off on this occasion.”

I felt the colour ebb away from my face. Flynn was grinning at me.

A sick feeling squeezed at my insides. “No. You’ve got this all wrong. I… I didn’t infiltrate anyone,” I stammered, my throat dry.

From a few feet away I could see Flynn standing there, observing his grandfather and Lily, oblivious to the mess unfolding on the phone.

My stomach plummeted to the floor as the consequences of all this played out in front of me. Flynn and his grandfather thought they could trust me. They wouldn’t now. They would think I had betrayed them to further my career. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Flynn had been involved in a relationship with a reporter before. She had betrayed him. Would he think it was happening again? The idea of Flynn thinking I could do such a thing… My mind churned in panic. “How… how did you find out?”

“Oh, some clever detective work on behalf of my niece.”

Athena’s answer struck me in the chest like a hot blade. Kerry? How the hell had she found out?