I pushed my right hand upwards. “Sorry to interrupt, Athena, but seeing as this is a beauty-related story, I would have thought that as the beauty writer here at Goddess…”

Athena pinned me to my chair with her laser beam look. Kerry squirmed beside her. “I appreciate that, Leonie, but seeing as this is an investigative news story, I felt it would be more appropriate for Kerry to take the lead on this one.” Her lip sticked mouth bared a few challenging teeth.

Kerry couldn’t bring herself to look me in the face. She doodled in her notebook; her chocolate lashes trained downwards.

The meeting rambled on for another ten minutes, covering Cole’s suggestion of a pull-out of the best (and presumably most expensive) eateries in Scotland and a brief chat about Brandy’s idea of a competition where the top prize was a spa weekend for one reader and their dog.

Sometimes I did feel as if I were inhabiting someone else’s hallucination.

Athena dismissed us soon afterwards, swinging her sharp shoulder blades back towards her PC screen.

Resentment burned bright inside of me.

“Leonie?”

I turned around to see a shamefaced Kerry hovering by the breakout area. “Could I have a word please?” She reminded me of a ghostly, awkward schoolgirl loitering there.

“Sure.”

My indignation at her aunt’s decision to put her on such a prominent story bubbled on. I wasn’t proud of it, but Kerry’s embarrassment pricked my conscience.

We plonked ourselves down on two uncomfortable white abstract-looking chairs.

“I wanted to apologise,” she rushed in a panicked voice. “I promise you that this was not my idea, putting me on this Lulu Stark story.”

She didn’t give me a chance to comment. She carried on talking in a more urgent tone. “It was all Aunt Athena’s… I mean, Athena’s idea.” Her cheeks lit up. “Shit. I wasn’t supposed to…” She clamped her mouth shut.

“It’s ok,” I assured her. “I know she’s your aunt. Orion told me.”

The colour in her cheeks deepened. “Oh.”

“Don’t worry. I won’t say anything, but I do think the rest of the team should be told sooner rather than later. It isn’t fair keeping something like that from them. If it comes out by accident, it will cause a lot of ill-feeling.”

She raised her troubled dark-green gaze up to the textured ceiling. “I agree with you. It’s all this cloak and dagger stuff. Aunt Athena insists I need to prove myself first though and then we can tell the rest of the Goddess team.”

She pulled a face. “She said if we do it that way then nobody can say anything about nepotism… if I prove I can do the job on my own terms.”