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Cataloguing-in-Publication entry is available

from the National Library of Australia

EPUB format: 9781760787912

Typeset by Post Pre-press Group

Image in Prologue by Albert Falzon, courtesy of photographer.

Images in Chapters 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and Epilogue from Shutterstock.

Image in Chapter 3 courtesy of author.

Image in Chapter 5 by George Muskens, courtesy of photographer.

Wayang puppet dinkus: Berkah Icon/Shutterstock.

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Read on for a special preview chapter from Di Morrissey's next book, Before the Storm

Preview Chapter

1

The route to work was etched into her being. Ellie Conlan had walked the same streets for five years now. If it rained too hard, she caught the tram for four blocks, alighting almost in front of the anonymous steel and glass building.

Sometimes she passed familiar faces in the lobby or elevator – familiar only by the fact that they too occupied some small piece of this tower. It seemed an unwritten rule: you might smile or nod, but stepping out onto your floor, you disappeared from everyone else’s radar.

Ellie had been swept wholesale into this world, her hours always filled with tasks, meetings, problems and paperwork. It was a consuming life with little else on the fringes – she had lived alone since her divorce. But she loved her job, spent a lot of time with her team, and caught up with friends when she could, which admittedly wasn’t often.

She had learned to tune out distractions while inside the glass and bright lights of the open-plan office. It had seemed cutting-edge when she’d first started but now felt outdated. Open-plan offices hadn’t worked, Ellie had decided long ago. Loud music from the week’s soundtrack always competed with snappy chatter, and working sessions took place on the scattered lounges and tiny coffee tables that masqueraded as informal creative hubs, people’s laptops perched awkwardly on their knees. Like a motel room on a highway, the space was impersonal and there was no privacy; the hot-desking required that nothing denoting the individual, no photos, favourite objects or personal computers, could be left around the place. You finished the day and the next morning another slick empty desk awaited. Ellie had learned to erect a mental wall around her when she needed to think, create, concentrate.