Afterward, when Antonio dropped her off at the Excelsior and she made her way out to where Lily and Gabriel waited for her by the pool, she resisted the urge to skip through the lobby.

Everything was once again go.

All Kim needed now was to try and figure out who was behind the plagiarism threat and make it go away.

Then life would be sweet once more.

Chapter 45

Now

Annie locked up the salon for the day, half wondering if it might be for the very last time. She was out of options.

Almost.

There was that one last roll of the dice, but she knew it was a long shot and one that she truly wouldn’t have even considered if not for the fact that she was absolutely desperate.

Getting into the car, she checked her phone again for a reply to the message she’d sent earlier, before throwing it onto the driver’s seat.

A few minutes later, she pulled into her friend Gemma’s driveway, glancing at her phone screen once again under the pretense of checking the time.

She was much later than usual again today, and she felt guilty that the stress and strain of all this was affecting her life in more ways than one.

“Mum!”

Annie’s heart instinctively lifted as her little boy rushed out of the childminder’s house to greet her.

Charlie was always so happy to see her, and no matter how shitty she was feeling, his happy grin never failed to bring a smile to her face. He was full of chatter, having learned some new football move from Gemma’s son, Callum, who was a few years older.

“It’s called the seal dribble,” he chattered animatedly in the driveway while Gemma waved at Annie from her front doorway. “You do it like this.”

Annie watched as he took his scuff-covered football and began to bounce it on his head repeatedly.

“You see? You keep bouncing it like this while you run to the goal. I’m still trying to get it that I can keep an eye on target while I do it.”

“That’s brilliant, love,” Annie enthused as she ruffled his hair. She looked apologetically at Gemma. “I’m so sorry, I’m late again. There was a last-minute emergency at the salon and—”

“It’s fine, sure he’s no bother. And I hope you don’t mind but Nick already told me something was going on.”

Nick’s sister was a very understanding friend, but Annie never wanted to take the piss. Gemma had been an absolute godsend to her the last few years, taking care of Charlie while she was off working like a demon, trying to get the business up and running.

But with everything that was going on now, Annie worried if she’d even be able to afford her anymore.