Mia assumed she meant children and so shook her head.

‘No one nearby?’ Janie asked.

Mia put her sandwich back on the plate and swallowed the mouthful. ‘Just my mum,’ she told her, the omission weighing heavily. It wasn’t the first time she’d dismissed her sister as if she didn’t even exist.

‘You must know all about the development of the offices then?’ Janie asked. ‘If you’ve both always lived here?’

‘My mum told me bits about it when it was being built.’ Mia hadn’t shown any interest in the building of the office at the time, and she had wondered why her mum had been so interested in it, when there were clearly more pressing issues their family should be focusing on. Maybe it had been nothing more than a distraction.

Janie wasn’t remotely bothered about Mia’s opinion of the office build and instead ploughed on with questions about her personal life. Where did she work before she joined Morris & Wood? Has she always been in marketing?

Mia responses were short and flat. She knew how she must be coming across, but what did it matter? They were never going to be friends. Their lunch date felt like an interview, and she was still trying to fathom what she was doing here when Janie insisted she would pick up the bill, as promised, and was already pushing herself out of her seat to leave.

It was as they were walking to the door that Janie suddenly paused and said, ‘Harry tells me there’s an issue with Mike Lewis.’

Mia could have laughed. So that was it. Janie wanted to find out what was happening, so she could tell her husband how to handle it. So she could find a loophole for him to worm his way out of the issues that he didn’t want to face. Mia had guessed Harry would use his wife to help him, but she was determined to create such a watertight case that even someone like Janie Wood wouldn’t be able break it.

‘There is, but I’m not comfortable discussing it. It’s not about me,’ Mia told her.

She waited, but Janie merely nodded and said, ‘Well, Mia, I hope you do the right thing.’

Then Janie kissed her on the cheek and told her it was lovely to see her and that she hoped Mia was coming to her party.

Mia watched her walk off down the street, her relief that Janie wanted to discuss with her the issue of Mike already dissipating, usurped by something else entirely. And as she closed her eyes and inhaled a deep breath, Mia realised it was fear. Janie had left her on edge. The questioning, from a clever woman with Janie Wood’s background. How long would it be until someone found out exactly what she was doing at Morris & Wood?