She had been so engrossed that she hadn’t noticed the time or registered the office emptying. For the past four nights, since meeting Miles, Laura had been working flat out and every evening.

She sighed as she shut down the website – the one behind it appearing like a flash. The Venue. The company where Mia used to work. Laura had been looking into what jobs they’d been recruiting for, in the hope she would find the one that Mia was supposed to be promoted into, before she suddenly left. Only one seemed plausible. An account director with a salary £20,000 higher than Laura herself was on. And if this was the job, then it made even less sense that Mia would give it up to cover Laura’s maternity, though by now Laura was pretty certain that Mia’s purpose for being here was neither the money nor the career opportunity.

Harry hovered nearby as Laura closed down her computer and turned to face him. Maybe she should tell him here and now what she’d discovered from Katie Burton, but then she could imagine his reaction. He would make her feel as if she had a vendetta against Mia for no other reason than she was jealous.

No, what Laura needed was more proof, something concrete. She needed to figure out why Mia could be out to get her.

‘I really can’t,’ she told Harry. ‘I hadn’t realised how late it is. I’m sorry, I need to get home.’ She’d told Nate to hold off bathing Bobby because she wanted to do it. Before she had left that morning she’d looked in on her son, listening to his sleepy murmurs, and her heart had ached to hold him close to her. She had fought tears as she eventually stepped out of his room.

Now she was angry with herself for forgetting the time again. She’d texted Nate at six to say she would be a little late, but his response had been a curt Okay. No kisses. No I love you. She knew he was pissed off that he barely saw her, and she also knew he thought she should be spending more time with Bobby. Which was why she still hadn’t told him about the tender and the possible new account.

Laura quite literally felt like two different women – Laura the account director and Laura the mother – and she didn’t know how it was possible to merge them together.