‘Oh my God!’ she cried out loud, holding a hand over her mouth, smiling between her fingers as she watched the full three minutes, then immediately pressed Play again. Running her thumb down the screen, Laura blinked back her tears. ‘You clever boy,’ she murmured, so full of pride for her baby.

She wanted to be with him. To be the one sitting on the sofa encouraging him towards her, clapping and cheering like she could hear Nate doing in the background. By the time Laura had watched the video three times, she could barely see through her tears and was picking up the phone to call Nate when Patrick appeared at her desk and asked if she had a minute to help him with something.

Laura dropped the phone and told him she did, though one minute turned into forty-five; and back at her desk, a myriad of emails were clogging her inbox, and by this time she’d been distracted and never did call or even text Nate back, to thank him for sending her the video, or even to acknowledge how much she loved it.

And Laura knew later, when she did make the effort to leave work on time, how bad that looked.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Mia had barely stepped from the lift when, out of nowhere, Henrietta James appeared, her cheeks flushed red with a cluster of broken veins. Her hair seemed particularly uncared for this morning or maybe she had been running her hands through it. Clearly she had something to tell Mia, and Mia had come to expect it would involve Laura. Which was why it was a surprise when Henrietta said, ‘Have you heard Sarah Clifton has gone?’

Henrietta wobbled from one too-high heel to the other, bug-eyed as she waited for Mia’s response.

No, she hadn’t heard this news. The girl had gone. What the hell?

‘I was just wondering …’ Henrietta leaned in. ‘Do you think they got rid of her?’ she said in a loud whisper.

Mia glanced to the far end of the floor. From here she could make out Harry in his office as he prowled from one side to the other, no doubt on his phone. What she couldn’t see was Mike Lewis’s desk. ‘Surely not,’ she murmured.

But what if they had? Was that good news or bad? If they had dismissed Sarah, then she would have a case for unfair dismissal. It would be huge. Mia would need to get in touch with her.

She pretended she hadn’t heard the news when she rapped on Harry’s door and waited for him to beckon her in. His face was a mixture of calm and apprehension.

‘How’s it going?’ he asked, gesturing to a chair, his mind on something else, by the look of it, as he barely glanced up at Mia.

‘Good, thank you.’