‘It’s fine. I can take everything back from her by the end of the day – I shouldn’t need more than that.’ Laura had, after all, only had one day’s handover with Mia before she’d gone into premature labour in the early hours of the following morning. ‘I don’t think I’ll need her after today,’ she said, although as she turned back to Harry she saw that his face had paled.

‘Actually, I’ve agreed with Mia that she’s staying on for a bit.’

‘What? Why?’

‘I’ve asked her to carry on working here. I thought it would be best to have her see the campaign through. The Coopers team is on board with it—’

‘No, no, hold on.’ Laura’s heart raced as she held up a hand to stop him. ‘What do you mean, Mia’s seeing the campaign through? That’s not necessary, Harry. She can hand it over to me. There’s no need for both of us to be on it.’

Harry dipped his head.

‘This is ridiculous. What’s going on? She was here to cover me, and now I’m back. Mia doesn’t need to be here any longer. What is it?’ she snapped. ‘I can tell there’s something on your mind. Will you just say whatever it is?’

‘You won’t both be on the account while the campaign’s running. Mia’s going to be keeping it. For now,’ Harry added, after a beat.

‘What?’ Laura felt the heat creeping up her neck. ‘No!’

‘She’s done a really great job and – I feel crap for what I’m saying – Laura, this doesn’t reflect badly on you, I think it’s the right thing to do. And it means you can have the time to settle back in.’

‘I don’t need to settle back in, Harry.’ Laura stared at him as her voice rose to a high pitch. ‘I’ve only been gone for six months, and I’ve kept up to date on all my clients. You know that. We’ve spoken about it on the phone while I’ve been on leave. I don’t need to be babysat.’

‘That’s not what’s happening.’ He shook his head, the frown darkening his already deep-brown eyes. ‘It’s just that Mia’s got her teeth into this and … Laura, you said yourself, before you went off, that we could do with an extra pair of hands on the accounts.’

‘To work under me, Harry, not to replace me.’ She could feel the rise of her anger soaring through her body as she brushed a hand across her cheek, praying she didn’t break down in front of him. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Mia swishing her arms in the air as she spoke animatedly to whoever it was still leaning over the top of the PC.