She turned and left the office, tears still pricking the corners of her eyes, though she made it to the toilets before slamming her fists down on the surface beside the basin. Tugging a paper towel out, she dabbed it roughly against her skin, the other hand still curled into a tight ball as she gripped the basin.

She wanted to scream. She wanted to call Nate. She wanted to burst into tears and flee the office, run home before she had to face anyone else. Harry had no idea what she had given up to come back to work. But she had done it because of how much her job meant to her, and because she believed she would be a better mum if she still had her work.

All she wanted now was to see Bobby’s face, and the thought that she was missing out on a whole day of his young life for this was breaking her. Her already-knotted stomach twisted itself tighter. There were telltale patches of red clinging to her neck, which wouldn’t disappear before Harry’s exec meeting; and she knew, she just knew, that Mia Anderson would be in that same meeting room and she would have to face her.

Already Laura’s bun was looking scruffy, and in the bright light of the toilets the eyeshadow she’d so carefully applied that morning appeared smudged and heavy.

She didn’t believe a word of what Harry had told her. There was probably an old friend he was talking to, but in all likelihood he wouldn’t have considered Laura for the job until five minutes ago. She certainly didn’t think it was the reason he’d allowed Mia to dig her claws into the Coopers campaign.

There could only be one reason why Harry had allowed this to happen. Mia had to be better than her. That was the only thing Laura could think of – her replacement had done a better job in the last six months than she had in five years.

Her fingers clutched the edge of the basin as the door swung open behind her. A petite girl with tortoiseshell glasses paused momentarily as she stared at Laura in the mirror, a thin smile twitching on her lips, before she dropped her head and scurried to one of the cubicles.

What was her name? Susan? No, it was something like Sarah. That was it, Sarah Clifton. She’d joined the company a few months before Laura went off on her maternity leave, and had always seemed petrified whenever Laura asked her to do anything. It was a surprise she was still here, as Laura never had seen her fitting into Mike’s graphics team.