Maybe she was missing something. Maybe she was completely wrong, jumping to unfair conclusions. Throughout the day, she’d wrestled with the question of whether she should confront him. Admit to having looked at his manuscript and share her concerns about its quality. In the end, she couldn’t do it. She needed to know more before she broached it with him. She needed to investigate this further. So, she waited until he’d headed out to meet with his publishers. She had half an hour before she had to leave herself to meet up with Shaun. When she’d mentioned to Tony that she was going to be having drinks with Shaun, she’d wondered if he’d be a little jealous at her meeting up alone with another man. But on the contrary, he’d seemed quite cheery about her having her own plans for the night.

See, she’d thought to herself. Even Tony knows you wouldn’t be Shaun’s type.

Once Tony had left, she’d headed for his iPad. She couldn’t look at his computer again, he’d have left it password protected. But the iPad didn’t have his manuscript on it, so he didn’t keep it as closely guarded. And this time, it wasn’t the document she wanted to look at. It was his email. She wanted to look back through his correspondence with his publishers. See if he’d provided them with any snippets of his new book and if they were registering similar concerns. Or maybe even go right back to the email when he sent his original draft of Don’t Breathe to them. Check the quality of that work. Anything that might explain all of this.

She knew that looking at his private email was crossing a line, but she was desperate for an answer. She sat down on the couch with the iPad and opened up his inbox. Then she began scrolling back through the emails.

She soon found emails that went back and forth between Tony and his publishers, but none that shed any light. It looked like they were in the dark on details of his second book too. In a few of the emails they’d requested a synopsis but he’d given them the run-around, telling them he couldn’t share any notes on the plot yet because he was writing without knowing exactly where the book was going, but reassuring them that he was on track and happy with what he had so far.

Really? Andrea thought. You’re happy with that?

She scrolled further. Right back to before Don’t Breathe was submitted to an agent. And that’s where she saw it. A bolded subject line that grabbed her attention. Late last year. An old email from Tony’s Dad. About a week before Christmas.

Sender: Frank Lewis

Subject: Writing opinion

She opened it and read at speed.