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‘I hear you.’

‘I feel like there’s a price on my head. The first person to get a photo of Fliss Courtney after her “burnout” and I’m seen downing copious amounts of Cab Sav!’ she explained.

‘Hardly, it’s a medium glass of the very finest the establishment has to offer!’ Kit assured her. ‘Look, burnout is nothing to be ashamed of. There’s no shame in saying you need time away. It’s a hard, insanely high-pressure industry, and I think you’ve been brave to take a break.’

Fliss hated that Kit was praising her for something that wasn’t true, and she didn’t want to lie to him. She took another sip of wine to cover her discomfort, but Kit wasn’t fooled. He narrowed his eyes, those thick dark brows meeting in the middle as his forehead furrowed.

‘What? Fliss, what is it?’

She turned to him, uncertainty and caution written across her face. She trusted Kit, and she desperately wanted to share her secret with someone. She had barely had a chance to speak to Sally – not a proper heart-to-heart, at least – and she felt certain that Kit wouldn’t judge her.

‘That’s … not what happened.’

Kit’s gaze was intense. ‘What do you mean?’

‘The network agreed to put out a statement saying that I was taking a mental health break. But that’s not true.’

Kit stayed quiet, and Fliss’s heart contracted as she saw the concern on his face. He was such a good guy – she wished she had been upfront from the beginning.

‘There were some photos. Sent anonymously to my boss at NYBS.’

‘Photos of what?’

Fliss took a deep breath. ‘Do you remember one night when we all went out together, back in London? It was a few weeks before I left for the States. It was a messy night … I was a mess. My father had just told me that he was dying … and things weren’t good between me and you,’ she recalled, gazing up at him with limpid blue eyes. ‘I just wanted to get wasted and forget everything.’

It took Kit a moment but eventually he nodded, his expression serious. ‘I’ll never forget that time.’

‘I wasn’t in a good place … Someone offered me cocaine and it didn’t seem like a big deal. Most of my friends did it occasionally, though I never had. But I just wanted to forget everything, to crash into oblivion and make everything feel better … Actually, I didn’t want to feel anything at all!’

Kit had turned his body towards her, listening intently.

‘Someone …’ Fliss began and then paused, her brow creasing in confusion as though she still couldn’t quite believe it. ‘Someone took photos. I don’t know if they were of me specifically, or if they were just taking photos in general that night. Maybe they didn’t even realise what they had until recently … But there I was, leaning over the glass-topped table, the coke laid out in lines … I didn’t make any attempt to hide it. I looked … out of it. I was a complete mess …’

Fliss was pulled back to the scene in Eugene Weiss’s office; it was only a few days ago but already felt like a lifetime. She recalled seeing those photographs for the first time, her twenty-something self, caught on camera in a moment of madness, a stupid, self-destructive decision. She hadn’t even realised what she was seeing at first, and it had taken her a moment to understand that she had been secretly photographed, the pictures hidden away for two decades before being used to try and destroy her career …

Her hands were balled into fists beneath the table, gripping so tight that her knuckles had turned white. ‘It doesn’t fit with my clean image. The girl next door who made good. But whoever took those photos, whatever their reasons for taking them, they tried to ruin me – are trying to ruin me. I almost lost my job and I still might. The network wanted me to take time out to see if the story blows over. I didn’t have a choice. And so when Sally invited me here, I jumped on the next plane.’

‘Fliss …’ Kit shifted in his seat, sympathy and anger both evident on his face. ‘Bloody hell. That’s insane.’

‘I know. But it’s happening.’

‘Who would do something like that? Do you have any suspicions?’

‘I don’t know. But I’m trying to find out.’ Fliss set her jaw, her expression determined. ‘I’ve got friends in the States looking into it for me, and my manager too. We’ll get to the bottom of it, I’m sure. But for now, I’m staying under the radar.’

Kit whistled under his breath and Fliss wondered if she had made a mistake in telling him. The reality was that sitting here, in this gorgeously quaint Cotswold pub with the snow falling outside, her life in New York felt like a distant memory. She wasn’t even sure that she wanted to go back.

But this wasn’t real life either, Fliss reminded herself. At some point, she would have to make a decision and go back to her real life – whatever that might look like.

Kit spoke, breaking into her thoughts. ‘Thinking about that night brings back memories for me too. Memories of us. We weren’t in a good place. I knew something was wrong, but I couldn’t reach you. I felt like I lost you after that,’ he said, his dark eyes heavy with sadness.

‘Like I say, I was a mess. My father was ill and I’d had the offer to go to America. I didn’t know what to do for the best. I didn’t want to leave you, but …’

‘You did the right thing,’ Kit murmured, reaching for her hands and taking them in his. ‘It changed your life.’

‘Maybe I should never have left England … Never have left you …’ She’d said it. The words were out there.

The air between them seemed to vibrate, his fingers like burning points of heat on her skin. She looked up at him from beneath her long lashes and the connection between them was undeniable. It felt as though they were the only two people in the room, everything else around them falling away.