Page 70 of The Plot Twist

‘I’m sorry,’ moaned Allie. ‘I feel like I’ve ruined your celebratory moment.’

‘Yeah well don’t expect me to disavow you of that opinion. But what the hell happened or were you just lying to me?’

‘I wasn’t lying! I had been writing. Ihavebeen writing. Oh and Verity,’ Allie moaned again, ‘it’s really good. I mean, it needs your expertise of course, but I feel like it’s one of the best books I’ve ever written.’

Verity interrupted. ‘I don’t understand, what part of this explains the fact you now have no manuscript? Oh god, you didn’t back up, did you? Allie! For god’s sake, how many times do I have to tell you? I thought you’d learned your lesson after losing those six chapters?’

‘I haven’t lost it! It’s right here in front of me.’

‘So why is your screen blank!’ Verity blurted.

‘Metaphorically.’

‘I’m sorry, what?’ Verity sounded as if she was about to completely lose her grasp on reality.

‘I’ve written it. But you can’t publish it.’

There was a pause and then Verity sighed the sigh of an editor who had been here many times before with nervous, overwrought writers and was used to knowing how to grapple with the sensitive creative types. ‘Of course we can. Allie we’ve been here before. I know it feels like it’s not publishable right now. But you just said, it’s your best work to date. We can do the edit together. I promise we’ll get it to just where you want it to be before we publish it.’

‘No, I mean, you canneverpublish it. It’s not my story to tell. I stole it.’

‘Freaking what now?! Allie! You know that’s illegal right? You know plagiarism is like, really, really bad? But you said it was good?’ There was a pause. ‘So, whose is it? And do they have an agent I can speak to?’

Despite everything, Allie smiled, Verity was always on the lookout for the next big thing. ‘It’s Martin Clark’s story. Well, his and his wife’s.’

There was a long pause before Verity exhaled in relief. ‘Oh, I get it! Look, I know you feel he helped you write it. But you helped him with his right? It’s just part of your deal. It’s all your own words. Itisall your own words, right?’

‘Yeah, it is. But it’s Martin and Angie’s marriage, as intheirstory. And he doesn’t know I’ve written it like that.’

There was a sharp intake of breath from Verity. ‘You didn’t tell him? You didn’t ask?’ Allie didn’t need to respond to these questions, Verity was just busy confirming things in her own mind before launching into damage control mode. ‘OK OK. Well look, maybe he wouldn’t mind? I mean you did say it was the best writing you’d ever done. Maybe he and his wife would like their love story immortalised?’

‘Would you like me to write about you and Richard, without telling you I was doing it first?’ Allie asked incredulously.

‘Well no. I mean, I guess not. It’s quite the deception, isn’t it?’

‘Alright, don’t rub it in. It gets worse.’

It was Verity’s turn to sound incredulous. ‘You’ve stolen someone else’s love story and you no longer have a manuscript for me to edit. Please explain how this can get any worse?’

‘Will is Martin’s son.’

‘What?! Will as in hot waiter is Martin’s son? Do they know?’

‘Well yes, Verity, I should imagine they do know that they’re related.’ Allie couldn’t resist with the sarcasm.

‘You know very well what I mean.’

‘They do now. I came clean to Will this morning.’

‘And? How did he take it?’

‘The overriding sense I got from him was one of confusion.’

‘OK, confusion’s not bad. We can live with confusion.’

‘But then I told him I had written about his parents’ marriage…’

‘Go on…’

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