Page 55 of Slow Burn Summer

Her mobile buzzed again.

“Don’t get it,” Liv said, lunging for it.

“I need to, it’s Alice.” Kate grabbed it back, clicking to join the video call. Her tearful daughter appeared, full of horror and apologies.

“He’s gone, Mum. Left a note telling me he’s sorry but the money was too good to turn down. He’s using it to set the surf shop up.”

“I hope he fucking drowns,” Liv said, thumping her fist down on the counter.

“I thought he loved me.” Alice crumpled, sounding about five years old.

“I know, darling, I know,” Kate said. “I wish I could reach into the screen and give you the most massive hug right now.”

“Are you mad at me?”

Alice’s broken sob brought a lump to Kate’s throat. “Of course I’m not. I’m mad as hell at him, but none of this is your fault.”

“I’ll get the next train home, tell everyone what he did,” Alice said, her voice faltering through fresh tears.

“Darling, you can come home whenever you want to, but you’re not talking to the press or anyone else,” Kate said, intentionally sharp to cut through Alice’s emotion. “You were loving the life you’ve built up there before Flynn turned up. Is he really worth losing all of that for? I’ll tell you the answer to that question—it’s no. Absolutely not. Everything will blow over here, you need to concentrate on feeling better right now, tonight. Are you with people? Do you have friends who can stay with you?”

Alice sniffed, nodding. “I’m more worried about you than me,” she said. “I’ve ruined everything.”

“And I’m more worried about you than me,” Kate said. “The job is pretty much over anyway—the book is out there selling like hotcakes with or without me. Even hotter cakes now, probably.” She tried to laugh, to inject a lightness she didn’t feel in order to make her daughter feel safe. Default parent mode, smile even while your world falls apart. “Promise me you’ll go out tonight? Go and be with your friends, call that absolute twatbag all the names under the sun, dance him out of your system.”

Alice nodded, wiping her eyes with the hem of her T-shirt. “I love you, Mum.”

“Love you more. I’ll call you in the morning.” Kate blew a kiss just before the screen went black, then sank down onto the nearest stool and covered her face with her hands. “Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

Liv’s arm snaked around her shoulders. “Let’s sit tight and see what Charlie says.”

“Oh, what can he say?” Kate said, getting up to pace the shop floor, her mobile in her hand. “It’s done. There’s no point in trying to deny it. The genie is well and truly out of the bottle.”

Liv fell uncharacteristically quiet.

“Christ, people are really going to hate me.” Kate started doomscrolling through social media and found it was every bit as awful as she feared. Her pages were swamped with readers wanting to know the truth, long threads on book clubs picking over every sentence of her email confession, snippets of her appearance on theGood Morning Show.“She’s definitely an actor,” someone said, “she had me fooled.” “Was everything she said just one big lie?” someone else asked. “If she didn’t write it, who did?” Everyone wanted to know and speculation was already rife, names being thrown around like confetti.

“No one hates you,” Liv said. “It’s just the bloody internet, feeding gossip and fueling the fire unnecessarily. It’ll calm down in a few days, it always does.”

Kate tipped her head back and stared at the ceiling. “I went on bloody TV, Liv. People have been coming up to me in the street to talk about it, and now they’ll want to talk about this instead. I’ll be heckled, called a fraud.” She sat down hard, shoulders slumped over. “I don’t know what to do.”

“Wait for Charlie,” Liv said, rubbing her back. “And for God’s sake get off social media, you’re going to drive us both nuts.”

30

Two hours and three cupsof coffee later, and still there was radio silence from Charlie.

“It must be really, really awful news and he doesn’t know how to break it to me. Do you think they could sue me for breach of contract? I can’t give them the payment back, I’ve spent half of it,” Kate said, thoroughly miserable and full of regrets. Regret that she’d emailed Alice, leaving a paper trail to trip herself up on. Regret that she’d let everyone down, H most of all. Regret that she’d ever fired off the damn begging letter to Jojo.

The shop door flew open, startling them both.

“Christ, she looks like trouble,” Liv murmured, as a woman stood framed in the sunlit doorway.

“Oh my God,” Kate whispered, staring at the silhouetted power shoulder pads and hair-sprayed helmet of hair. “It’s Fiona.”

Liv reared up cobra-like and stepped in front of Kate. “Can I help?”

Much as Kate appreciated the protective big sister act, she needed to deal with this herself. Fiona had locked eyes with her the moment she came in. There was no slinking quietly away through the back door.

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