Aria

or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either

pins and needles

ide because the thought of having to dig them out made him feel almost as if he’d

You’re firing me? Seriously?’
Emily slumped back in the chair and folded her arms.
‘I wouldn’t say firing, exactly.’ He pressed his hands together in a prayer-like pose under his chin and fixed her with a steely gaze. ‘With regret, I am making you redundant.’
‘With regret? That’s what Lord Sugar always says in The Apprentice, when he fires people.’
‘It isn’t personal. We’re having to let a few people go.’
She stood up. ‘How? How can this not be personal?’
‘Do you think you could keep your voice down a little, please? We don’t want everyone to hear now, do we?’ He stood up too and walked past her to the windows that separated his private office from the rest of the open-plan area. She turned to watch as he closed the venetian blinds, obliterating the view of Annie from Accounts who was staring, open-mouthed. Annie would probably put a glass to the wall if she thought she could get away with it. Not that you needed a glass with these walls; they were paper-thin.
He turned back to Emily, put a hand on

But first, the books.

It doesn’t matter anymore; what matters is that Hannah loves me enough to want to marry me, and how could I say no to that?

an addiction, the same as all the others. Just less honest, perhaps.

Someone else whose whole existence once meant more to you than your own ever did.

How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something but to be someone.

Coco Chanel

“Coco Chanel used to say, we should be beautiful so that men love us and we should be stupid to love men.”