TOYL

really. My instinct is still not to like her very much.’
    ‘Why?’
    ‘I don’t know – because she’s taken my mum’s place, really,’ Emma admitted. ‘And because she makes me feel… jealous?’
    ‘Maybe you should give Miranda a chance? Your dad’s going to need all the support he can get, and it’ll be so much better for him if you two are getting along. And Will, when he gets back.’
    ‘Maybe you’re right,’ Emma conceded. ‘Anyway, enough about me. How are your nerves for tonight?’
    ‘Shot. Why do you think I’m throwing all my energies into solving your problems? It’s a classic distraction technique.’
    ‘You’ll be fantastic,’ Emma said. ‘I can’t wait to see the finished article.’
    ‘These shows never get finished,’ Lizzy said. ‘We’ll be tweaking it for a while yet. Knowing the director, we’ll be changing things right up to curtain call. Today is going to be a long day.’
    ‘A challenging day for both of us then. I’ll see you at the theatre.’

    ***

    ‘Will there be anything else?’ said the newsagent, an aging Asian man with a patchy white beard.
    ‘No, that’s it,’ she said, picking up the newspaper. It wasn’t until she saw the London Daily News placard that she remembered about the newspaper reporter from the previous night. With all the events that had followed – Stuart’s appearance, Dan’s text message, and the mystery of why he posted the phone through her dad’s letterbox – she had forgotten all about it.
    The newsagent handed her the change and smiled. ‘I don’t understand why people read that newspaper. Full of silly stories.’
    ‘I know,’ Emma said, feeling embarrassed for buying it. ‘It’s for research.’
    ‘Good luck with the research,’ he said. ‘Have a nice day.’
    ‘You too.’
    She stopped outside the newsagents, leant against the roadside barrier and opened up the paper.
    Her worst-case scenario was a small piece in the gossip column.
    The story was there, covering half of page seven.
    Secret torment of movie beauty.
    Fiancé hunted by police.
    Brother attacked and in coma.
    “Emma’s devastated by what’s happened,” said a family friend.
    “No-one suspected a thing,” said another.
    But no matter how bad the feature-length article was it was the accompanying photos that made the most impact on her.
    One was of her in her jogging trousers and had been taken on the morning before the launch party. It must have been one of the photos taken by Eric, the guy she had chatted with. She had swallowed his lies about not selling photos to newspapers. How naïve and stupid was she? Would she never learn?
    But it was the second photo that really shocked her to the core.
    It was a photo she knew well. It was the one of Dan and her in Rome – the photo that until last week had been on their bedside cabinet.

37

    ‘Have you seen it?’ Emma thrust the newspaper into her dad’s hand as he stood at the front door. He just looked at the front headlines, his brow knotted, confused as to what he should be looking at. ‘Page seven,’ Emma directed. ‘The story on page seven is about me and Dan.’
    ‘What?’ he said, aghast. He turned through the pages. ‘I don’t understand,’ he said, scanning the article. ‘Who gave them this photo, of you and Dan?’
    ‘It was the one missing from our bedroom,’ Emma explained.
    ‘But then how did it get here?’
    ‘Dan must have given it to them. I don’t like to think that he would, but there were no other copies of that photograph.’
    ‘And these quotes,’ he said, visibly disgusted. ‘Who are these quotes from?’
    ‘I don’t know,’ Emma admitted. ‘They might have just made them up.’
    ‘How did you know to look for this? You don’t buy this paper.’
    ‘There was a reporter at the boat last night, asking me about Dan.’
    ‘Why didn’t you mention it last night?’
    Emma shrugged.
    ‘What’s up?’ said Miranda, appearing at Edward’s shoulder. ‘Hey, that’s you.’
    She looked up at Emma, then back down at the paper.
    ‘Oh my God,’ she said, as she read the article. ‘Emma, that’s terrible.’
    ‘Let’s get inside,’ Edward said. He led them into the lounge, shaking his head. ‘I can’t believe how I misjudged Dan. I never would have thought he’d do something like this. Take a seat.’ He pointed to the table. ‘The meal’s nearly ready. I mean,’ he continued, sitting down himself, ‘what the hell is going on inside that