NOTE FROM RIOTTORI: OK, GUYS. I KNOW THAT THIS IS A CHEATY-CHAPTER (ONLY 800 OR SO WORDS) BUT I REALLY WANTED TO UPDATE! I HOPE YOU ENJOY READING THIS AS MUCH AS I ENJOYED WRITING IT. I'M BRACED FOR YOUR RESPONSES! REVIEWS AND COMMENTS NOT ONLY APPRECIATED, BUT ACTUALLY THE REASON I GET UP IN THE MORNING. LOL!

Ana:

I refuse to see him. I just can't. I'm not playing a game. I just can't. I thought we could get back to where we'd been. We just can't. I didn't know it would feel like this. I swear my heart actually broke in two in Black's office all those weeks ago. I don't think any amount of talking can put it together again. He hasn't contacted me for a few days. I think he knows ours is a lost battle.

It's as bad as I had suspected. He wanted vanilla with her, he was going to let her in to the places I had created. I always felt that both Christian and I had been virgins when we met: I was in the traditional sense of the word and he was, emotionally. We experienced so many firsts together. And now he wanted that with her. Unforgivable. That she didn't actually get to follow in my footsteps, follow the path I had opened up in Christian, is just a technicality. That he wanted to, is the real, unforgivable betrayal.

I don't want to see James, either. He has called, desperate to see me. He'd joked that his eye had returned to normal after so many weeks so I wouldn't feel guilty sitting opposite him at dinner. Our laughter was hollow – we both knew the real reason I couldn't see him. He told me he'd wait til I was ready.

I've exorcised the voice, too. Although at night I now have no protection against Mrs Robinson, I prefer the silence. I've had words to last me a lifetime. That's enough for now.

I throw myself into work. I crave the written word, avoid the spoken one. I work from home, get manuscripts and proposals couriered to my house. I barricade myself in, switch the outside world off. And I get lost in other people's lives.

I pick up another manuscript and see Laura's neat note attached to it.

A,

I think this could be great. Tell me what you think,

L.

It was rare for Laura to be so keen about a novel. I skip the Query letter to get to the work itself, feeling a rush of excitement which surprises me. Nice to see that I can still have happy emotions. I turn the page, intrigued.

I can't believe what I have just read. I throw the manuscript onto the coffee-table in front of me and reel back from it, as if it's alive. My hands are shaking, the room is spinning, I think I'm going to faint. I gasp for air, desperate. I look back down at the papers, the name gloating at me from the whiteness of the page. How had I not noticed it before? A. Thomas. Alice Thomas. Alice has written a book about her relationship with my husband.

Alice:

He'd forced me to use Plan B. I'd hoped that Plan A would have worked but it hadn't. I strung it out for too long and then I'd lost it. I should have worked faster. That will be a lesson learned for next time.

I allowed myself the cab ride home from Escala to mourn the loss of Christian. The driver eyed me in the rear-view mirror but when we pulled up at my house, he didn't even charge me. I thanked him through my tears.

When I walked into the house, I ignored my mother, who was watching a game-show and drinking vodka, and went upstairs. I switched on my computer and got started, the tears drying as I typed.

I'd given Grey Publishing first refusal of the manuscript. I thought it only fair.

Ana:

I pick up the phone, trembling, actually, physically trembling and phone my estranged husband. i tell Helen it's urgent and she hastily puts me through. He answers on the first ring. My voice escapes in breaths.

"Chris-tian?"

"Ana, what's wrong? Is it the kids?" He sounds panicked and there's a small part of me that wants his pain to be prolonged. But I'm not like that. I'm not that cruel. I should learn to be.

"Did Alice sign an NDA?"

"What?"

I take another breath and ask again, more slowly this time. "Did you make her sign an NDA?" I close my eyes, suddenly so sure of the answer.

"No." Anger crashes over me – anger that he had been so stupid, so blinded by this girl. "She told me we didn't need one..."

"SHE'S NOT ME CHRISTIAN. I DIDN'T NEED ONE TWENTY YEARS AGO. SHE DID. I CAN'T BELIEVE WHAT YOU'VE DONE."