Free The Liberation of Alice Love by Abby McDonald Page A

stay here, but I leave for Rome tomorrow for the launch and my landlord’s been threatening to repaint.”
    “No, it’s fine,” Alice assured her. “I’m taking a couple of days off work, to get things sorted down here, and then Cassie’s back from filming. I’ll stay with her.” She let out a long breath. “And then, who knows? Maybe the bank will get its act together.”
    “I’m sure it will. But you’re holding up?” Ella checked. “Surely they can’t find you liable for any of this.”
    “No,” Alice agreed, moving her feet out of the way as a woman walked past with a stroller and two resistant toddlers. “At least not the bank: this is their mistake. Thirty two thousand pounds worth of mistake.”
    Ella sucked in her breath. “I still can’t believe it. I mean, what would you do with that kind of cash?”
    “Buy a flat?” Alice said drily.
    Ella laughed. “Ever the sensible one.”
    “So, Rome…” Alice stretched, her back still aching from moving all those boxes. “That should be fun.”
    “Sure.” Ella’s tone was wry. “Four days in an industrial exhibition center, trying to convince people that the pseudoscience crap in our face cream is better than everyone else’s.” She sighed. “No, it should be OK. At least I’ll get to drool over the sexy CEO again. I swear, Alice, he belongs on the cover of a romance novel.”
    Alice giggled. “I’m guessing it’s too late to be his captive virgin bride.”
    “Hmm, maybe by about twelve years!”
    They laughed.
    “Anyway, I better get back to this.” Ella sighed. “The bloggers of the beauty world need their freebies. Speaking of which, how about I pick you up some goodie bags?”
    “Ooh, that would be lovely.” Alice slowly got to her feet again. The street was busier now, with people out to run errands before everything closed down for lunch. Ah, village opening hours. “Call me when you get back. We’ll have cupcakes at that place in Soho.”
    “It’s a plan.”
    ***
    Alice tried to view the next few days at home as an unexpected break: taking walks out in the forest and snuggling in the sitting room with a book, but relaxation was impossible with her financial nightmare looming over her head. Back in London, her life was tangled in the worst kind of mess: one completely out of her control. How long had this been going on? What other kind of damage had the thief done? The questions chilled her. She wasn’t irresponsible or careless with her affairs. She didn’t use default passwords and leave her papers lying around, but still, somebody had managed to infiltrate her life, rifling through her personal details the same way a burglar would shuffle through drawers. Only a simple burglary would be over with and done by now, not stretching out with such terrible uncertainty.
    She gave up on idle activities and turned her attention to the dusty floors instead, cleaning in a focused whirl of energy. She needed a distraction. Jasmine was as bad as her father when it came to single-mindedness; she flitted from one art project to another, practically living in the studio they’d built onto the far end of the house. It was a wonder Flora had managed to fend for herself at all, but knowing how things magically worked out in her stepsister’s favor, small birds and woodland creatures had probably fed and clothed her all those years.
    “You don’t have to do that.” Her father appeared just as Alice was on her hands and knees scrubbing the kitchen floor. Jasmine had disappeared, leaving a mess of pottery remains to clear—on top of the regular layer of grime.
    “It’s fine,” Alice insisted, wringing out her cloth in the paint-splattered bucket. “It needs doing anyway.” She looked up to find him gazing hopefully at the fridge. “There’s bread, and bacon. If you want, I can make you a sandwich.”
    “Oh, no.” Her father shook his head and pushed his glasses up with a determined gesture. “I can manage.”
    Alice only