Free Don't Believe a Word by Patricia MacDonald

it. I guess the first thing I’m going to do is read the book, so I can support my position coherently.’
    All three nodded thoughtfully. Then Vince stood up. ‘Well, we better get out of here, Jasmine. Reading a whole book is gonna take a while. So you have to read it tonight?’ he asked, looking at Eden.
    She nodded. ‘I have to force myself to.’
    ‘Well, don’t get another headache,’ said Jasmine, ruffling Eden’s hair as she passed by her on the way to the kitchen. ‘I’m putting these leftovers in your fridge.’
    Eden thanked them again. After they put on their coats and collected their belongings, she walked the two of them to the door. She watched, almost enviously, as they went out into the hallway, teasing one another playfully.
    Jasmine punched Vince in his upper arm.
    Could be something developing there, Eden thought, watching them. Part of her felt happy at that idea, and part of her felt jealous. No, she insisted to herself. If that’s what happens, it’s a good thing. All I know is, I just wish I were going with them. Away from here. Anywhere. Anything but the task which was facing her. The book she was going to have to read. But there was no point in resisting. Just start it, she told herself. You don’t have to read the whole thing to be able to say no. Just enough to make a case for why you can’t do it.
    She shuffled into her bedroom, took off her clothes and put on a warm bathrobe. Then she slid into her bed. She turned on the light attached to the headboard, picked up her iPad and began to read.

SEVEN
    E den tapped on the open door to Rob’s offic e.
    ‘Come in,’ he said. His graying, close-cropped head was bent over his PC. His shirtsleeves were rolled up, his jacket hung across the back of his chair.
    Eden stuck her head in. ‘Your assistant isn’t at her desk.’
    ‘Eden!’ he exclaimed. ‘Sit down. Let me finish this email and I’ll be right with you.’
    She went in and sat in front of the editorial director’s desk. She glanced at the framed photos of Rob’s smiling family on his desktop, and then she glanced at her own reflection in his office window. She had been up all night, and there were dark circles under her eyes, and folds of exhaustion in her face. She had taken a shower and washed and blown out her hair first thing this morning after she finished the book. She had put on a charcoal-gray military-style jacket that felt like a suit of armor to her. It usually made her feel sharp and in control. However, sharp and in control were the last things she was feeling this morning.
    ‘There,’ said Rob. ‘Send. Now, how are you doing? I assume you’re here about Flynn Darby’s book.’
    ‘I am,’ she said.
    ‘You had a chance to read it?’
    Eden nodded. ‘I read all night.’
    ‘And? What did you think?’
    Eden gave the book her most valuable compliment. ‘I couldn’t put it down.’
    Rob nodded, deliberately keeping his response noncommittal. ‘That was how I felt when I read it,’ he said.
    Despite her positive reaction, Eden was unsmiling. She had wanted to hate it. She was prepared to hate it. Even now, she was telling herself that the only reason she found it fascinating was the opportunity it afforded to have a look inside her mother’s second marriage. That had been irresistible to her.
    Rob waited for her to elaborate. Finally he said, ‘It’s a very powerful book.’
    ‘Rob, I can’t help feeling resentful that he now wants to use the death of his family – of my mother and my half-brother – for promotional purposes,’ she said angrily.
    Rob tented his fingers and pressed them to his lips before he spoke. ‘I can understand you feeling that way, of course,’ he said. ‘But he couldn’t have known that this would happen when he was writing it.’
    Eden sighed. ‘No, I suppose not. He doesn’t even address it in the book.’
    ‘Well, it has to be addressed. The book may need to open with that, and then go back to the