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brother on his market stall was absolutely out of the question.
    ‘OK, forget that,’ Annie said.
    Lana pushed the headphones socket back into the iPod and turned the music up again. This conversation was over.
    She closed her eyes as further indication that her mother should leave the room.
    But Annie stood there staring at her daughter in concern. What was Lana going to do now? It would be hard enough getting another TV series off the ground with a place in it for Annie. She was almost certainly not going to be able to bring her daughter along as part of the package.
    If Lana had been at all enthusiastic about her film crew work, Annie might have been able to ask Bob to help her find a lowly paid position somewhere … but it had been obvious to Annie from the start that Lana was just going through the motions.
    Annie couldn’t use her retail contacts to fix Lana up with a shop assistant job either, because Lana had already refused point blank. And Ed couldn’t find her any sort of classroom assistant work because she’d already declared: ‘over my dead body’.
    In fact, despite hours of conversation with her, no one was any clearer about what Lana was interested in doing.
    Watching her daughter lying bored on the bed listening to music, surrounded by pictures from her best friend’s new and exciting life, Annie worried. What if Lana became really unhappy? What if she got depressed? Suicidal, even?
    Something had to be done. Drastic action was needed and Annie was the one who was going to have to take it.
    Besides, she was in danger of slipping into a deeply unhappy place herself if all she could do now was hang about the house waiting for the phone to ring with good news.
    ‘Lana?’ Annie said loudly, hoping to be heard above the music, ‘Lana!’
    The music went off and Lana looked grumpily up at her again. ‘What?’ she demanded.
    ‘What do you think about going to New York?’
    ‘Huh?’
    ‘Would you like to go to New York?’
    Lana’s face looked blank, but she was at least sitting up now.
    ‘Elena, you remember her?’
    ‘Yeah, of course …’
    ‘Well, Elena’s having loads of problems with the dress company she’s trying to run in New York and she’s asked me to go over and help her. At first, I said no—’
    ‘What?!’
    Lana leaned forward, eyes wide. She even pushed her great heavy fringe out of her face.
    It was the most animated Annie had seen her daughter in about two years.
    ‘Well … I said no because of the filming schedule.’
    Not to mention the babies, and my family and my husband …
    ‘But?’ Lana was just about panting.
    ‘Well, now … now that I’ve no filming schedule, maybe I should offer to go over for a few weeks to help out … and since you’re not doing anything else right now—’
    Lana leapt off the bed and grasped her mother’s arm. ‘So?’ she asked desperately ‘So? You’re going to go and you’re going to take me with you? Is that what you’re saying, mum?’
    ‘Well, I’m just thinking about it. To be honest, my love, this has only just come into my head … I’ve not even …’
    But it was too late. Like some deranged dervish, Lana, headphones still in her ears, was dancing and leaping about the room chanting, ‘I’m going to New York! I’m going to New York!’

Chapter Five
    New management Paula:
    Tight grey jacket with wide lapels (Vivienne Westwood
staff discount)
Bright blue body con dress (Hervé Léger staff discount)
Black suede gladiator heels (Jimmy Choo staff
sale preview)
Total est. cost: £570
    ‘We have a lovely little pink bolero …’
    Annie pressed her flushed cheek against the cool glass of the underground carriage window. To say that Ed hadn’t exactly warmed to her idea of a business trip to New York was an understatement.
    Ed had a lot on his plate, Annie reminded herself, determined to try and see things from his point of view, at least a little. He’d only just returned to his very busy job as head of music at