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opposition leader’s face remained blank. “I’ll back you whatever you decide to do, Richard,” he said.
    Then, just as Henry was about to try and force Richard’s hand, the door opened and Sandra bustled into the room, laden as usual with the stack of files she carried everywhere with her.
    “Sorry I’m late guys,” she said breezily, before slapping the files onto the table and taking a seat next to Henry. “What have I missed?”
    “You’ve just missed Henry suggesting I publicly dump Anna until the election’s over.” Richard said starkly.
    “And you don’t think that’s a good idea?” she asked, as though they were discussing a simple policy decision.
    “Well, do you?” Richard replied, surprised one of his closest confidantes had so readily sided with Henry whom she would usually go to the ends of the earth to avoid agreeing with.
    “I just don’t think we can carry her through this, Richard,” Sandra said. “Being totally blunt, Anna is a bit of a dead weight in our campaign. If she stays around, she’ll drag us down.”
    Richard ran his hands through his hair, which he thought must be thinning by the minute, as he fought for time. He felt like an animal trapped by a pack of hyenas. And he knew there was no escape. “I don’t know how I’m going to tell Anna,” he said mournfully, head bowed.
    “Look, you’ve got a very busy and important day ahead of you,” said Henry. “Why don’t you let me brief Anna on where we’re up to, and you can talk to her properly later.”
    “Brief Anna on where we’re up to?” Ray raised his eyes to the ceiling, despairing at the lack of feeling Henry was displaying for Richard’s wife.
    “He’s right Ray,” said Sandra. “Now is not the time for Richard to be having a marital heart-to-heart when he’s got a major campaign speech in a few hours. Henry can talk Anna through what’s been discussed and we can get back to focusing on the job in hand.”
    Richard pushed out a quick, hard breath, before looking round his team. “Okay. That’s that decided. Let’s move on to what I’m saying this afternoon, can we? Every word counts so we need to get this absolutely right.”
    Anna curled up in her favourite armchair and selected the AllNews channel on the enormous flatscreen TV Richard had bought for himself as a Christmas present. Anna had thought it was the greatest monstrosity she’d ever seen when Richard had first lumbered through the front door carrying it – or attempting to – but as the months had passed she had stopped noticing its size to the point where it now looked quite neat to her in the corner of their living room. She turned the volume up as soon as she saw the words “Escort Claims Crisis” appear behind the presenter, Esther Yarleth. Anna bristled as she listened to Esther – a raven-haired, fiercely ambitious media darling who never missed an opportunity to flirt with Richard – clearly enjoying announcing their troubles to the world. “Social Democrat leader Richard Williams is due to make a speech during a visit to Bristol College this morning where he is expected to discuss embarrassing claims made in a Sunday newspaper about his wife’s past. The newspaper alleged that actress Anna Lloyd…”
    Anna turned the volume down again and peered through the cracks in the shutters onto the street outside where she could still make out the cluster of reporters and photographers camped out at the bottom of their driveway. They had been there since Sunday morning, seemingly only taking a few hours off to sleep, although even then there were usually a couple who lurked around overnight, just in case they missed Richard throwing Anna out the front door, followed by a sack of her belongings. So they hadn’t got that shot yet, Anna mused, but she knew Richard would be under pressure to do something to distance himself from the claims. The past forty-eight hours had marked the lowest point in their marriage by far – and there