Chapter ONE

Carrying a handful of white envelopes, Jean entered the office and in silence surveyed its four occupants, her features stamped with the disagreeable knowledge that at this moment, her job was just about as unpleasant as it could get.
The office was not particularly large; nor could it be described as small, but it was well lit and modern and the four people who shared the space had little to complain about. But complain they did: if it was not the weather it was someone or something equally innocuous. Today they were not moaning, in fact nobody spoke at all. They had far too much to think and worry about. The rumours racing around Johnson’s, the company for which they worked, had reached their ears in the last two days, since which time they had exhausted all the possibilities about whether these were fact or fiction. Jean’s appearance in their office that morning, proof that the rumours were indeed fact, had stilled the customary buzz of conversation.
Watching Jean walk towards her, Sally Bingley, her mouth suddenly dry, stood up behind her desk and stretched out her hand. She was not sure quite why she did that, perhaps it was the sudden feeling that this was a pivotal moment in her life: a certainty that one way or another, the envelope coming her way was about to change things forever. She was the first to get her letter, probably because her desk was nearest the door. Plucking one from the pile, Jean handed it to her without a word, acknowledging with a nod Sally’s muttered ‘Thank you’ - an automatic response, not words of gratitude.
The other three who shared the office also received an envelope from Jean. They each took one as it was handed to them, but unlike Sally, nobody spoke. They all knew their letters would confirm that everything was about to change - and not necessarily for the better.
As Jean walked out of the office in pursuit of her next victims, Sally opened her envelope. She pulled out the sheaf of paper, read it, folded it, placed it back in the envelope then looked around at her colleagues. The effect on each person was different: Kelly was smiling; Dave’s brow was furrowed with worry; Mike shrugged his shoulders as he pushed the unevenly folded letter, minus the envelope, into his jacket pocket. Sally bit her lip; it was hard for them all, but especially Mike: she knew his wife, Fay, was pregnant with their first baby. Barely aware of the tears trickling down her face, Sally registered their reactions. In just a few weeks’ time, not only would they all be out of work, but the entire company would no longer exist.
Of them all, only Kelly looked happy to receive the news, her eyes sparkling with excitement, as though thinking it was going to help make her dreams come true.
 
Chapter TWO

With a bundle of estate agents’ leaflets in her hand, Sally struggled with her handbag as she tried to wrestle out her mobile phone. The ringing noise was now deafening. It was only when all the papers she was clutching fell to the floor that the phone deigned to release itself from the pocket in her handbag. Flustered, she grabbed it and answered relieved the caller had not given up.
 ‘Yes? Oh, Mrs Leonard, sorry ... Yes, of course I am ... No, I am definitely coming this morning ... Right, yes, thank you.’
Snapping shut her mobile phone Sally looked down at the sea of papers scattered all over her Wilton carpet and wondered why she had made such an effort to answer the call. With a heavy sigh she bent to retrieve them. She had five houses to see, starting with Magnolia House, and the property details had managed to fly everywhere. The order she had so carefully placed them in was now nothing more than a muddle of crumpled documents.