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CHAPTER ONE

CLARA TUGGED THE candy-striped ribbon just a millimetre farther out, then leaned back to admire the neatly wrapped present with beautifully tied bow Really, it was a shaive it away

‘Are we done?’ Her business partner, Merry, added one last gift to the pile and looked hopefully at Clara ‘That was definitely the last one, right?’

‘For this client, yes’ Clara grinned ‘But I’ot another three Christ day Not toprojects, three last-minute requests for tickets as presents and two Christe’

‘And a partridge in a pear tree,’ Merry grumbled ‘Whose stupid idea was this business anyway?’

‘Yours,’ Clara reminded her cheerfully ‘And I know you love it, really’

Clara hadn’t been sure there was a ested it Did Londoners really need another concierge and events service? Would people really pay thee special access and perks, plan their parties and fas, their holidays and so on? Merry had been adamant that they would

With your e, we can’t fail, she’d insisted over a bottle of wine at Clara’s tiny rented flat one evening

So Perfect London had been born and, four years later, business was boo Especially at Christmas

‘I suppose it’s all right,’ Merry said, the ss ‘Pays the bills, anyway’

And then some Clara was still ah that she’d been able to o Successful enough that she no longer lay awake at night, panicking about how she would provide for her daughter, Ivy, alone

Clara stared at the ain, then turned her attention to the Christ at the star on top, she made a wish The same wish she’d made every year since Perfect London had taken the city by storm that first Christmas, when media mentions and word of mouth had seen them triple their income in ayear

Please, let things stay this good for another year?

The fact that they had so far went a long way to wiping out some of the less than wonderful Christo so far as to say that, these days, Christical time of year for her—especially with Ivy around to share it with

‘What have you and Ivy got planned for Christmas?’ Merry asked

Clara shrugged ‘Nothingthat out for a ride’ She frowned just for a hter had asked Father Christmas for that year Ivy didn’t know that she’d overheard, but Clara couldn’t shake the memory of her

whispering to thecentre that what she wanted most in the world was ‘to have a dad’

At least the bike wastricky She could walk out and buy a bike at any number of shops in the city

A father was rather more difficult to procure Especially Ivy’s real dad

She shook the thought away There were only a couple of weeks until the big day, and Clara was going to focus on the wonderful Christhter

‘Other than that,’ she went on, ‘pancakes for breakfast, the usual turkey for lunch and a good Christmas movie in the afternoon’ Quiet, cosy and just the way Clara liked it

Worlds away from the Christ, before Perfect London Before she had walked out on her e

It was strange to think about it now Most of the tiine herself stillwould happen to reht have gone Like a parallel universe she kept getting gliht-have-beens she’d walked away from

They would probably be spending Christht white, soulless properties They were barely houses, let alone homes, and they were certainly not cosy Maybe his family would be with theeneric presents, designer decorations Maybe she’d have thrown a party, the sort she loved organising for clients these days—but it would have felt just as uests would have been Jacob’s business associates rather than friends

But there was the other side of it too They’d only ether, but they had both been packed with happyup in Jacob’s arms, the times when it had been just the two of them and a bunch of mistletoe A walk in the snoith his aret ready for another party The way he sined having in the world and so much more

Except she wasn’t, and she knew that now More than that, she knew that she orthhis attention on her when it suited hi himself away from work When you truly loved someone, it wasn’t a chore to spend ti you for scraps of attention Ivy had taught her that—and so ine she’d spent twenty-seven years not understanding but that Ivy had been born knowing

So Clara seldoht twice about her decision to leave—she knew it had been the right one But still, from time to tiuarded, ree as well as the bad

‘What are you thinking about?’ Merry asked ‘You’ve been staring at that tree for five solid minutes and you haven’t even askedto worry’

Clara shook her head and turned away from the tree It didn’t matter, anyway Because in all those visions of that other life, there was always one person

Ivy

And Clara refused to ihter

‘Nothing,’ she lied ‘Just Christmas Past, I suppose’