Page 37 of The In-Laws

‘Swear, Melanie?’

‘I swear.’

‘But he said …’ Sloane pointed to Ross.

‘Ignore Ross.’ Melanie’s voice was icy. ‘Hell will freeze over before he reads your work-in-progress.’

‘No need for that.’ Ross was affronted.

Melanie stood up and, through clenched jaws and gritted teeth, said, ‘Ross, please leave my office now. I am in a private meeting, which you rudely interrupted.’

Ross’s eyes flashed. ‘We will discuss this later, Melanie. Things need to change around here.’ He left the office and banged the door shut.

Sloane left a while later, shaken but reassured by Melanie, after a lot of comforting and soothing, that things would not change and that Melanie was still her only agent and only contact and ‘my person’ at the agency. Melanie waved Sloane off and walked back up the stairs to the office, beside herself with fury. She stormed into Nancy’s office, where Ross was talking to his mother.

‘How dare you interrupt my meeting? You totally freaked Sloane out. Do you have any idea how important she is to this agency? It took me ages to calm her down and reassure her that you would not be reading her manuscript or taking over her agenting. I don’t know who you think you are, coming back from London and lording it over everyone, but stay the hell away from my authors.’ Melanie’s whole body was shaking as the last word came out of her mouth. Adrenaline coursed through her veins.

She felt a hand on her shoulder. It was Frank’s. ‘Hey, take a breath.’

She shrugged him off.

Ross straightened up in his chair. ‘We are a family business, Melanie. We always have been. Family businesses share everything. You need to remember that.’

‘Excuse me?’ Was that a threat? Was he actually trying to intimidate her? Did he have any idea how much money she had brought in last year?

‘Rubbish,’ Nancy said loudly. ‘We do not share authors,never have. The agents’ relationships with their authors are sacrosanct. It’s a relationship that is hard won and needs constant nurturing. Melanie’s right, Ross, you shouldn’t have interrupted her meeting. I myself have met Sloane only once. I don’t need to know her. Melanie is doing a brilliant job in keeping her happy and encouraging her to write.’

Ross was not backing down. ‘That’s the problem here. This agency needs to be more open and fluid. In London, at the publishing house where I worked, we all knew each other’s authors. It’s too closed here. I need to know what’s going on with Sloane. I need to know if she’s stable, that she’s not going to crack up and let us down. I need to know where her new book is at, and if it’s as good as the last one if I’m going to try to get movie deals and TV contracts.’

‘Sloane doesn’t want movie deals or a TV series. She wants her words never to be owned by anyone else. She’s made it very clear she would hate that.’

Ross rolled his eyes. ‘Well, then, it’s your job to change her mind. We could make a lot of money from a big network deal.’

‘As I said, Sloane is not interested.’

Frank cleared his throat. ‘Look, Ross, Melanie knows Sloane best and introverts like Sloane should never be pushed into anything. I think we need to take a minute and cool down.’

Ignoring Frank, Nancy asked, ‘If we got a big offer, could Sloane be persuaded to sign over movie and TV rights?’

‘No. She will never agree to it.’ Why weren’t they listening to her? Why did she have to keep repeating herself?

‘Everyone eventually agrees to deals when the money is right.’ Ross’s voice dripped with condescension.

‘Not everyone does, and certainly not Sloane,’ Melaniereplied. ‘Money is not a motivator for her. I don’t know how to make this clearer. Sloane will not sell the rights.’

‘Money does not always equate with happiness,’ Frank said. ‘It can be corrupting.’

Jamie stood at the door, clicking his pen. ‘Melanie’s right. Sloane is not in it for the money. She is raking it in on foreign deals since she made the Goldstone shortlist, but she never asks about them or seems bothered about money in the slightest.’

‘We are, though,’ Nancy reminded them all. ‘While literary prizes are very gratifying, we are running a business and monetary gain is our primary focus. Sloane is our highest earner this year, so we need to keep her sweet.’

‘Well, please tell your son to step back and leave my author alone,’ Melanie said firmly, staring at Ross.

Nancy nodded. ‘Ross, back off. We need Sloane to finish the new novel and, all going well, win the Goldstone. Then we can get a serious auction going for a second book deal.’

Melanie was glad Nancy had backed her. Her mother-in-law knew how hard she had worked to persuade Sloane to sign with the agency and how invested she was in keeping her author happy.

‘If this agency wants to expand and grow,’ Ross hissed, ‘we need to think bigger.’

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