Hunger in my Heart

Chapter 1

Teaser:

Kimberley frowned at the display, she had six missed calls and two missed texts. This was a bit unusual; normally if she had been away from her phone for this long she would have many, many more missed text messages. Mostly from Cheryl, her best friend and bandmate of the last seven years, but neither of these texts were from Cheryl. One was from Lily, Cheryl's friend and personal assistant and one from Hilary, their mutual Manager for their band Girls Aloud. All of the six missed calls were from Hilary as well.

Kimberley's frown intensified. This wasn't normal. Why hadn't Cheryl texted her all day? Normally when Cheryl was on a photo shoot - like she was today - she would be bored out of her skull, so texting was her favourite pastime, so really Kimberley had expected her phone to be full of random observations and complaints from her best friend. Feeling uneasy, she quickly opened the message from Cheryl's PA Lily.

<Kimberley call me ASAP. L x>

She began to get a bad feeling; she could feel her heartbeat start to increase as she quickly moved on to Hilary's message.

<Kimberley, Urgent you call. Hils.>

Kimberley quickly noted that both of these messages were from hours ago, both sent at around 2:00 p.m. London time. It was now well past midnight here in France. Kimberley's stomach was churning and her hands had started to shake because obviously something was wrong, and even more obviously something was wrong with Cheryl.

Chapter 1 & 2

Chapter 1

Kimberley sighed with relief as she managed to slip away from the now raucous celebrations into the quiet of the villa. The peace and quiet was welcome, as well as the cool interior after the warm and muggy July evening. Her sister's wedding reception was pretty much at its zenith now that it was a little past midnight and everyone had taken liberal advantage of the open bar. This was the first chance she had had since early morning to escape the festivities and go back to her room to check her mobile phone.

Slipping into her room, she picked up her Blackberry from the nightstand, noting the flashing light indicating that she had missed calls. Kimberley wasn't used to being without her phone and she had missed not having it with her today, though there was no way to manage it and be the maid of honour for her sister at the same time, so she had left it in her room.

Kimberley frowned at the display, she had six missed calls and two missed texts. This was a bit unusual; normally if she had been away from her phone for this long she would have many, many more missed text messages. Mostly from Cheryl, her best friend and band mate of the last seven years, but neither of these texts were from Cheryl. One was from Lily, Cheryl's friend and personal assistant and one from Hilary, their mutual Manager for their band Girls Aloud. All of the six missed calls were from Hilary as well.

Kimberley's frown intensified. This wasn't normal. Why hadn't Cheryl texted her all day? Normally when Cheryl was on a photo shoot - like she was today - she would be bored out of her skull, so texting was her favourite pastime, so really Kimberley had expected her phone to be full of random observations and complaints from her best friend. Feeling uneasy, she quickly opened the message from Cheryl's PA Lily.

<Kimberley call me ASAP. L x>

She began to get a bad feeling; she could feel her heartbeat start to increase as she quickly moved on to Hilary's message.

<Kimberley, Urgent you call. Hils.>

Kimberley quickly noted that both of these messages were from hours ago, both sent at around 2:00 p.m. London time. It was now well past midnight here in France. Kimberley's stomach was churning and her hands had started to shake because obviously something was wrong, and even more obviously something was wrong with Cheryl. There was no other explanation for not hearing from her all day and then receiving these urgent messages from home.