Rewrite the Stars. Emma Heatherington
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REWRITE THE STARS
Emma Heatherington
Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2019
Copyright © Emma Heatherington 2019
Emma Heatherington asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 9780008355630
Ebook Edition © 2019 ISBN: 9780008355647
Version: 2020-07-20
For my wonderful children who are the bravest and the best
Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Author’s Note
Epigraph
i
ii
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Also by Emma Heatherington
About the Publisher
A key theme of Rewrite the Stars is Charlotte’s love of music and her desire to fulfil her passion of song-writing. I’m a huge music fan and my very first writing efforts were in the shape of some very cheesy pop songs written on my synthesizer when I was about 12. What do you mean you’ve never heard of my big hits ‘Mystery Man’ and ‘The Boy Next Door’??!!!!!
When I was writing this book, the idea came up that there could be an actual song featured that readers could listen to afterwards – I’m being careful not to give anything away in the form of spoilers, but thanks to Claire Fenby, Emily Yolland and Iona Teixeira Stevens for the enthusiastic chat about this when Jade and I were over at HarperCollins in London. The seed was sown and as much as I love writing lyrics myself, I thought the book deserved something a bit more polished!
So, I began scouting around for existing songs that would suit the story, but then something even better happened … an amazing song was written especially for the book by one of my favourite songwriters, Gareth Dunlop, whose compositions have featured in films including Nicholas Sparks’ The Best of Me and Safe Haven, as well as (drumroll) … ABC’s hit series Nashville! I am still pinching myself. The book has its very own song!
I’m absolutely thrilled to bits that Gareth took the time to write and record the song ‘You’ which features in such a poignant scene in Rewrite the Stars. It really is a beautiful, mesmerising and moving song, and even better than I could ever have dreamed of.
A huge thanks to Dianna Maher of Moraine Music Group, Nashville for helping to make this happen – Dianna, you might notice a very subtle thank you in the form of a character being named after you in the story! Most of all, thanks to Gareth for suggesting a brand-new song instead of using something already out there, for following my brief and for coming up with something so wonderful. I’m so honoured to have your beautiful lyrics, melody and voice attached to my work.
And on that note, I urge you all to go and find the song ‘You’ by Gareth Dunlop via his website (www.garethdunlop.com), then close your eyes, think of your special someone, kick back and give your heart a treat!
Emma x
Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.
Oscar Wilde
Dublin, December 2010
I was twenty-two years and nine months old when I first fell in love with Tom Farley.
Elbow-deep in a sink full of suds in our student kitchen, I watched him come in through the back door with my brother Matthew, steal my heart on his way past with his old-school, movie-star-type swagger and I knew my life was never going to be the same again.
My mother used to joke about how I was born cynical, and I was definitely way