diff --git a/‎lib/repository.js‎
Lines changed: 9 additions & 8 deletions b/‎lib/repository.js‎
Lines changed: 9 additions & 8 deletions
@@ -207,17 +207,18 @@ function performRebase(
   /* In the case of FF merges and a beforeFinishFn, this will fail
    * when looking for 'rewritten' so we need to handle that case.
    */
-  function readRebaseMetadataFile(fileName, determineExistance) {
-    const fullPath = path.join(repository.path(), "rebase-merge", fileName);
-    if (determineExistance && !fse.existsSync(fullPath)) {
-      return Promise.resolve(null);
-    }
-
+  function readRebaseMetadataFile(fileName, continueOnError) {
     return fse.readFile(
-      fullPath,
+      path.join(repository.path(), "rebase-merge", fileName),
       { encoding: "utf8" }
     )
-      .then(fp.trim);
+      .then(fp.trim)
+      .catch(function(err) {
+        if (continueOnError) {
+          return null;
+        }
+        throw err;
+      });
   }
 
   function calcHeadName(input) {