by Melissa Hill
Emilia looked stunning, as always, in vintage Yves St Laurent, her hair fastened in her trademark French twist.
‘Oh, it’s so wonderful to see you,’ Kim said, hugging the older woman enthusiastically, hoping to allay any potential awkwardness, while Antonio and Gabriel chatted. ‘It’s been far too long and, really, all my fault for not visiting, I’m sorry.’
Emilia smiled uneasily, and glanced sidelong at Gabriel.
‘Kim … I am so sorry about the other night. I was upset, I don’t know why I said what I did.’
‘Hush, don’t worry about it – I completely understand and I know you wouldn’t have meant anything by it.’ She touched her arm. ‘And I hope it goes without saying, but there is no question of … I mean, Antonio is like a father to me.’
Emilia looked pained afresh. ‘I know that. Which is why I cannot understand why I even thought anything like it, let alone said it out loud – and to your husband, too.’ Tears appeared in her eyes. ‘I do not know what is happening to me lately, Kim. I can’t seem to … trust my emotions. Or indeed my actions.’ A low sob escaped from her, and Kim quickly took her beloved mentor’s hand and led her away from the crowds to a quieter area further away from the house.
‘Please, don’t worry about it,’ she reassured her. ‘We all get like that from time to time. Things have been so crazy in the lead-up to this whole thing, that I’ve pretty much forgotten which way is up myself.’
‘But to suggest … to even think about accusing you of something like that – it was unforgivable of me. But Antonio – he has been acting so strangely lately, and when a husband suddenly becomes secretive, you begin to suspect the worst. Also, he was so angry with me about the permits. But I didn’t realise I had done anything wrong. In fact, I thought I had done him a favour. The paperwork was in his office, and I thought he had neglected to send it, and that perhaps the project would be in jeopardy. So I sent it instead.’
She looked pained. ‘I don’t know why I thought that, since everything was already agreed a long time ago. But I have fallen behind on so much lately, my mind – it is not what it used to be, and I am not sure what is happening …’
She was so truly distressed and painfully aware of her slips that Kim’s heart broke for her. ‘Honestly, it’s fine. These things happen. And everything has turned out great regardless. Look around you, isn’t it wonderful? I want to give you a proper tour inside the centre, too, but maybe tomorrow when there are less people wandering around.’
Emilia took her hand in hers. ‘Yes, the villa looks amazing, and what you have achieved is incredible, not just tonight, but with everything. I saw it when I met you in Amalfi all those years ago – a spark within you. Kim, you should be so proud of yourself. Your parents should be, too, and while maybe it is not possible for them to tell you now, I am certain they will realise it in their hearts in time.’
At this, tears now started to form in Kim’s eyes as she turned to look at the older woman who had been more of a mother to her than Gloria ever was.
‘In any case,’ Emilia continued, ‘know that I am proud of you, as is Antonio. And again, I am so sorry. I don’t know why I even thought for a second …’
‘Hush now, please. Forget about that.’ Kim reached across and pulled her into another embrace. ‘I hope you realise that all this is as much yours as it is mine. You know that none of it – the villa, the business – would have been possible if it weren’t for you, Emilia. I owe it all to you.’
The older woman held her tightly, and Kim once again felt terrible for neglecting her the way she had. But that was about to change. Emilia had always been there for Kim whenever she needed her. Now it was time to return the favour.
She would spend some time with her in Milan and then work with Antonio to assess what was best for this wonderful woman they both adored, and how to handle what was to come. They needed to put Emilia’s mind at ease, too, and ensure that no matter what happened, she felt secure and loved. It was the least she deserved.
‘So for tonight, let’s you and I just enjoy the moment and celebrate it together, OK?’
Emilia smiled, now looking much more like her old self, and Kim was about to flag down a passing waiter to get them both a drink, when Gabriel came rushing up, a concerned look on his face.
‘There’s something going on, hon. Raised voices – an argument – coming from inside the villa. I think we should check it out.’
Kim’s heart tumbled to her stomach. ‘An argument? Who?’
‘I’m not sure yet. Emilia, Antonio is looking for you.’ While Gabriel duly led Emilia back to her husband, Kim raced up the steps and back towards the house, with a growing – and all too familiar – sense of unease.
It had to happen, didn’t it? Another blow, one final kick in the teeth.
For chrissakes … What fresh hell awaited her this time?
Annie clung to Ed, her fingers hooked into his shirt, feeling for the first time in forever like a heavy burden had lifted.
He would make this OK, he would help her and Charlie. She didn’t have to worry anymore.
The smell of his aftershave was rich and familiar. So familiar. She could lose herself in it.
‘You still wear the same aftershave,’ she commented breathlessly.
‘Annie, stop,’ he warned.
‘What?’ she asked, turning to follow his gaze to the doorway. But there was no one there. ‘It’s just the two of us – we can talk about this … properly now.’
‘All that was years ago.’
‘For you, maybe, but not for me,’ she replied bitterly. ‘You broke my heart, cast me aside for someone else – but not before leaving me with a permanent reminder.’
‘I’m sorry. I told you that at the time, and I’m still sorry now, but the whole thing really was … unfortunate.’
‘Can you imagine how it made me feel to see you outside that day in the courtyard, thinking you’d changed your mind, only to hear that you were there to see Colette? My friend? I loved you, for Christ’s sake!’
His head hung in shame. ‘I didn’t know she was your friend, truly. Or that you were staying here at the villa, too. But it didn’t matter, by then it was far too late to stop what I felt.’ His eyes returned to hers. ‘Annie, I know you cared …’
‘I still do. Did you know that there’s been no one else since you? No one.’
Annie hated herself for admitting that, but it was the truth. The alcohol was like fire in her veins and had loosened her tongue and sent her inhibitions flying. She was saying things she wouldn’t normally have said.
Truths she would never have uttered, least of all to herself.
‘Annie, this isn’t healthy. I believed you when you said you needed financial help, but it seems now that there’s a lot more to all this. You need to move on.’
‘You mean just swap out my heart the way you swapped me out for Colette?’
‘That isn’t fair. It wasn’t like that. I fell for Colette. I’m not even sure why, she was just so sweet and … good.’
‘And what was I? Evil?’
‘No,’ Ed replied. ‘You just … weren’t what I needed.’
‘What you needed?’ she retorted. ‘You wanted someone sweet and perfect.’ She laughed mockingly. ‘Not so perfect after all, though, is she? Colette might have been what you needed, Ed, but she can’t give you what I did – a child.’
‘Annie, I think you better shut up now,’ he said, trying to extricate himself from her stronghold.
‘Not that you cared. You picked her and just dumped me, like a piece of rubbish. And I never said a word while the two of you got to move on, go home to England, and live your happy little lives however the hell you wanted, while I raised our son alone.’
Ed’s head snapped up, at the exact same time a sharp gasp intruded on Annie’s drunken rambling. She didn’t even know what she was saying anymore. Everything was just tumbling from her lips. All the hurt, frustration, and anger she’d repressed for so m
any years was letting itself loose and there was no stopping it.
Her head spinning now, she followed his gaze to find Colette and Luca standing in the doorway. They hadn’t been there a moment ago, Annie was sure of it, but there they were now.
Oh God …
‘What did you just say?’ Colette demanded, breaking the silence.
Annie couldn’t look at her. She’d never meant for her to ever know the truth. She’d never wanted to hurt her, which was why she’d always explained away her pregnancy to Kim and Colette as just the result of a fling while she was here gone wrong, but she could see the pain and horror in her eyes now.
‘What did you say?’ she repeated more forcefully.
‘Colette …’ Luca cautioned, but she threw a hand up to silence him.
Her attention was wholly fixed on Annie and Ed.
‘Someone better tell me what the hell is going on!’ she shouted, looking at her husband, and Annie startled.
She’d never heard Colette raise her voice before. Not once.
‘Darling …’ Ed began but Colette cut him off.
‘Don’t “darling” me, just explain to me what I thought I just heard. Is Charlie your son? But how … ?’
‘Sweetheart, she’s drunk,’ he deflected and Annie felt a fresh surge of anger rush through her. How dare he? How dare he deny Charlie now, after all these years?
Years of Annie keeping the truth a secret so as not to mess up his perfect life. Six years of her watching that life from afar: the happy photos of him and Colette together, their wedding pictures, holiday snaps, all the while thinking it could – should – have been her.
‘I wasn’t drunk all those other nights, though,’ Annie raged as she got to her feet. ‘The nights you took me back to your hotel and shagged me. When you romanced me on the beach and then dumped me on that same beach later.’
Colette gasped. ‘Oh my God … the guy you were seeing here then, you mean to tell me it was Ed? But … I don’t understand …’
‘It was before you even met him,’ Annie implored, not wanting her to think that she’d done anything untoward. ‘And he dumped me when he met you. And then after … I didn’t want you to know. I couldn’t tell you, Colette. I didn’t want to hurt you, not when we’d all gone back to our own lives anyway. He was so good to you in the end. He helped you get over Luca. He brought you back from despair. How could I ever tell you about Ed, when he’d been so much better to you than he’d been to me?’
‘And you never thought to say anything when you found out you were pregnant?’
‘You and Ed were together by then. I was back in Ireland. Your mother had died, all our lives had moved on, I couldn’t …’
‘So for all these years you just said nothing?’ Colette was trying to wrap her head around it. ‘And even worse, neither did you.’ Now she looked daggers at Ed.
‘I offered to help when I found out, but at the time she said she didn’t want any,’ he implored. ‘She just wanted to me to know.’
‘So you knew and you lied – right from the start of our marriage. You knew you’d fathered a child, Ed, and you never said anything? After everything we’ve been through? I’ve been through? The hell I felt when I couldn’t give you a child?’
‘Colette …’
‘He didn’t lie,’ Annie said, sobbing, unsure why she was defending him. But she couldn’t bear to see Colette’s pain. ‘It’s just … neither of us admitted the truth.’
‘And what about that summer and Luca?’ Colette said, rounding on Annie now. ‘Didn’t you withhold the truth then, too?’
Annie looked at her. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘The note Luca left here at the villa, right before my last day. What did you do with it?’
‘What?’ Annie frowned as she tried to think back to the day she was talking about.
‘What did you do?’ she shouted, and Annie’s mind reeled as she struggled to figure out what she was talking about.
‘I don’t —’
‘What the hell is going on here?’ Kim hissed, barging into the room then, her eyes wide. ‘Everyone can hear you from outside. What is this?’
‘You tell her, Annie,’ Colette snapped, her mouth tight. ‘You seem to be full of confessions tonight.’
Chapter 57
Now
‘Annie?’ Kim demanded.
‘I didn’t do anything with any note,’ she told Colette. ‘I don’t even know what you’re talking about. I remember telling you when you got back that day that Luca had called and left something for you in the kitchen. At the time I barely noticed him, to be honest.’
‘Luca remembered someone else was with you that day. He didn’t see who it was, though.’ Colette looked in Ed’s direction. ‘It was you, wasn’t it?’ She said quietly.
Now Annie remembered the day Colette was referring to as clearly as if it was yesterday, because it was exactly when her heart had been well and truly broken.
When Ed had appeared out of nowhere at the villa and she’d spotted him on her way out, her spirits had soared because she’d been so sure he’d changed his mind. And also because she looked so amazing at the time – the perfect opportunity to show him exactly what he’d been missing.
But then she realised she’d never actually told him where she was staying, and when he’d admitted he was there looking for Colette, the penny dropped.
The man she’d fallen for had dumped her for her friend.
It felt like a living hell.
It was then that she’d decided to go home to Ireland, unwilling to spend any more time licking her wounds at the villa, or worse, perhaps even have to see Colette and Ed together, especially when it seemed they’d become even closer in the aftermath of Luca’s let-down.
But now she realised something.
‘Oh my God,’ she whispered, looking at Ed. ‘You did something.’
‘I did what I had to,’ he replied calmly, his words unsettlingly matter of fact as he looked at them.
‘Had to?’ Colette questioned.
‘He wasn’t right for you, darling,’ he said, referring to Luca. ‘He was playing with your emotions.’ Ed crossed the room to where his wife stood, and the Italian immediately pulled her away from him.
‘You mean you sabotaged them?’ Kim asked, staring at Ed as if she’d never seen him before.
‘I took care of her – same as I always have,’ he replied. ‘He wasn’t going to be able to care for her the way I could. The way I have,’ he said. ‘To him she was just another in a long line of tourist conquests. I knew he was going to hurt her so I had to stop it. So I took his note and left one of my own.’
Colette gasped out loud and put a hand to her head in disbelief.
‘When you didn’t turn up that night, I suspected he’d just give up and he did. No man who truly cared about you would’ve let you go so easily, Colette,’ Ed insisted. ‘I never would. So I did what I had to, in order to prove to you that he was no good.’
‘That’s why you were there at the beach that night? Conveniently there to comfort me,’ she said, looking ill. ‘And you sent that text – which of course I assumed was from Luca.’
Annie couldn’t believe her ears. Who knew Ed could have been so cunning? How he could have purposely set out to sabotage and hurt Colette like that, and then swoop in like the proverbial knight in shining armour?
She didn’t know where the impulse came from, but one moment Annie was sitting in shock, and the next she’d jumped up, crossed the room, and slapped Ed across his face.
It felt incredibly satisfying and she looked at him defiantly, daring him to say or do anything in return.
Now, Colette was sobbing into Luca’s chest and the look on the Italian’s face was nothing short of lethal.
Kim stood close by, looking well and truly bamboozled by all of these revelations.
‘All this time it was you,’ Annie said sadly. ‘It was you who hurt her, not Luca. The same way you hurt me.’
Annie laughed bitterly. ‘There were so many times I regretted keeping you out of Charlie’s life. I believed I was denying him the gift of a father figure at the very least. I thought it was because I was protecting Colette, but now I realise I was also subconsciously shielding us both,’ she said. ‘You are no kind of man, Edward Hargreaves. You don’t deserve the family you have, and you certainly don’t deserve my son.’
‘What?’ Kim exclaimed. ‘Charlie is Ed’s son? How on earth …’
Colette looked at her. ‘Yes, something else Annie neglected to share, apparently. So much for her mysterious Italian Romeo.’
‘Colette, I never once said or implied he was Italian; you just assumed,’ Annie said. ‘And I never said anything afterwards because I didn’t want to hurt you, or interfere with your and Ed’s relationship.’
‘Then why now, Annie?’ Colette asked plaintively. ‘Because it’s pretty obvious you’ve had a bee in your bonnet with me since we arrived. You were openly rude and dismissive to me. Is that why you brought Charlie along? To rub it in my face?’
Kim moved to stand between her friends and put an arm around each of them. ‘Guys, you’re both upset – let’s just take a breather for a minute. Maybe you should get some air, Annie,’ she suggested gently. ‘And I think perhaps Colette needs to sit down.’
‘Good idea,’ Ed said, moving towards his wife.
‘You stay away from her,’ Luca demanded, pushing him back by the chest.
‘She’s my wife!’
‘She will decide that, but right now you stay away. You’ve done enough.’
‘I knew coming here was a mistake.’ Now Ed rounded on Kim. ‘But you had to do it, didn’t you? You had to rub your great success in all our faces. Even though it’s a complete sham, and you know it. Tell her, Colette.’
Everyone stopped, including Colette. All eyes then settled back on Ed.
‘What do you mean?’ his wife asked. ‘Tell her what?’
Ed was glaring at Kim, a self-satisfied smile on his face. ‘About the notebook.’
