by Melissa Hill
Chapter 58
‘What notebook?’
‘The one you stole six years ago, with all the ideas and words you used to build your so-called wellness empire. They were never yours and you know it.’
Annie sat forward. What was he talking about? What else had Ed been up to?
And more to the point, what did Kim have to do with it?
‘I don’t know what you mean …’ she began, but Annie noticed she’d gone white.
‘Colette, tell her,’ Ed implored once more, his face smug. ‘All of this, it could have, should have been yours.’
‘Oh, for heaven’s sake!’ Colette looked drained as she turned to Kim. ‘When I came here that summer, I brought along a diary, silly little stuff I’d written to keep me going when Mum was sick, inspirational quotes to keep my spirits up. But I misplaced it in the house somehow, even though I didn’t realise it at the time. I was too busy enjoying myself. Then when your book came out, I recognised some of the chapter headings, and figured you’d come across the diary but never said anything.’ She shrugged. ‘It’s no big deal.’
‘No big deal?’ Ed raged. ‘She used your words to get rich, never crediting you.’
‘Because she obviously didn’t know the diary was mine, you idiot,’ Colette snapped. She looked at Kim. ‘I mentioned to him in passing one day that I thought you must have found the diary. It’s no big deal, honestly. There was no way to tell who it belonged to, especially as I’d written any personal stuff in Italian in case my mother ever came across it at home. And really, it’s not as though any of the quotes were even mine, anyway – I picked them up here and there over the years.’
Annie was floored, although it kind of made sense that this hippy-dippy stuff had come from Colette and not Kim. She was exactly the kind of person who believed in that woo-woo nonsense.
‘I swear, I had no idea the book belonged to you – or the words. If I had I’d never …’ The words spilled out as Kim explained how she’d tried to track down the journal’s origin, believing it to be a previous guest or the villa’s owner. ‘I tried everything, honestly! I stole nothing. Not on purpose, anyway.’
‘I know. And it’s not as if I could or would have done anything with it anyway. You’re the go-getter, Kim, the one who can turn your hand to anything and make it a success. And you have. I already pointed all of this out to Ed, but it seems he didn’t listen.’
Then Kim seemed to realise something, too.
‘It’s you, isn’t it?’ she said, turning to Ed. ‘Not only did you sabotage Colette and Luca’s romance six years ago, but you’ve also been trying to sabotage this entire event. Leaving hateful comments on my social media, accusing me of plagiarism, perhaps even going so far as to mess with my permits and caterers, and goodness knows what else! But why go to so much trouble? If you resent me for using your wife’s words, why didn’t you just come right out and confront me? Why wait until now?’
‘I think I know why,’ Luca put in then. ‘He did not want this event to happen because he did not want Colette to come back to Italy and discover the truth. And she would – once I got the chance to see her.’ He put his hand over his heart. ‘I am sorry for this, Kim, but it is I who upset your catering arrangements, because I needed to be here at Villa Dolce Vita tonight. I needed to see Colette once more, to see if she was happy and if she had made the right decision all those years ago – in choosing him.’ He shot another daggers look at Ed. ‘And now I know for sure that it was not.’
‘He’s right. I didn’t want you coming back here,’ Ed agreed, his voice plaintive. ‘I had to try and stop it. I knew if you came back there was a chance you would realise that you were happier with him than you ever were with me.’
Annie shook her head. The person she had once known and adored as Harry was no more. Now Edward Hargreaves was a weeping shell of a man, willing to go to any lengths to get what he wanted. Whatever honour and nobility she had seen in him six years ago was long gone.
Or perhaps never even existed.
‘I don’t even know who you are …’ Colette whispered through tears as she stared at her husband. ‘But I do know that you never loved me. You knew I wanted someone else back then, and that’s the only reason you set your sights on me. It was about winning, wasn’t it, Ed? You always have to win.’
One look at Ed’s face made Annie realise that Colette was right. He hadn’t truly cared about either of them back then. It had all been a competition to him.
Ed Hargreaves didn’t care about anyone but himself.
While she had come here expecting fireworks when she confronted Ed about his refusal to help her out of her recent financial bind, she had never in a million years intended to hurt Colette or Kim.
This was the kind of showdown she would never have asked for or imagined, and while she was still angry at Ed for so many reasons, what hurt most was the pain in Colette’s eyes when she looked at her now.
‘I need to get out of here,’ she said wearily, and Luca duly moved to usher her out of the room.
Ed tried to follow, but Kim stopped him with the threat of calling Gabriel and having him forcibly and publicly removed by a man almost twice his size.
A proper man.
Annie half wished she could see that happen, though she guessed it was the murderous look on the Italian man’s face that had truly given Ed pause.
Now she followed Colette, Luca, and Kim back outside to the courtyard, where down below on the terrace, all the party guests were smiling and laughing as the fireworks show began to kick off.
She noticed that not one of her old friends even glanced upwards at the colourful explosions high in the sky off the beautiful Amalfi Coast.
Tonight, there’d been enough fireworks to last them all a lifetime.
Epilogue
Eighteen Months Later
‘And … we’re back,’ Kim said with a rueful smile as she stood on the terrace at Villa Dolce Vita with Gabriel and Lily.
Yet again she’d been transformed.
She’d stepped away from the business to focus on her family and Emilia, a decision she didn’t regret. Having more time with the people she loved most had changed her entire outlook on life.
Family is not an important thing. It is everything.
Finally, she was taking her own (or, in truth, Colette’s) advice.
‘The place looks great. I’m surprised Antonio was able to let us have it with the amount of traffic that’s been going through here,’ Gabriel commented.
‘Hey, it’s still my company so I make the rules.’ Kim tiptoed up to him and kissed her husband on the cheek.
Antonio had since confessed what Kim already knew – that his wife had mistakenly submitted alternative documents to the planning department, which he’d tried to cover up at the meeting.
‘I didn’t know for sure until I saw the signatures,’ he’d told Kim, finally willing to admit that his beloved wife’s condition had gone beyond him, and that she needed professional care. Kim assured him not to worry, that she would do everything she could to help. She didn’t want to add to her old friend’s anguish by telling him about Emilia’s suspicions of an affair, as she knew he had enough to contend with.
‘You make the rules for the moment, at least.’ Gabriel smiled as he laid his hand on her swollen stomach. ‘Once this next one comes we won’t have nearly as much time for jaunts in places like this.’
‘I can’t wait to see my baby sister,’ Lily called out. She’d been on the grassy yoga area playing quietly with her dolls until she’d heard her favourite subject being discussed.
‘You really think it’s a girl?’ Gabriel said dubiously. ‘I was kind of hoping for a boy so that things might even out in this family.’
‘Nope. I want a girl.’
‘You’re biased, though,’ Kim teased.
‘Boys are icky,’ her daughter insisted, with a wrinkle of her nose.
‘Not all boys. Daddy’s a boy.’
‘Mommy,
Daddy’s not a boy. He’s a man.’
‘But all men were boys once,’ Gabriel teased.
‘They’re still icky,’ Lily insisted.
‘Well, I certainly hope you won’t feel that way about our little man,’ Colette’s voice resonated from the courtyard. She stepped down onto the pool terrace with a tray of food in her hand, eight months pregnant and absolutely radiant.
‘Let me take it,’ Luca insisted as he hoisted the platter out of her hands and brought it over to the others. ‘You should not be lifting things.’
‘It’s just a silly tray,’ she laughed, winking at Kim. She’d begun to waddle a little, something Kim remembered only too well. She’d been like Donald Duck when was pregnant with Lily, but thankfully was a few months off that point yet.
She was so happy for her friend, though, and it was wonderful to see her looking so relaxed and happy.
The aftermath of that night had been a difficult time for all three of them, in more ways than one. But their friendship had got them through.
Colette and Annie’s heart-to-heart following the party had broken down all barriers, and enabled both women to see the man they both thought they loved for who he truly was.
Annie had been instrumental in helping Colette through her divorce, even offering her a room in Dublin for a while until she felt strong enough to return to London and leave Ed for good. And Colette in turn (and with some financial help and advice from Kim) had helped Annie with getting her business back on track.
Kim was still amazed at the revelations that had tumbled out the night of the party.
Who could have guessed that Ed – of all people – was Annie’s mysterious Romeo? And not only that but he had fathered Charlie and had promptly gone and set his sights on Colette before either of them knew about it. Granted, he hadn’t done anything behind her back, but for Colette it was still a betrayal. He’d concealed the truth and even worse, from her point of view at least, was that having promised Annie he’d be there for her if ever she needed him, he’d turned his back on her and Charlie when they did.
He didn’t make things easy on Colette, either, refusing to let her go, and had tried to drag out the legalities for as long as possible. But Colette, as always, kept things simple. She wanted nothing from him, other than to be free.
Even if she had wanted money as part of the divorce, there was little to share: a series of bad investments over the years on Ed’s part had bled their finances dry and left them practically penniless. That was why he’d refused to help out Annie financially, the first and only time she’d ever asked him.
Every time she thought about that, Kim felt for her friend and wished she’d paid close enough attention to their friendship, so that Annie would have turned to her instead. But she guessed if she had done so, then all the secrets they’d discovered that night would never have come out.
She was still bewildered to discover that the journal upon which she’d built The Sweet Life had actually been Colette’s, and had since tried her utmost to include her friend in the company, granting her shares and even offering her a place on the board, but Colette was having none of it.
Her motto had, after all, been to follow the simple life.
And she certainly had that now with Luca. Once she and Ed divorced, she had married Luca and moved lock, stock, and barrel to Italy, living in bliss above his restaurant ever since.
Now, with a baby on the way, all her dreams had finally come true.
While Ed had failed in his aim to sabotage Villa Dolce Vita’s relaunch and thus thwart their ultimate reunion (while also hoping to make some money on the side through threatening Kim with a plagiarism lawsuit), he had at least succeeded in one thing – finally enabling Colette to live the life she deserved.
‘Hey, guys.’ Annie peeked her head around the entrance gate of the courtyard. She looked amazing. Dark curls tumbled around her head, she wore a pretty floral summer dress and, flanked by a mischievous-looking Charlie on one side and a smiling stranger on the other, she looked … happy.
Kim smiled.
‘Buonasera!’ Colette called out happily, rushing to greet Annie.
‘Who’s your friend?’ Lily asked, pointing to the man with her.
‘This is Nick,’ Annie announced proudly, and Kim knew that this time she truly was head over heels.
Good for her. From what she’d heard about Nick he was a great guy who genuinely cared for both Annie and Charlie, and had also been a huge help in getting her business back on its feet. But for her part, Kim never had any worries on that score. No matter what life threw at her, Annie O’Doherty always came back fighting.
‘So,’ she looked from Kim to Colette, the old devilish glint in her eye, ‘are we going to get this party started or what?’
Kim stood up and moved to embrace her and Colette, realising that their journey had come full circle.
Their friendship had begun here at Villa Dolce Vita, and despite all the ups and downs, it would continue.
Annie had found love and contentment with someone who truly appreciated her, Colette was having the baby she’d always craved with the love of her life, and Kim was finding that true happiness was better to be lived than spoken of.
Life for all three was finally sweet.
Acknowledgements
Lots of love and thanks to Kevin, Carrie, family and friends for their continued support.
Huge thanks as always to Sheila Crowley – my incredible agent and treasured friend.
To all the team at Curtis Brown for championing my work so well – with special mention to Luke Speed for all the massively exciting film and TV stuff that’s been happening lately. Thank you so much.
To my fantastic editor Manpreet Grewal, whose insightful editorial suggestions really brought this story alive, the inimitably wonderful Lisa Milton for her boundless energy and enthusiasm, and all the brilliant HQ team in London.
Big thanks too to all the gang at HarperCollins Ireland and Mira in the US.
Huge gratitude to the fantastic booksellers all over the world who give my books such amazing support.
Last but not least, humongous thanks to readers everywhere. I always love hearing from you so please do get in touch via my website www.melissahill.ie or Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
I really hope you enjoy THE SUMMER VILLA.
About the Publisher
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