The Truth About You

by Susan Lewis

  ‘Orvieto,’ Stacy informed her, ‘so nice and local.’

  ‘Perfect,’ Lainey responded, inhaling the bouquet.

  ‘Here’s to a wonderful holiday,’ Stacy toasted. ‘Let’s hope it’s successful in every way.’

  Smiling faintly, Lainey touched her glass to Stacy’s and took a sip. ‘He texted me too, asking him to let me know that we’ve arrived safely.’

  Apparently unsurprised, Stacy said, ‘So are you going to?’

  ‘I suppose I shouldn’t just leave it to Zav. I’d like to speak to him really.’

  ‘Then call.’

  Raising her eyebrows as a piercing Tierney scream erupted from the pool area, followed by some gigantic splashes, Lainey picked up her mobile and pressed to connect. ‘Hi,’ she said into his voicemail, ‘just to let you know that we’ve arrived in one piece and it’s beautiful here. I’d say we were missing you, because we are, but it’s probably not what you want to hear.’ She glanced at Stacy and continued. ‘Please don’t forget to stay in touch with the children, even if Max and Tierney don’t call or text back. It’ll mean something to them anyway.’ She took a breath. ‘OK, that’s about it for now. You know where we are if you need to speak to us, and you might not want to hear this either, but I love you,’ and already regretting saying it for how needy it might have made her sound, she rang off.

  ‘Mum? Are you awake?’ Tierney whispered into the darkness.

  Rolling on to her back, Lainey reached out to turn on the lamp, but couldn’t find the switch. ‘What are you doing here?’ she asked softly.

  ‘Can I get in with you?’

  Flipping back the sheet and moving over to make room, Lainey settled Tierney’s head into the crook of her arm and said, ‘You haven’t fallen out with Skye already, have you?’

  ‘No, no, she’s just . . .’ Tierney stopped, unsure about admitting that Skye had gone down to the lake with Max, where there was supposed to be a disco. ‘I just couldn’t sleep,’ she said lamely.

  ‘Why’s that?’

  ‘I don’t know. I guess Dad and everything. Why aren’t you asleep?’

  ‘I was until you came in.’

  ‘No you weren’t.’

  ‘How do you know?’

  ‘I can tell. A bit like you can always tell with me.’

  Lainey smiled, and for a while they lay quietly gazing through the mosquito nets to where a host of stars were lighting the night sky. The only sounds to be heard were the cicadas mingling with the faint thrumming of music somewhere in the valley.

  ‘Does this place feel like somewhere you belong?’ Tierney asked after a while. ‘You know, like on an instinctive level?’

  ‘We haven’t even been into the village yet,’ Lainey reminded her.

  ‘No, but you know, it can still happen. I’ll be glad for you if you do find your family . . .’

  ‘. . . they’d be your family too . . .’

  ‘. . . provided they’re nice, but we live in England and all my friends are there, so if you were . . .’

  ‘Sweetheart, no matter what happens on this holiday, Bannerleigh Cross will always be our home.’

  Tierney fell silent.

  Knowing what she was thinking now, Lainey was about to try and reassure her when she said, ‘What if Dad moves them in?’

  In spite of feeling certain it would never happen, Lainey’s heart gave a horrible jolt.

  ‘We can’t live there with them, and you remember what Stacy’s husband did, how he moved his girlfriend in . . .’

  ‘Dad would never do that to us.’

  ‘He might, while we’re here. We could get back and find they’ve taken over . . .’

  ‘Tierney, he wouldn’t do that.’

  ‘How do you know?’

  ‘I just do, but if you’re really worried, you should call him and tell him what’s on your mind.’

  ‘I don’t want to speak to him.’

  ‘Yes you do.’

  ‘No, I don’t.’

  ‘You’re just angry and confused, we all are, but you love him really . . .’

  ‘Do you still love him?’

  Lainey’s breath caught on the question. ‘Yes,’ she said, because why would she lie? ‘Yes, I do, but we have to sort things out . . .’

  ‘Are you going to get divorced?’

  ‘Oh, Tierney . . .’

  ‘You are, aren’t you?’

  ‘Things haven’t gone that far yet . . . I don’t want to, obviously, but if it’s what Dad wants . . .’

  ‘If it is I’ll never, ever, speak to him again.’

  Giving her a hug, Lainey said, ‘I won’t hold you to that, because it’s not what I’d want for you. Remember, he’s been a wonderful dad up to now, and I’m sure that won’t change . . .’

  ‘He’s not here. That’s a change. He’s never not come on holiday with us before.’

  ‘No, but it doesn’t mean he doesn’t love you.’

  ‘If it means he doesn’t love you, then I’m with Max, I’ll never want to see him again.’

  ‘Darling, Max has his own issues with Dad that you mustn’t let yourself get dragged into.’

  Accepting that was true, and that she didn’t want to be a part of it, Tierney spread her arms and legs to cool them as she said, ‘If you end up finding out you’ve got a father, who’s still alive, what will you do?’

  ‘Well, I guess that depends on who he is, how he is, where he is . . . It’s impossible to say.’

  ‘But Grandpa will always be our grandpa?’

  ‘Of course he will. He adopted me, so we’re every bit as much his family as Auntie Sarah and Auntie Esther and all of their children.’

  ‘I kind of miss him, don’t you? I mean, I know he’s still there, but I’m talking about the way he used to be, always loads of fun and full of stories. I wonder what he’d say if he knew about Julia?’ She turned to look at Lainey. ‘You know, it’ll be really weird if you end up finding your real dad just as I’m losing mine.’

  ‘Tierney, you’ll never lose Dad, that you can be sure of.’

  Tierney fell silent again. It was hard for her to articulate how she felt about sharing her father with someone she’d never even known about until a few days ago. He didn’t belong to Julia, even if he was her dad too. He belonged with them, her, Mum and Zav – Max too, obviously, who was only texting and inviting Christie over for a week. How was that going to be for his shag buddy Skye?

  What did she care? It was their business, not hers.

  She needed to focus on her parents breaking up and Guy getting in a state about her not showing the other night, and then weirding out about her going to Italy. It was like he was desperate to see her, and he just needed to chill. Already today he’d sent like about forty texts and even though it proved that he was totally mad about her, she wished he’d stop, because it wasn’t really what she wanted any more.

  ‘Come on, spill,’ Lainey prompted.

  ‘Spill what?’

  ‘All that nonsense you’ve got going on in your head.’

  Tierney stopped breathing; like her mother was able to read her mind? No way. She just couldn’t know about Guy. No, she was still thinking this was all about Dad. And it was, because Tierney was really worried about what might happen, how broken up her mum was going to be if they did get a divorce. She had to do something to try and keep them together, but the only idea she’d come up with so far had been more Skye’s than hers, and she wasn’t sure it would work for her parents. In fact she knew it wouldn’t, but maybe she should give it a try all the same. So, bracing herself, she said, ‘Don’t bite my head off, OK? Just hear me out before you say anything, but you know, everyone’s saying that this book, Fifty Shades of Grey . . .’

  Sighing, Lainey said, ‘So you’ve read it.’

  ‘Only bits, but you haven’t read any of it, and everyone’s saying it does wonders for their sex life, so maybe, if you . . .’

  ‘Tierney, this isn’t about sex. And it’s definitely not abou
t bondage, unless you’re suggesting I use some kinky way of tying him to me.’

  As they laughed, they rolled into each other’s arms and felt the complexity of their relationship turning very simple for a while.

  ‘So are you going to tell me who keeps texting you?’ Lainey asked in the end.

  Tensing, Tierney said, ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘I’m guessing he’s someone you met in London when you were with Skye?’

  ‘No. Yes, I mean, he’s like no one really. Don’t let’s talk about him. Let’s work out how we’re going to make things right between you and Dad.’

  ‘That’s for us to do, not you.’

  ‘Have you spoken to him since we got here?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Do you want to?’

  ‘Tierney . . .’

  ‘I’m not sure if it’s right to play hard to get. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t.’

  ‘You have to stop worrying about us,’ Lainey scolded.

  ‘He rang Zav just as we were going to bed.’

  ‘Really? Do you know what he said?’

  ‘No, Zav didn’t say.’

  Lainey turned her gaze back to the stars. It wasn’t so much what Tom might have said to Zav that was upsetting her, it was the fact that he hadn’t called her.

  ‘Are you OK?’ Tierney asked, turning to her.

  Lainey’s eyes were closed; her whole body was tense. ‘Of course,’ she said, the words seeming to unwind her a little.

  They listened to the sound of a car coming slowly along the gravel drive.

  ‘It must be Max,’ Tierney said.

  As a second door banged shut, Lainey remarked, ‘Seems he’s found himself some company. That didn’t take long.’

  ‘Like father like son,’ Tierney muttered.

  Lainey reached for her hand.

  ‘They ought to learn how to be faithful,’ Tierney commented tartly.

  ‘If Dad had learned that a long time ago you wouldn’t be here,’ Lainey reminded her.

  Tierney turned away. She was thinking of how she was part of Guy being unfaithful to Nadia and hating herself for it, but that was mainly because she was starting to hate him now. ‘You know when you had sex for the first time,’ she ventured. ‘Was it like, dead romantic, or did you hate it?’

  ‘To be honest,’ Lainey said, ‘I was pretty drunk and the boy I was with, Stuart, was in the same state, so I don’t remember all that much about it.’

  ‘But you do about the first time with Dad?’

  ‘Yes, I definitely remember that.’

  ‘If you’d known he was married, would you still have, you know, gone with him?’

  Lainey’s throat was drying, and her head was aching. ‘I’d like to say no, I wouldn’t have,’ she replied, ‘but I’m not sure that’s the truth. I was very attracted to him; the chemistry was pretty overpowering.’ For her it still was, but she was very much afraid that it was no longer the same for him.

  ‘Mm, I can understand how you felt, because sometimes it’s like you have to do something even though you know it’s wrong, or it might hurt someone else. You just get this feeling that you have to do it, like your body’s got a mind of its own.’

  Lainey’s eyes narrowed as she turned to her. ‘What are you trying to tell me?’ she asked cautiously.

  ‘Nothing! I’m just saying, that’s all.’

  ‘Tierney, for God’s sake, you haven’t got yourself involved with a married man?’ Panic was already taking hold, because if she had, then Lainey’s own troubles were going to seem small by comparison, especially if Tom were ever to find out.

  ‘Of course I haven’t,’ Tierney cried. ‘That’s not what I said. Why do you have to go and say that when I was just trying to be helpful?’

  ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry. It’s just . . . I guess I’m tired, and not thinking very straight. Why don’t you go on back to your own bed now? We’ve got some exploring to do in the morning and I’d like to be nice and fresh for it.’

  Sitting up, Tierney said, ‘Are you nervous about what you might find out about Granny’s past?’

  ‘Yes, actually, I am a bit.’

  ‘What, like in case your father turns out to be a mass murderer?’

  Lainey sighed. It wasn’t as though the thought hadn’t occurred to her, but at this stage she wasn’t going to allow herself to run with it. ‘Let’s just hope he doesn’t,’ she responded.

  ‘He won’t be,’ Tierney said confidently. ‘He’ll either be dead, or married to someone else . . . Oh my God, what if it turns out you’re as big a surprise to his wife as Julia was to you? That would be seriously weird, wouldn’t it?’

  ‘Tierney, go to bed, please.’

  ‘I’m gone. Love you.’

  ‘Love you too.’

  As the door closed behind her, Lainey turned to stare at the night sky again. Her thoughts were so tangled, her hopes and fears so inextricably enmeshed that she couldn’t imagine sleep coming any time soon. She wondered if Tom might be awake too and thinking of her.

  More likely he was fast asleep with Kirsten lying beside him, perhaps with her hand in his, or his arm around her, and Julia in a nearby room.

  How on earth was she going to bear this?

  Chapter Fourteen

  ‘WHO DO YOU reckon it is?’ Stacy murmured, as she and Lainey looked down from the hot, but shady terrace to where a large black Audi was passing in front of the villa on its way, presumably, to the slope where their hire car was parked. No entryphone buzzer had sounded, and as far as they knew the gates had closed automatically behind Max when he’d left an hour ago with the girls. (To hook up with some British dudes he’d met at the disco last night, he’d informed Lainey in his cool-guy, don’t-bother-me-with-stuff way, before leaving.)

  For one head-spinning moment Lainey wondered if it was a taxi and Tom had decided to turn up and surprise them. Perhaps that was why Zav had seemed more relaxed after he’d spoken to his dad last night, because he’d known he was coming today.

  Though it didn’t seem likely, anything was possible, and she longed with all her heart for it to be true. What would happen after that she had no idea, she just wanted it to be him.

  As the Audi came to a stop, a blaze of sunlight on the windscreen was making it impossible to see who was driving, and with tinted windows at the back there was no way to tell if anyone else was in the car.

  Throwing Stacy a look, Lainey watched the driver’s door open, and as a man in his mid- to late thirties got out she felt her jaw starting to drop.

  ‘Whoever he is, he’s mine,’ Stacy muttered, as quite possibly the most gorgeous-looking male they’d ever seen removed his sunglasses and started towards them. He was tall, slender but muscular, with carelessly tousled black hair and a shadow of stubble around his chin that made him look like a rock star, or a movie legend, or someone any woman would want to wake up next to.

  Moving past the disappointment of it not being Tom, Lainey went forward to greet him. ‘Hello,’ she said smiling, holding out a hand to shake. ‘I’m guessing you’re Marco, Adriana’s brother-in-law?’

  ‘That is right,’ he confirmed, his large hand closing loosely, yet somehow firmly around hers. His expression was tinged with curiosity as he regarded her, and yet was so openly warm that, in an odd sort of way, it seemed to make his looks less daunting. In fact, perhaps he wasn’t quite so drop-dead after all, she decided, since his nose was a bit crooked and his eyes a little close together. However, they had such a mesmerising intensity about them that she was finding it almost as hard to meet them as she was to look away. ‘And you are Mrs Hollingsworth?’ he asked politely.

  ‘Lainey,’ she corrected. ‘Please, call me Lainey. Or Elenora, if you prefer.’ She almost laughed as she imagined Stacy’s face behind her. ‘It’s very nice to meet you,’ she told him. ‘We love the villa. It’s perfect, and the view is . . . bellissima.’ She instantly felt foolish, because it was probably the wrong word and she shouldn’t eve
n have attempted it, knowing nothing of the language. How many years had it been since she’d found herself tongue-tied in front of a man? In truth, she wasn’t sure she ever had.

  ‘Excuse me, can anyone join in?’ Stacy asked, peeping over her shoulder.

  Lainey spun round and almost bumped into her. ‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘Marco, this is Stacy Greenfield, my closest friend. Stacy, this is Marco, Adriana’s brother-in-law. Our landlord.’

  ‘It’s lovely to meet you,’ Stacy said, shaking his hand while treating Lainey to an elbow out of the way. ‘You have a stunning place here. I can only wonder why you don’t live in it yourself. I know I would if it were mine. Unfortunately, my darling ex-husband left me with so little that I can’t even buy anywhere in England, never mind abroad, and I think I should really stop talking now, because I’m starting to make a fool of myself.’

  Spluttering with laughter, as Marco’s eyes twinkled, Lainey said, ‘Would you care for a coffee? I was about to make some.’

  ‘Oh, no, no, I’m fine, thank you,’ he replied, in accented but perfect-sounding English. ‘I have come simply to introduce myself, and to check that you have managed to decipher the code for the Wi-Fi.’

  ‘Actually, now you come to mention it,’ Stacy said, ‘I am having a bit of trouble. I was going to ask Max to sort it, but if you can help . . .’

  ‘I will be happy to. It is very long and hard to read. A lot of people have difficulty.’ He turned to Lainey.

  She smiled quickly as though she’d been caught staring, which actually she had.

  ‘My sister-in-law tells me that you are hoping to find your family while you are here,’ he said.

  Surprised, though feeling suddenly, absurdly, proud of her Italian roots, she said, ‘That’s right. I was born in Tuoro, so I’m here to find out if anyone might remember my mother, or even my father.’

  He was nodding with interest.

  Behind him Stacy’s eyes were widening, but Lainey wasn’t sure what message she was trying to send.

  ‘I’m afraid my Italian is non-existent,’ she ran on, filling an awkward silence, ‘but I’m hoping to find someone who speaks English.’