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 someonesweetand 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 many 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 wasEd? 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?’
