‘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’vebeen 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 thehellis 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.
NowAnnie 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.
