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Frankie stared at Valentina’s phone. She felt sick. Did these snippets of messages really indicate Valentina and Jay met in London?

Legs shaking, Frankie got out of her van and made her way into her barn. She gave the dogs a perfunctory greeting then sat at her kitchen table. After a moment she opened her laptop and pulled up Facebook.

Frankie was appallingly bad at keeping up with social media, but Valentina was even worse and she didn’t even have a Facebook account. But it wasn’t Valentina that Frankie was interested in; it was Valentina’s friend Leanne.

Leanne lived for bragging on social media. If it wasn’t posted, it didn’t happen. Frankie had accepted Leanne’s friend request years ago and was now one of the two thousand plus “friends” Leanne kept updated numerous times a week.

Frankie didn’t think she’d even met two thousand people in her entire lifetime.

Knowing neither Todd nor a work colleague were the father, Frankie assumed Valentina’s one-off hook-up was with a stranger in London. But now, after seeing those texts, she needed to know for sure if Valentina had met up with Jay.

Clicking on Leanne’s profile, Frankie began the arduous task of scrolling back through hundreds of posts until she got to around Easter, the time when Valentina and Leanne had gone to London.

There! A post of them sipping drinks in a pub with the caption, Waiting for the secret band to come on! The place is jumping so it must be someone big!

The next post was of a small dark stage. It seemed Valentina and Leanne were in the middle of the front row.

Jay’s words came back to taunt her, how he’d wished she’d been in the audience. Well, her sister had been.

Frankie’s heart practically stopped at the next photo; Drive With Care were on stage. The next photo was a close-up of Jay, looking down at his guitar, hair damp with sweat with Si in the background, bass guitar slung low, as he stared moodily out to the crowd.

Although Frankie’s hands shook, she continued to click on the photographs.

The next photo was of Leanne with Si and the caption, Backstage to meet the band.

Clicking on the photo and enlarging it, Frankie could see Valentina and Jay in the background, glasses of wine in hand, laughing. They looked close and cosy together. Close enough to sleep together?

Frankie clicked on the next few pictures. Leanne with the band members and then on the back of a bus with another guy with the caption, Bagged myself a roadie and I’m off on another adventure. Spain, here we come!

It had been posted that same night. So Leanne had buggered off, leaving Valentina with Jay.

Frankie sat back in her chair.

Was she justified in feeling angry and upset?

Not legitimately.

Valentina had never known Frankie had been in love with Jay. Valentina had gone to university in Leeds, and then worked in the same city, only moving back to Drumkeldy after their nonna had died. All Valentina knew was Rocco and Jay had had a momentous falling out and no one mentioned Jay’s name. Frankie could see why Valentina didn’t want anyone in the Bartoli-Barr household knowing she’d hooked up with Jay.

It also explained a lot of Valentina’s actions. Why she didn’t want Jay to know she was pregnant, and why she disappeared from the party dressed in Frankie’s Christmas tree costume. She’d told Frankie that being with the father of the child was an impossible situation that would complicate things. She wasn’t wrong. Although Valentina was just thinking about it from a Jay and Rocco falling out perspective.

The fact Jay had slept with Valentina hurt Frankie deeply. She knew it shouldn’t really matter as Frankie and Jay hadn’t seen each other in over a decade. But the other night at her party… What she’d felt for Jay… Frankie thought Jay had felt the same, that there was chemistry between them, a connection that had continued throughout the years, even when they’d not been in contact. But Frankie had been wrong.

Frankie clicked on a new tab on her laptop. Frankie had someone else she wanted to search for. It didn’t take long to find Astrid d’Arcy’s various social media accounts.

There were a lot of vitriolic posts. Some were cryptic, but many obviously referred to Jay and their marriage split. Astrid also appeared to be clever with editing on TikTok and Instagram.

To a background of delicate and slow piano music in a minor key, there was a close-up of Astrid’s beautiful pale face with a tear running down her cheek, with the caption, When you discover your husband has written a love song… about another woman. Then a quick, split-second cut to Astrid screaming with a red filter, before immediately returning back to the original image and music. It was quite unsettling. Frankie saw the post was from the end of April. Was Astrid alluding to Jay sleeping with Valentina?

There was another quick reel where a garden incinerator was piled with sheet music, vinyl and even a guitar, cutting to a lit match dropping into it, cutting to it burning fiercely. Revenge best served hot was the caption.

Oh dear. Astrid seemed to be a very angry, and slightly unhinged woman.

Frankie sincerely hoped Jay’s ex wouldn’t cause problems for Valentina.

Valentina and her baby were the priority. Whatever Frankie’s feelings were for Jay, Frankie knew she’d have to take a step back and let him and Valentina sort out everything with the baby between them. At least Jay now knew and would be there to support Valentina. Even if Jay and Valentina weren’t going to be romantically connected it was still too complicated a relationship for Frankie to be a part of.

There would be no drama, as Frankie didn’t want to upset Valentina. Neither did Frankie want to come between Rocco and Jay in their attempts to mend their friendship.