No. That was enough. She didn’t take bare-faced lies. ‘You’ve already met Ed.’
A tiny line of confusion nestled between Ana’s brows. ‘Sorry? I’m not sure what you’re talking about.’
‘I cannot stomach liars. So I’ll ask you a question, and I hope you’re not going to piss me off by lying.’
Ana smoothed down the sides of her dress, then clasped her hands together.
‘Is Ed Luca’s father?’
Her eyes widened, then blinked. She said nothing.
‘Well?’
Ana turned on the spot, moving towards the exit of the villa.
‘Where are you—’
‘We can’t have this conversation here,’ she said in a low, calm voice, reaching the front door. She held it open, indicating that Eleanor should follow.
‘I’ve a feeling,’ Eleanor said, folding her arms, ‘that this isn’t a conversation that works well anywhere.’
The real problems began when we discovered we were being lied to. No one likes to be made a fool of.
That sort of thing, well, it couldn’t go unpunished, could it?
46
Bella
Bella couldn’t sleep.
She loved the heat. Really, she bowed to the sun in all its life-giving glory, but at night, she’d have loved the heat to piss off. Fen preferred not to use the air conditioning on environmental grounds and, as Bella was trying very, very hard to be nice, she was not going to switch it on. Instead, the fan wafted warm air around the room, while Bella lay naked on top of the covers, sweating.
Maybe she’d sweat out the alcohol and wouldn’t be hung-over tomorrow. Silver linings and everything.
She didn’t sleep very well these days. Hadn’t done in almost a year. The problem with night was that all the things you avoided thinking about during the day gave you a knowing wink – See you tonight, then! – and there they were, as soon as you closed your eyes. Except at night it was even worse, because by then you were too tired to think rationally and everything became magnified, distorted.
The nights she slept alone were the hardest. There was a comfort when Fen stayed over and she could sleep with a hand on her chest, feeling the firm, strong rhythm of her heartbeat beneath her palm. Tonight, Fen had rolled onto her side, bunching the sheet around her waist.
Bella sat up. No, she would not lie here, sweating.
Naked, she crossed the room, then padded downstairs. She poured herself a glass of water and drank it too fast, giving a little shiver as the water chilled her insides. She meandered onto the terrace. The lanterns were still glowing and the air smelled faintly of herbs and chlorine.
She moved towards the pool, lowering herself onto the edge and slipping her feet into the cool, uplit water.
One day and one night left. That was it, then it’d all be over. The hen party had been a beacon for weeks now – that one golden thing in her diary, underlined three times and surrounded by a cluster of biro stars. Whenever she was having a crap day, she’d remind herself: Greece! Sun! Lexi’s hen! Keep going! But now the hen was nearly at its end and she would soon be returning home to a rented flat, and a job at a jeweller’s that left her unfulfilled.
She missed being a nurse. No matter how she dressed it up – I was ready for a change. The shift work was relentless. I’ve always wanted to sell jewellery – the truth was she missed nursing. She missed her colleagues. She missed the satisfaction of being good at her job. When you work out that a patient presenting with a fever in fact has meningitis and you manage to get them on the right medication before permanent damage is done – now that means something. Yet she’d swapped that for selling silver bangles. Another great life choice, Bella!
See? Middle of the night. Who wants to be awake then?
She slipped her legs from the pool and stood. Maybe she should take up reading … find a good book to keep her company in the middle of the night. Fen’s aunt had a well-stocked bookshelf. She’d pick one. Begin tonight. That could be her thing: she’d become a reader. Maybe she’d start her own book club. That’d knock Ana from her literary throne!
She left a meandering trail of wet footprints as she headed for the villa. Then paused.
Voices.
Who else was awake?
She listened, ears pricked.
Yes, a low whisper was coming from behind the villa. Strange. Why would anyone be out there? She felt a strange beat of unease. She followed the voices, moving gingerly across the terrace, her nakedness suddenly making her feel exposed as she tiptoed along the floodlit path.