Nicole stood still, arms wrapped around herself. She hadn’t moved since Richard had walked out. “I didn’t know what to do.” Her voice was a whisper. “I didn’t know how to handle it. You were so happy on that vacation. You had so many plans for the future. You talked about Richard the whole time. It was obvious that you had no idea what was going on. Not even the vaguest suspicion.”

And she felt like a prize idiot. She’d trusted her husband, and she’d also trusted her best friend.

“And it didn’t occur to you that it might have been a good idea to tell me? Or was it fun to watch me humiliated?”

“Fun?” Nicole’s voice rose. “It was a nightmare, Milly. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to be the one to drop that bombshell and shatter your world. I didn’t want to come between the two of you and be the one who wrecked your marriage.”

There was a knot in her stomach. She tried to think back to that time, to work out what she’d been doing when Nicole had overheard that conversation. Had she been swimming in the pool with Zoe? Changing for dinner? Afterward there must have been tension between Nicole and Richard. Why hadn’t she spotted the shift in the mood?

Or had she simply not been looking, living her life in her own happy bubble, blinkered to the truth, trusting those around her because if you couldn’t trust your own family, who could you trust?

“So you gave him an ultimatum. You made him choose.”

She imagined Richard’s reaction, the panic of a cornered animal as he realized he’d been caught out.

How had he reacted to that ultimatum? Had there been any hesitation on his part? Had it crossed his mind, even for a second, to choose her?

How long would he have continued the affair if Nicole hadn’t confronted him?

The thought of it made her nauseous.

“I was trying to make him do what was right. Trying to make him see what he was risking. I didn’t think for one minute he would choose her. Why would I?” Nicole pressed her fingers to her forehead. Slim fingers with perfectly shaped nails. “You adored each other. You finished each other’s sentences. You were always touching. You’d been together forever. I envied your relationship. You had the perfect marriage.”

The perfect marriage. What a joke. “You mean apart from the fact he was having an affair.”

Nicole gave her a look of despair. “I thought maybe it was just a stupid midlife crisis moment. A mistake that he was already regretting. When I overheard him on the phone he and Avery were fighting. He was telling her not to call him while he was away with you. It didn’t exactly sound loving.”