‘Oh, my God…’ I blurt.

I look at Daniel. He looks petrified. He knows that I know.

‘I found this necklace in your sock drawer when I was putting your washing away… you said it was an early wedding present, that you were saving it for the day before the wedding. It was for her, wasn’t it? So you gave it to me, and you bought her another one. I thought it was weird, you’d buy me something so tacky. Now it makes sense. It was for that tacky little Barbie.’

‘It’s not my fault he likes to buy me things,’ Eva protests.

I think she might actually be an idiot.

Freddie wraps an arm around me.

‘Forget that bastard,’ Freddie tells me.

Daniel sees red.

As Daniel tries to push past me to get to Freddie – although Lord knows what he would do if he did – he accidentally elbows me in the ribs.

‘Ow,’ I involuntarily blurt.

The next thing I know, Freddie has Daniel on the floor.

‘You need to calm down,’ Freddie tells him firmly. ‘You just hurt Lila. Did you even realise or were you too busy lunging at me?’

‘Get off me, you silly bastard,’ Daniel mumbles from the floor.

I hear sobbing and turn around to see Eva.

‘Why is everyone trying to ruin my holiday?’ she cries out.

‘Your holiday?’ I say angrily.

Matteo, along with two burly security guards, steps into our personal space.

‘You need to come with us now,’ Matteo instructs.

As the four of us are frogmarched away from the bar, I notice the silent audience, their jaws on the floor as they take in our little performance. I bet they can’t believe their luck, getting more of a show than they bargained for.

As we’re led towards the hotel building, Freddie takes hold of my hand. Why do I feel as if we’re in big trouble?

26

Day 10

‘Spent the night at Freddie’s again, I see,’ Ali teases as we head for the cafe where she’s arranged for us to have lunch. ‘You dirty mare.’

‘Are you kidding me?’ I ask. I’m so flabbergasted my voice goes higher than I knew possible. ‘I had to stay with Freddie again because when I got back last night, you and Max were at it again!’

Ali scrunched up her face.

‘We waited for ages before we got going, but when you never came back I figured you were just on the Edge of Eden.’

Ali wiggles her eyebrows and jiggles the assets she paid good money for.

‘I suppose we were back quite late, but you won’t believe what happened,’ I tell her.

I watch as nothing more than a hint of something juicy powers Ali’s engine, lighting up her eyes. Gossip is her lifeblood.

‘Wait, don’t tell me,’ she insists. ‘Wait until we sit down, when I’ve got a drink in my hand. I want to enjoy this.’

As promised, I wait until we are seated in the Rosso coffee bar.