Keira recognized the expression on her face instantly, because she herself had worn it before, the moment she discovered Zach was cheating on her. This woman was more than just an acquaintance to Cristiano. She was a lover, quite clearly so.

The woman began shouting at Cristiano, a barrage of passionate words that Keira couldn’t understand but could certainly get the gist of.

“Ratto! Bastardo!” As she shouted, the woman kept flailing an arm toward Keira and jabbing an accusatory finger in her direction. She repeated over and over again, “Chi è questa donna?”

Cristiano passionately argued back at the woman.

Keira hunkered down into the gondola, feeling overwhelmed by the altercation. All around them, people turned to stare at the commotion. Keira felt the gaze of many people on her. Some were whispering behind their hands, others pointing, others looking startled and gasping, covering their mouths, their eyes wide.

Even though she couldn’t understand their words, Keira could see the passion on Cristiano’s and the woman’s faces. She could see the judgment in the eyes of everyone around them, the people who could understand what the woman was shouting. It was clear as day to her that this woman was Cristiano’s girlfriend. And that made her, Keira, the other woman.

Startled, Keira leapt to her feet. She needed to get away from this commotion.

Cristiano turned and reached for her, but Keira just wanted to get away. She pulled herself free. The gondola rocked beneath her and, in her emotional state, Keira suddenly lost her footing.

She tumbled back over the side of the gondola, falling into the water. A huge wave of displaced water shot up into the air, drenching anyone unfortunate enough to be nearby. Keira, shocked by the sudden turn of events, floundered toward the jetty. It felt like a million eyes were on her, and with the number of tourists who’d witnessed the moment Keira wondered whether that figure was actually correct.

“Keira, stop!” Cristiano cried. “Where are you going?”

But Keira was humiliated, soaked through, bedraggled. She didn’t want to hear any kind of excuse from Cristiano about the woman, his lover, and she certainly didn’t want to be here anymore, in public, the subject of the whispers and giggles of onlookers. She clambered onto the jetty, pushing past the mysterious woman whose unexpected appearance had triggered the whole embarrassing fiasco.

Not knowing where she was going, Keira ran, taking the first alley she could, her feet pounding against the cobblestone ground as fast as her heart pounded against her ribcage.

She ran, on and on, until her chest ached. Then she collapsed against a wall, sunk to her knees, and wept.

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

As she wept in the shadows, Keira felt like everyone was looking at her and whispering. In desperate need of support, she grabbed her phone from her soggy purse—realizing as she did so that she’d abandoned her suitcase in the gondola with Cristiano. Luckily, her phone wasn’t damaged. But her notebook was. She pulled it out in a soggy clump of pulped pages. The sight made her tears fall even more.