‘Oh yes?’ She nuzzles against me. ‘I imagine they’re all pretty much like this one, aren’t they? Showy luxury for people who like to feel they deserve only the best?’

I feel a pang of love for her, I can’t help it. ‘They are. But it wasn’t that that was illuminating – the chalets were pretty much as I expected them to be. Cameron says you and he already know each other. Is that true?’

She sits up, looking appalled. ‘He promised! I mean … what did he say?’ she squeaks.

‘I want to hear it from you,’ I snap. ‘How do you know each other?’

I didn’t realize this actually happened in real life, but the colour drains from her face.

‘Hugo … why do you need to know?’ she whispers. ‘It was all so long ago …’

I knew it. ‘He’s an ex!’ I shout, my voice coming out much louder than I was expecting. ‘Why didn’t you tell me? Fuck, I must look like such a twat! He’ll have been laughing at me all week! No wonder he has such a smug expression on his face the whole time. God, Ria!’

I turn away and pace to the other side of the room. I can’t look at her. And I’m not sure I can bear to look at Cameron again either. Maybe we should get out of here now, like Ria wants to, go home. Maybe Olivia could sort a flight somehow? Perhaps we could get a private jet like those clients of Cameron’s he was talking about. Anything, anything to get away from this man who has slept with my wife.

‘No!’ Ria cries, interrupting my mental fuming. ‘Gross. He’s not an ex. Nothing like that. I can’t stand him. But we … we worked together. A long time ago.’

I turn and stare at her. ‘That’s what he said too. But if that’s all it was, why wouldn’t you have told me? There must have been more to it than that?’

She shakes her head. ‘There wasn’t. There isn’t. We worked together. That’s all. Look, does it matter? It was long before I met you and, before this week, I hadn’t seen him in years. I forgot to tell you about it. So what? There are plenty of other people I’ve worked with who you’ve never met. It’s now that matters.’ She throws back the covers and crawls across the bed. ‘Look, I’ve stopped taking those pills now so why don’t we …’

She starts fiddling with my belt buckle but I push her hands away. ‘No. I want to know why you lied.’

‘I didn’t lie!’ she shrieks. ‘I never told you I didn’t know him!’