It wasn’t a huge surprise that Jennifer, Alistair and their boys had left the house early. After last night’s row between Alistair and Sean, and the state the boys were in when they’d returned to the villa, it made sense that they’d want to skip the Awkward Morning After. That was Jennifer’s usual tactic: avoid, ignore, look the other way, hold the problem at arm’s length until it faded and was forgotten. Izzy, by contrast, had a tendency for straight-talking honesty that some people mistook for rudeness. I was somewhere in the middle, I supposed.

I sliced and buttered a croissant and took it out onto the balcony with my coffee. The sun was already fierce, the air heavy with humidity and the damp, claustrophobic heat of impending thunder. And yet the sky was still a perfect azure blue, no clouds in sight and not a breath of wind. The only sound was a pair of swallows whirling high above me, calling to each other as they turned and chased in an endless dance.

If truth be told, it was probably a good idea for everyone to have a few hours apart and do their own thing. Moments from last night kept coming back to me: Daniel pleading to go home; my husband’s half-apology in the kitchen; the look of horror on Lucy’s face when she fled the game of water polo; Sean squaring up to Alistair, veins standing out in his neck, telling him what would happen if he didn’t keep his hands to himself. The word on Ethan’s lips as he lay, drunk, in the grass. Oblivion.

This holiday had gone wrong in so many ways, I had lost count.

Odette came out onto the balcony in her pink sparkly swimming costume, munching on a brioche. Rowan followed, espresso in one hand and car keys in the other.

‘We’re going to try the beach again for couple of hours. Fancy it?’

‘My lot are still asleep.’

‘How’s Lucy doing?’ She gave me a concerned look. ‘After what happened last night, I mean?’

‘She was pretty upset.’

‘I thought Sean was going to punch his lights out.’

‘Watch this space,’ I said, ‘it might still happen.’

‘Give her a hug from me.’

Russ emerged from the kitchen carrying a canvas beach bag, and they roared off in the Land Rover, leaving just the four of us at the villa.

Just me, my cheating husband and my traumatised children.