Creeping around the other side of the bed, I pulled open the drawer there.

Three passports, paperwork for the hire car, flight details in a plastic wallet, more paperwork relating to her company, packets of pills, hair straighteners, scissors, a notebook, pens, lip balm, suntan lotion.

I moved the boxes of pills aside and reached further into the drawer, trying to leave the other contents as I found them.

But none of it was familiar, none of it meant anything. None of it helped.

Hold on.

Wait.

There.

Something I did recognise. Something I knew very well. Perhaps the last thing I actually expected to find in this room.

Without realising I was doing it, without even making a conscious decision, I reached in and picked it up. Held it between thumb and forefinger, shaking my head. Hot tears pricking the back of my eyes.

I felt dizzy, as though I’d been struck in the back of the head. Up until now I’d had suspicion, fear, and maybe a tiny bit of hope that this could all – somehow – be a misunderstanding.

Now that hope was extinguished.

Now I knew.

But if I took it now, Rowan would notice it was gone and she’d know someone had been in here. She’d probably be able to work out who. The smart move would be to put it back where I found it, avoid the danger of being discovered.

I slipped it into my pocket instead.

For a moment I forgot where I was and what I was doing. The room seemed to spin around me, colours swimming in my vision as I fought to hold back the tears. The fact that I’d found this, particularly this, just made everything worse. More hopeless.

Lucy’s voice floated up from outside, from the pool below, snapping me back into the moment. Our conversation on the first night had been revolving in my head all morning, bouncing from one thought to the next as I tried to work out how to help her. My girl. There was so much she kept from me now, so many things she kept out of my reach, that I sometimes felt like I was spying on her. But I only wanted to help. Moving the sheer curtains aside, I pulled the sliding glass door open a little further and slipped out onto Russ and Rowan’s balcony.

This side of the villa was in direct, dazzling sunlight, and I felt the skin of my arms and face instantly start to cook in the heat. From here, I had a good view over the infinity pool and across to the main balcony off the lounge. Lucy was in the pool, doing lengths with her smooth, graceful breaststroke. Back and forth. If she looked up, she’d see me straightaway. I crouched down on the corner of the balcony, peering through a gap between two towels hung from the railing.