‘What? I’m just going to meet up with Jake and Ethan.’

‘That’s nice.’ I forced a smile. ‘Hey, has Lucy said anything to you?’

‘About what?’

‘Alex. From school.’

‘She doesn’t talk to me, Mummy. Not about girls,’ stuff.’ He looked at his watch. ‘Or do you mean big Alex from Year 12?’

‘I don’t know. Who’s she?’

‘He. The one who had that thing.’

‘What thing?’

‘Ages ago.’

I frowned. Conversations about school sometimes went like this, when I hadn’t been paying close enough attention to the comings and goings of friendship groups, gossip, the falling-out and making up that seemed to happen on a weekly or daily basis.

‘Is Lucy friends with him?’

Daniel shrugged.

‘Dunno.’

‘He had a thing, do you mean a party?’

One of the older boys – I wasn’t sure which – shouted his name from downstairs. Daniel’s head snapped around: he was being summoned.

‘Got to go. Bye!’ He scampered off.

We followed him downstairs and out onto the balcony. It was still blisteringly hot, the air thick with humidity. Sean took my hand as we walked through the garden and I didn’t pull away.

‘Where are we going?’ he asked.

‘I’ll show you.’

‘Very mysterious.’

We walked through the vineyard, the soft chirp of birds high overhead. The conversation was going to be beyond awkward considering how long we had all known each other, but it would be a lot easier than what was to come after. The children’s well-being had to take priority – we were parents first, partners second – and a part of me hoped, selfishly, that concern for his children might bring him to his senses. Bring him back to me.

‘I need to tell you something,’ I said, ‘away from everyone else.’

‘OK,’ he said. ‘From mysterious to ominous inside a minute. This can’t be good.’

‘Something . . . something happened earlier and you need to be aware of it.’

I described what I had seen Alistair doing by the pool, looking at the pictures on Lucy’s Instagram feed, glossing over the details of where I’d been standing when I saw it. Sean’s frown deepened as I related the images of our daughter on the screen of Alistair’s phone. He didn’t speak at all until we reached the trees and the clearing by the gorge.

‘That’s pretty weird,’ he said finally. ‘Did you confront him about it?’

‘I was going to, but by the time I’d got down to the pool he’d disappeared and I couldn’t find him.’

‘Right. I’ll have a word with him.’

I knew this was how he would react. It was another of the reasons I had brought him down here, away from the villa.

‘Don’t,’ I said. ‘Not yet.’

‘Are you kidding?’