Anna nodded and smiled along – she couldn’t do anything else, having no personal knowledge of the incident – but as she sat there, she realized this hadn’t been the first time that Gayle had been a little ‘off’ with her in recent months. She hadn’t thought anything of it at first. Her mother-in-law had never been an easy person to get along with, so she’d merely assumed it was just Gayle being Gayle. Maybe she was being uncharitable, but now she was starting to think otherwise.

Chapter Six

ANNA FELT A little nervous as she walked up the path to Gabi’s block of flats. She’d stopped off at a service station on the way back from Gayle and Richard’s, where she’d picked up a bottle of red wine and a large Toblerone. She balanced them in one hand while she pressed the intercom with the other.

‘Hello?’

‘It’s me,’ Anna said, her voice less confident than she wanted it to sound. ‘Can I come in?’

Usually, the buzzer would have sounded immediately, but today there was thick silence. After a few seconds, however, the door hummed and clicked. Anna stepped inside the communal hallway and began to climb the stairs to the first floor.

Gabi opened her front door, smile noticeably absent, and allowed Anna to walk past her into the living room. Anna perched on the edge of the sofa and looked around the room she knew so well. While she went for clean lines and neutral tones, Gabi’s decorating style was more colourful and eclectic.

What always stood out to Anna was the number of photograph frames cramming every single surface, of all Gabi’s family back in Brazil. Not only were there plenty of pictures of her parents and siblings – two brothers and three sisters – but there were snaps of uncles and aunties, nieces and nephews too. From what Gabi had told Anna, they were a large, close-knit family, always in each other’s business but always there when they needed each other. Being an only child, Anna had often wished for a family like that.

She and Gabi had met in their early twenties when Gabi had moved from São Paolo to London for university, and they’d instantly hit it off. However, it was after Anna’s parents had left for Canada that they’d really become close, bonding over both having their family thousands of miles away. Gabi had become the sister Anna had never had, which was why she was determined to fix this.

She placed the chocolate and the bottle of wine on the coffee table. Gabi sat down on the armchair across the room, back straight, arms folded.

‘I’m so sorry, Gabi. I was a total bitch last night.’

‘Yes, you were.’

Anna swallowed. ‘Did you get home okay?’

Gabi raised an eyebrow and shot Anna a look that said: Seriously?

Anna buried her face in her hands. ‘I know, I know… I don’t know what I was thinking! I was just…’ She looked up again. ‘You know I would never do anything to hurt you on purpose, don’t you? Because you’re the best friend anyone could ever have. You try to help me, put up with all my crap, and this is how I treat you. I don’t blame you if you don’t want to speak to me at the moment. I don’t blame you if you don’t want to speak to me ever again!’