Hearing this saddened Kim to the core. “Aw, Gabe, she hasn’t been well for a while. You know that. She was just being paranoid.” But the mention of the licenses now triggered a memory in her brain.

The way Antonio had been at the town hall meeting, and how he’d squirreled away the planning documents that had caused the trouble without her seeing them, promising her he’d take care of it and find out who in the company had been behind it.

Could Emilia have been behind the new application, albeit unintentionally? She was a company director and signatory on all the plans. Could she have mistakenly resubmitted the applications? If so, then perhaps her prognosis was worse than Kim, or indeed Antonio, originally suspected.

Then another thought struck her. Could Emilia also be the one behind the so-called plagiarism claims? She was the only one who had some sense of the truth; Kim had once confided in her that some of the inspirational quotes might not be wholly original, though she hadn’t breathed a word about any journal. But Emilia hadn’t seemed to think there was any issue at the time.

But now, because of her (unfounded) suspicions of an affair, could she perhaps be trying to get back at Kim and sabotage the launch of Villa Dolce Vita? It made sense.

Kim breathed deeply, deciding it was time to come clean to Gabriel once and for all about the notebook and how The Sweet Life originally began.

“The quotes—some of the original ones—they’re not actually mine,” she confessed meekly, explaining how everything had barreled out of control once Emilia and Antonio had come on board. “I never purposely meant to pass them off as my own, or use them to launch the business. They were just...there, and the longer it went on, the easier it was to just keep going.”

Gabriel seemed taken aback, but much to Kim’s relief, not particularly horrified or upset with her.

“Of course you wouldn’t have intended anything untoward, and knowing Antonio and Emilia as I do, I totally get how it all could take on a life of its own. But more importantly, why the hell wouldn’t you tell me any of this—let me know what was really bothering you all this time?” he said, reaching for her hand. “We could’ve figured this out together.”

“I didn’t know if it was possible to figure out. Instead I’ve just fought fire after fire, hoping that it would all be OK in time for launch night. But I realize now I should’ve included you from the get-go.”