Then Kim seemed to realize something, too.

“It’s you, isn’t it?” she said, turning to Ed. “Not only did you sabotage Colette and Luca’s romance six years ago, but you’ve also been trying to sabotage this entire event. Leaving hateful comments on my social media, accusing me of plagiarism, perhaps even going so far as to mess with my permits and caterers, and goodness knows what else! But why go to so much trouble? If you resent me for using your wife’s words, why didn’t you just come right out and confront me? Why wait until now?”

“I think I know why,” Luca put in then. “He did not want this event to happen because he did not want Colette to come back to Italy and discover the truth. And she would—once I got the chance to see her.” He put his hand over his heart. “I am sorry for this, Kim, but it is I who upset your catering arrangements, because I needed to be here at Villa Dolce Vita tonight. I needed to see Colette once more, to see if she was happy and if she had made the right decision all those years ago—in choosing him.” He shot another dagger look at Ed. “And now I know for sure that it was not.”

“He’s right. I didn’t want you coming back here,” Ed agreed, his voice plaintive. “I had to try and stop it. I knew if you came back there was a chance you would realize that you were happier with him than you ever were with me.”

Annie shook her head. The person she had once known and adored as Harry was no more. Now Edward Hargreaves was a weeping shell of a man, willing to go to any lengths to get what he wanted. Whatever honor and nobility she had seen in him six years ago was long gone.

Or perhaps never even existed.

“I don’t even know who you are...” Colette whispered through tears as she stared at her husband. “But I do know that you never loved me. You knew I wanted someone else back then, and that’s the only reason you set your sights on me. It was about winning, wasn’t it, Ed? You always have to win.”

One look at Ed’s face made Annie realize that Colette was right. He hadn’t truly cared about either of them back then. It had all been a competition to him.

Ed Hargreaves didn’t care about anyone but himself.

While she had come here expecting fireworks when she confronted Ed about his refusal to help her out of her recent financial bind, she had never in a million years intended to hurt Colette or Kim.