Chapter 17 Darcy

17 DARCY

NOW

Darcy’s brushing her teeth when she hears a knock on the door of her villa. A moment later, her phone shows a message from Camilla, telling her she’s downstairs.

“I knew you wouldn’t be able to sleep,” Camilla says when she lets her in. “How are you? Tell me what happened.”

“So, I went to the gym,” Darcy says, heading through to the kitchen. She spits and rinses her teeth in the sink before turning to Camilla. “And Rob came in and started running on the treadmill right next to me. He starts doing this childish thing of… I don’t know… racing me.” She bites her lip, not wanting to mention how she raced him , and she definitely doesn’t want to mention the part about him claiming to recognize her.

“And then the gym attendant left,” she says. “So there was just me and him in the place, right next to each other. I got this weird feeling…. No one was around….”

Camilla nods, folding her arms. “And so you left.”

“Right. I was only about a hundred yards or so up the path when I turned and saw him behind me. I kept walking, and when I got to the villa, he said I’d dropped my key card.”

They stare at each other in silence, each registering the other’s concern.

“He turned up at my Pilates class this morning,” Camilla says. “He must have come straight after he saw you. Macho dickhead.”

Darcy’s mouth falls open. “What did he do?”

“Oh, you know. Struts up right next to his wife like he’s Tyson Fury, then yells at that Spanish guy when he tried to stop her from falling over.”

“God,” Darcy says.

“Do you think he took your key card on purpose?” Camilla asks.

Darcy shrugs. “I don’t know. It all just felt deliberately intimidating.”

Camilla nods, her mouth in a thin line, and Darcy senses she can tell she’s holding something back. For a moment, she feels transparent. As if she’s revealing too much.

“I need to ask you something,” Camilla says then. I was right , Darcy thinks. Camilla can read her. She knows there’s something more.

Darcy nods, shifting her weight onto her other foot. “OK.”

Camilla looks down, suddenly wary. “Did you say anything to Jacob about Adrian Clifton?”

Darcy is silent, weighing up the question. Why is Camilla asking this?

“No,” she says, and it’s true—she never breathed a word. “We promised, remember? Right at the start, we said—”

“I know,” Camilla says, wearily. “Look. I need us all to be honest with each other. The three of us. There can be no secrets. Not now.”

Darcy nods. “Of course not.”

“We have to trust each other a thousand percent,” Camilla continues.

“I never said anything to Jacob about Adrian,” Darcy repeats. She watches Camilla closely, spotting the conflict on her face. “Did Jacob contact you?”

Now it’s Camilla’s turn to hesitate. Darcy sees it all—indecision writ on Camilla’s face: whether or not to tell the truth, despite what she’s just said about trusting each other.

“Yes, Jacob contacted me.”

Darcy draws a sharp breath. “What?”

“I have no idea how he got my email,” Camilla says quickly.

A million questions are spiraling in Darcy’s mind. What is Jacob playing at? And how come Camilla even checked her email after expressly forbidding everyone from using it?

“And what did he say?”

“He said he wanted to talk to me. I figured he was just trying to, you know, mess up our trip, cause whatever havoc he could. So I didn’t say anything because I knew you’d worry. But then he emailed again, asking about Adrian Clifton.”

“?‘Asking about Adrian Clifton’?” Darcy repeats, checking to see that she’s got the wording right. “What exactly did he say?”

Camilla takes her phone out of her kaftan pocket and scrolls frantically. “I can never remember the exact wording of things….”

“Can I see the messages?” Darcy asks.

“I think I deleted them,” Camilla says. “I was angry.”

Darcy can’t hide how shocked she is, and Camilla’s face falls.

“I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to worry you,” she says sheepishly. “You deserve this holiday. That’s why he’s doing it. Right? He threw that bloody custody petition at you right before you left. It was shut down. He’s out of ammo. So now he’s trying anything he can to spoil your trip.”

“Right,” Darcy says. She feels betrayed all over again, the extent of Jacob’s deception falling on her like a shower of bricks. The vein above her left eye has started to pulse, the distant rumble of a migraine.

“But if you didn’t tell Jacob about Adrian,” Camilla says, a new thought crossing her face, “then who did?”

“Have you mentioned Adrian to anyone?” Darcy asks, rubbing her forehead.

Camilla shakes her head firmly. “Just as we agreed. Not a single word.”

Darcy puts her hands to her face, relieved. At least that’s something.

“Do you think Kate might have said something?” Camilla says in a low voice.

Darcy clicks her tongue against her teeth. “I honestly have no idea.”

“Either way,” Camilla begins, and Darcy knows exactly what she’s going to say. “It’s not good that he knows about Adrian, is it?”

“No,” Darcy says, pressing the tips of her fingers to her lips. “It’s not good at all.”