Chapter 1
AMBER
‘How d’you fancy a week in the sun?’
Dominic and I are lying in bed, a tangle of arms and legs, when he drops the bombshell. I wriggle upright, my eyes wide as I search his face for clues. Though we’ve been together for over seven months, I still can’t always tell when he’s joking.
‘What, like a holiday? With you?’
He smiles indulgently. ‘That’s what a week in the sun generally is.’ His pupils darken as he traces a finger down my cheek and along my collarbone, but I brush his hand away.
‘Where?’
With a sigh, he pulls himself onto his elbows. ‘Greece. Well, Pelagia to be precise.’
‘Pelagia?’
‘It’s a tiny island eight miles south of Corfu.’
‘Nessa went to Corfu for a hen do last summer. Kavos.’
Dominic snorts. ‘Pelagia is nothing like Kavos, I promise.’
‘You’ve been there before?’
‘Lots of times.’
I’m about to ask who he’s been with when I bite the words back. I don’t want to sound jealous. ‘When?’ I ask instead.
‘End of June. Reckon you can get the time off work?’
‘I’ll check with Rob.’ The thought of asking my boss for a week off at such short notice makes me prickle with anxiety. He’ll use it as leverage, one way or another.
Dominic frowns. ‘It shouldn’t be a problem, should it?’
‘I’m sure it’ll be fine.’ I snuggle into his gym-toned body. ‘Mmm, a week on a sun-drenched Greek island, just you and me. Bliss.’
Dominic pulls me on top of him and circles his hands around my waist, grinning like the Cheshire Cat. ‘Not just us, angel. It’s Simone’s forty-fifth. That’s why we’re going. The old gang back together for the first time in months. It’s going to be insane.’
‘The old gang?’
‘My uni mates from Durham. Simone, Victoria and Barney.’ He counts them off on his fingers.
‘Plus Simone’s husband, Felix, and Willow, his daughter from his first marriage.
Felix owns this amazing place on the cliffs with views over the Ionian Sea.
Villa Paradiso. He and Simone spend six weeks every summer out there and I have an open invitation to join them. ’
‘Sounds great,’ I say, climbing off him and pulling on my T-shirt. His face falls.
‘Where are you going?’
‘I need a shower. My shift starts at three and I can’t be late again.’
‘Spoilsport.’ Dom sticks out his bottom lip. ‘So you’ll come with me? To Pelagia?’
I beam at him. ‘Try and stop me.’
The nerves only kick in as I stand under the jets of water in Dom’s huge walk-in shower. With its LED lighting and integrated sound system pulsing low-level drum and bass, it’s a world away from the shower attachment over the bath at my place.
Despite what I told Dom, the thought of spending a week with his old uni friends terrifies me. They will be confident and shiny, I know they will. Like minor members of the aristocracy, or well-bred racehorses. Whereas I… I’m just a girl from an inner-city estate trying her best to fit in.
My friends don’t own their own homes, let alone villas in Greece with ocean views. Further education to us meant not bunking off at our local sixth-form college, not first-class honours degrees at prestigious universities.
I turn the water up as hot as I can bear it, hoping it’ll wash the nerves away.
* * *
Two weeks later, we’re at Gatwick Airport and the nerves are back with a vengeance. I play with the airline tag on the imitation Louis Vuitton cabin bag my best mate Nessa lent me for the trip and catch Dominic’s eye.
‘Tell me about your friends again?’
He leans back in the blue plastic seat and crosses one leg over the other. ‘Simone was along the corridor from me in halls. We bonded over cheap wine and The Libertines. Vic did economics, same as me, and she and Barney hooked up in freshers’ week.’
‘Felix wasn’t at Durham?’
A look I can’t read crosses his face. ‘No. He and Simone met later.’
‘Right.’ I wipe my palms on the white linen trousers the sales assistant in John Lewis assured me were perfect for flying in.
I’d only gone in to use the toilet but walked out with two heaving carrier bags and a maxed-out store card an hour later.
Panic buying, that’s what it was. I’d worried my frayed denim shorts and cheap vest tops wouldn’t cut it with Dominic’s elegant friends.
I still can’t believe Dom and I are an item, if I’m honest. He’s a City banker with a cherry-red Porsche and a two-bedroom riverside apartment overlooking the Thames.
I work in a call centre and still live in a shared house in a run-down part of London even though, by thirty-four, I really should have my own place by now.
Dominic drinks Bollinger. I consider Prosecco an extravagance.
When it’s just the two of us, it’s not just good, it’s cheesy Hallmark-film perfect, and I have to pinch myself he’s mine. That’s why I’m so desperate for his friends to like me. But with the flight minutes away, I’m wracked with self-doubt.
My phone pings with an email notification. The self-doubt turns to fear when I read the subject line.
Outcome of Investigation – Confidential
My finger hovers over the screen for a second, then I power down the phone and toss it into the knock-off Louis Vuitton like I’m playing hot potato at a kids’ party.
‘Who was that?’ Dominic asks.
I duck my head so my hair falls across my face.
My heart is crashing in my chest. I wipe my hands on my trousers again.
This time they leave a greasy mark, faint but unmistakable.
I was an idiot to think white linen was a good idea for travelling.
I look up at my boyfriend, but I can’t meet his gaze.
‘It wasn’t anyone,’ I say.
I’m not sure he believes me.
I don’t blame him.