Chapter Forty-Two
On the final morning, there’s a sense of excitement in Villa Artemis.
The staff are discreetly busy preparing for departure, quietly delighted with how well the retreat has gone, despite the two uninvited guests.
Breakfast on the beach is the plan for the very last few hours.
Rose walks down to the beach with Adriana, both of them carrying rolls and fruit, laughing and talking about the retreat, how Dan arrived earlier with a huge basket of honeyed pastries from the restaurant in Corfu.
‘I don’t think I will give you a job yet, Dan,’ says Christos, following with Dan who is clearly a bit tired from his night in Corfu and has nearly dropped the basket of pastries.
‘Certainly not after a night with an elderly woman trying to make me eat more baklava and drink more Metaxa,’ says Dan. ‘How’s India?’ he asks Rose quietly, once Adriana has relieved him of his burden.
Rose considers what she can tell him. She’s not a messenger. More of an interpreter.
‘You heard that Julia arrived,’ she says.
‘I heard,’ Dan replies. ‘Did India meet her?’
‘India will be here in five minutes,’ she says, ‘so you can ask her yourself.’
Grazia and Dianne arrive together, thick as thieves, Rose thinks.
Then India and Keera. India looks like a goddess in a flowing turquoise-and-white dress with strings of cool rainbow-coloured crystal beads around her neck. She deliberately doesn’t look at Dan, and Rose can see him deflate a little at this.
Rose gets everyone to sit, then they do their final group deep-breathing session.
‘Thank you, everyone,’ Rose says. ‘When I left LA, I never thought I’d work with people again. I thought my years as a therapist were over, so I want to say thank you to all of you for trusting me.’
‘Thank you!’ says everyone.
‘Rose, you’ve changed my life,’ says India.
‘Mine too,’ says Dianne.
Keera’s elegant head bows. ‘I can never thank you enough,’ she says. ‘When I’m back on social media, I’m going to tell everyone how wonderful Villa Artemis is, and that includes all the gorgeous staff and you, Rose.’
‘You told me what I needed to hear,’ says Grazia formally.
‘Me too,’ says Dan. ‘I understand a lot of things now.’
Rose doesn’t dare look at India.
‘There’s just one more thing before you leave,’ Rose announces. ‘I want you all to pick up a pebble from the beach. Or a rock or a shell. Small is better so you can carry it on board your planes.’
Everyone instantly seizes upon this activity with great delight. Grazia takes off her slip-on designer sandals and is soon squelching her toes in the wet sand.
‘Sea glass!’ says Keera delighted, holding up a piece of pale-blue glass.
‘You can get a hole drilled in that and wear it as a necklace,’ says India knowledgeably.
When everyone has their pebble or shell, Rose invites them all to join in a circle.
‘I want to say thank you to you all for this week: for your participation and your being here in the first place.’
‘Will you do more retreats?’ asks India.
Rose smiles. ‘I hope so but I don’t know.
Now, these pebbles are to remind you of what you’ve learned here.
Everyone takes a different lesson but if life is hard, hold on to your pebble and remember that you’re strong, that you have all come through so much and that there is always help out there for you.
‘I will talk to all of you next week to schedule follow-up therapy online. I am here if you need me but I am so proud of all of you and what you’ve come through.’
And then the group is crowding around her, hugging her and telling her she’s done so much for them.
Rose finally allows herself to cry happy tears.
She’s still helping people, the way she planned to all those years ago when she was a teenager.
She’s always known the value of helping people.
At half ten, Adriana, Rose and Christos gather at the front door as an enormous limo rolls onto the forecourt outside Villa Artemis.
Bernard marches out of the dining room after his breakfast, holding on to his small leather folio and his two phones.
He walks with irritation, as if he’s been greatly inconvenienced by every single person in the villa.
‘You’re leaving? You missed our closing session on the beach,’ Rose reminds him, taking her own coffee out into the sunshine to talk to him.
Bernard waves his fingers at the driver, signalling that there are bags and they should be transferred into the limo by said driver.
Only then does he look at Rose. ‘We’re going now,’ he says grandly.
She nods pleasantly at him.
‘Where is Grazia?’ Bernard becomes aware that his wife has not followed him, and he doesn’t get into the limo, staring into the foyer of the hotel as if strength of determination alone can magic her beside him.
India and Keera appear along with Dianne, who is holding on to her phone checking messages.
Bernard appears uncomfortable in this small crowd.
‘Goodbye to you all,’ he says stiffly, surprised to see them all assembled. ‘I trust we won’t meet again.’
‘That’s very rude,’ says Keera.
She is standing beside Dan, and Rose watches her pat him on the arm.
‘You looked a bit ropey on the beach, Dan,’ says Keera. ‘How are you now?’
India is clearly still ignoring him.
Rose had noticed that India didn’t so much as look once at Dan when they were on the beach.
He hurt India; there’s no doubt about it.
Rose watches Dan leave his place beside Keera, walk over to India and take her hand.
India begins to pull it away and then stops.
She might let him speak.
‘I have to apologise, India,’ he says so quietly that Rose has to move closer to hear. ‘I behaved badly. I am really sorry …’ he stops.
The group are all pretending not to listen.
‘I feel bad about running off on you,’ he says finally.
India says nothing for a beat.
‘It was very hurtful,’ she says.
‘Chauvinistic,’ says Keera loudly.
‘I know,’ says Dan, ‘but I didn’t mean to hurt you.’
Finally, India pulls her hand from his.
She can do without this complicated I’m-just-not-into-you conversation.
Just then, Grazia appears and everyone turns.
She’s dressed in a golden swimsuit with an expensive silk cover-up floating around her body. She’s not holding her usual little handbag, although she has her cigarettes and lighter in one hand. She looks beautiful and is smiling as if she’s just been given a huge prize.
‘Where are your things, Grazia?’ demands Bernard. ‘Why aren’t you ready?’
‘Because I’m not going yet,’ she says, moving closer to him, a waft of silk slithering behind her.
‘Why not?’ he asks.
‘You know why,’ Grazia says flatly. Her gaze burns all over him.
Rose finds Adriana’s hand and holds it tightly.
‘You never gave our marriage a fair chance. You won’t change anything, you want to keep cheating on me, so I am finished. I want a divorce.’
Bernard’s tan appears to fade as the blood leaves his face.
‘You can’t,’ he says, still imperious despite his pallor. ‘Not in front of these people,’ he adds.
Grazia ignores this.
‘I could have possibly coped with your cheating, your determination to ignore how much it upset me. But given how helpful everyone here has been to me, I can’t forgive you for what you tried to do to Rose.’
Adriana squeezes Rose’s hand
‘What? I did nothing,’ blusters Bernard.
‘But you did,’ his wife goes on. ‘You have been trying to shut down the retreat from the start because you were scared of what secrets would emerge.’
‘I only came here for you!’ growls Bernard.
‘You didn’t give it a chance,’ Grazia says. ‘You used your old trick with businesses you wanted to buy at a low price, I know all your little games. Your fixer agreed to put up messages on social media, promising to tell secrets unless the retreat was stopped.’
Rose can hear Christos inhaling deeply behind her.
‘Of course, you should be more careful of your phones, Bernard,’ Grazia adds icily.
‘I saw a message on one of your phones and I knew who’d sent it.
I had to read it, obviously. For a clever man you can be surprisingly stupid.
Getting a stooge to send a blackmailing message on Instagram is a mistake because it’s easier to trace.
Easy for, say, an organisation like Europol to find out who it is.
Did you know that Christos has a pal in Europol? ’
Christos waves menacingly at Bernard, whose face is almost totally white now.
‘What have you done?’ he hisses at Grazia.
‘What have I done?’ she asks with hauteur. ‘Your behaviour disgusts me.’
Everyone is staring at Bernard and even the chauffeur seems to find it all riveting.
‘You can’t prove anything,’ says Bernard wildly, looking at Rose then back to Grazia.
‘We can,’ says Christos grimly, waving a piece of paper. ‘We have screenshots of the Instagram messages, we have an email your stooge sent us, and Europol are indeed looking into this.’
‘You won’t tell anyone about me,’ pleads Bernard.
Grazia looks down her nose at him.
‘This is why we need a divorce, Bernard,’ she says crisply. ‘You are more upset at the thought of me telling people about your bondage women or that you’re a common blackmailer than you are at the idea of a divorce. I see where I stand in your life now.’
‘I’m sorry!’ Bernard moves towards her but Grazia holds up a palm.
‘I want a fair and decent divorce,’ she says. ‘I would like your word in front of these people.’
‘Nobody’s filming it, are they?’ cries Bernard.
The group laugh.
‘I definitely am,’ says Keera, a small grin threatening to emerge. She waggles her phone at him.
‘Me too,’ says Christos. ‘It’s insurance.’
Rose wants to speak.
‘I try not to judge,’ says Rose. ‘I have met many people in my life and I try to understand what drives them, what they have gone through. You found out about my past and used it to terrify me and my family. I do not know what drives you to behave like that and I no longer care. We will be watching you, Bernard.’
‘Sorry,’ stammers Bernard.
‘I think Europol will be in touch,’ Christos says, leaning in the doorway, his presence forcing Bernard to cower.
They see Bernard’s eyes widen in fear and then Christos slams the door.
‘Well done,’ says Dianne to Grazia as the car starts to move down the drive with an expensive hum.
Grazia has tears in her eyes but her face is strong.
‘It had to end,’ she says. ‘There are so many things a marriage can manage but not contempt.’
‘And not such lies,’ Rose adds.
‘Keera,’ calls a voice. ‘I’ve been looking for you! Where’s your wig?’ Bobbi shrieks.
‘I’m up,’ says Keera to India.
‘You can do it,’ says India. ‘The rest of your life, right?’
When Keera has gone, everyone else vanishes until it’s just Rose, Adriana and Christos at the front of Villa Artemis.
‘I thought it was all over for us,’ says Rose, her eyes misty as she looks around at the scene of all their hard work.
The pool Christos loves near the end of the drive, the wild ranks of lavender massed around olive trees.
‘I knew we would come through it,’ says Adriana. ‘No matter what. We have each other, that’s all that matters. If we lost this, we could start again.’