‘But that’s not true…’ I implored.
‘How much proof do you need? Ella said you’d be like this, insisted I bring them to show you, said you wouldn’t believe it unless you saw them. She’s a mess thanks to you.’
He was furious, but he was the least of my problems for once.
I continued to sit on the floor, working it out. So Ella took them from her own room, and left them on the shelf in the kitchen – where she’d been cooking all evening. But why had Joy gone along with the lie? Was she saving face? Would she rather join in the lie than upset Jamie? I didn’t know anything any more. I thought I knew this family inside out, but Ella had rocked the boat entirely. And what could I do now?
I followed Dan back downstairs like a naughty child, where I was greeted by smiles of pity from Joy and Bob.
Ella stepped forward like Mother Teresa and hugged me. ‘It’s okay, Clare,’ she said, looking into my face, making me part of her drama, using me to show her forgiveness. ‘You’ve had a lot going on. But if you imagine something like this again, just come and talk to me, yeah? I can’t be accused of something I didn’t do again like that. This is my family now too, Clare.’
What could I say? Any more protesting and blaming would fall on deaf ears.
Joy was sitting on the easy chair, her face tear-stained, while Bob sat on the arm, his hand protectively on her shoulder. ‘It’s all my fault,’ Joy was saying. ‘They’d been in the kitchen all the time – I just forgot. And now everyone is so upset. On our lovely retirement holiday.’
‘You didn’t leave them in the kitchen, Joy. Why are you doubting yourself? You’d never forget something like that.’ I heard Dan say my name, but I wasn’t going to shut up for him. ‘What’s wrong with you all?’ I said, wanting to say more, but at the same time afraid of what Ella might say about me. ‘Your dirty little secret, Clare.’ Was she bluffing?
‘Stop it,’ Dan said angrily, ‘that’s enough.’
‘But she’s fake, why can’t any of you see that? Look at this afternoon, the way she “fell” in the pool…’
Everyone was just staring at me. Ella started crying, Joy was shaking her head. Jamie was about to say something, but Ella stopped him with a touch on the arm.
‘What is wrong with you all? So she can’t swim,’ I said, gesturing towards her. ‘Big deal, but all that drama when she supposedly thought she was drowning – which, of course, she wasn’t. It was just a performance. Everything she does is a performance.’ I was looking from one to the next; no one said a word.
‘That “performance” as you call it,’ Jamie started, ‘is because Ella is petrified of water.’
‘Petrified? She doesn’t look petrified when she’s hanging around the pool in next to nothing for her Instagram snaps.’
He closed his eyes and continued to talk like I hadn’t spoken. ‘Because her sister drowned.’
Chapter Twenty-Three
I felt terrible. I tried to apologise to Ella, but she had her face in Jamie’s chest sobbing and he shook his head when I touched her shoulder.
Given the story about her sister, I couldn’t redeem myself for referring to her accident in the pool as “a performance”. There was no point in me trying to speak to her, or to tell the others I was sorry for spoiling the evening, so I just left them all standing around looking at each other. I went straight to bed and just lay there in the kids’ room staring at the ceiling. I was frustrated at not being believed, and angry with myself for even mentioning Ella’s swimming “incident”. In my defence, I had no idea about her sister – but that’s not really a defence, I know. If Ella’s sister really had drowned then I was a dreadful person for thinking that she’d put on a performance. Yet, in spite of learning about Ella’s sister, part of me still felt uncertain. She seemed to have an ‘Ella is amazing’ story for every occasion. So why not an ‘Ella is a victim’ story for the times she needed sympathy? I didn’t know, but nothing was adding up with Ella.
She’d lived quite a life, if she was to be believed. Her Instagram logged many lovely places, five-star hotels, yachts in the South of France, fairy-tale palaces in the Middle East. She inhabited this wonderful world I could only imagine. I was fascinated, and, yes, a little dubious perhaps. But it wasn’t jealousy that caused me to doubt her, it was her – the way things didn’t add up regarding her backstory, the way she’d just ‘bumped into’ Jamie in a bar and married him weeks later – with no family present. And her Instagram was all quite beautiful – but empty. However prettily you try to dress it up – a life of beautiful interiors and avocado toast soon gets old, and the few friends she tagged were people living in other parts of the world. Which made me wonder where Ella’s real friends were, the ones from her home town. And the only sign of family was the photo she’d taken of the Taylors at dinner – which excluded me.
Eventually, I fell asleep, still tossing and turning. I felt ill at ease, like there was something malevolent here, but I couldn’t put my finger on what was bothering me. I dreamt of the woman selling the lemon granitas: she was shouting ‘pericolo’ and ‘morte’ and dragging me by the hand, pulling me away from the villa, but I was screaming for the children.
I awoke to find it was light. Violet was standing over me. ‘Mummy, are you okay?’ she asked, worriedly.
‘Sorry, darling, just a dream,’ I said, and suggested we all get up and have a swim before breakfast. The kids loved this idea.
‘I love Mummy sleeping in our bedroom,’ Alfie said, ‘it’s fun!’
‘I wish you’d stay in our bedrooms at home,’ Violet sighed. ‘It would be great and you and Daddy wouldn’t shout at each other.’
I hugged her. ‘Sorry, darling, grown-ups are a pain, aren’t they?’
‘Some are – but Ella’s not. She’s not a pain, is she, Mum? She’s super cool – and she’s a grown-up.’
This was a statement, it didn’t require an answer, so I just told them to hurry so we could be first in the pool before everyone else. We all dashed downstairs, and I herded them out into the pool area, where I was surprised to see Dan. He was sitting on a sunlounger by himself. The kids all greeted him with delight, and he reciprocated but didn’t look at me.
‘You’re up early?’ I said. ‘Not like you.’
He finally looked at me. ‘I have a lot on my mind.’
My heart sank. He was pissed off with me from the previous evening – couldn’t say I blamed him, but I still stood by what I believed. However many times the others told me Joy had mislaid those earrings, I wasn’t convinced. I wanted to talk to Dan, to talk about what had happened the night before. He was obviously still smarting and we had to clear the air. So I suggested the kids play hide-and-seek in the garden, where it was safe and I could keep an eye on them.
‘Will you play, Mummy?’ said Alfie.
‘Of course, darling, just let me have five minutes with Daddy and I’ll be with you.’