Page 58 of A Place in the Sun
‘Yes.’
‘And how did you meet?’ I pick up the knife and start chopping the onion again, putting all my energy into it.
‘Online,’ she says casually, pulling up a chair at the table.
‘You met online?’ I’m gripping the knife in my hand like a lethal weapon. I put it down quickly and pick up the wine.
‘Well, I contacted him.’ She reaches over to the bottle and helps herself, pouring wine into one of the children’s water glasses.
‘So let me get this straight. You contacted my husband online. You got in touch and the pair of you met.’
‘Pretty much, yup.’
‘More than once?’
She nods, casually again, making my hackles rise and my eyeballs burn with a red mist rising.
‘And then he bought this place,’ I say, picking up the knife again and slashing the onion with it.
‘It was a really good buy. Said he planned to see out his days here.’
‘Well, he did that!’ I say, furious at his untimely death all over again.
‘What did he die of?’
‘A heart attack. Who told you he died?’
‘You did. When you arrived.’
I narrow my eyes. ‘And you didn’t know before then?’
There’s a moment when I feel for her: two years without knowing, having been ghosted. And then I check myself. Why am I feeling sorry for this woman? She was clearly planning to take my husband from me.
‘Why Marco?’ I ask.
‘You tell me. You fell in love with him!’ She gives a little laugh.
‘I did. I gave up my life to be with him. He was everything to me. I thought I was to him too …’
‘He told me all about you. And the children.’
‘Did he?’ I say, feeling sick and pulling out a chair to sit down before my legs give way.
‘Everything. Did he ever say anything about me?’
I look at her. Really? The audacity. ‘No.’
‘He said he was going to tell you about me. He emailed.’
‘Well, I guess we were just too busy keeping the house and business together for him to get around to telling me about his secret life in Italy. Too busy selling me an idea of easier days in the sunshine, when all along …’
For a moment, she says nothing. Then, ‘I’m sorry.’ She drops her head. ‘He said he’d tell you.’
‘What? That he was going to leave me? Me and the children?’ I hiss quietly.
‘He was never going to leave you! He wouldn’t have done that. He loved you!’
‘And you?’
