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‘Fine,’ Hope said. A moment later, she was out the front door, knocking on Jamie’s. It wasn’t until Holly heard her disappear inside that she looked back at Giles.

‘I’m guessing Sienna said something about the slight misunderstanding we had at the beginning of the weekend,’ she said. There was no point denying it; after all, she’d been planning on telling him, anyway. ‘I was going to tell you when we got a chance to speak alone,’ she added, stepping into the house. ‘Actually, there are a few things I wanted to talk to you about. A few things to do with Sienna.’

Nerves churned within her. This wasn’t the way Holly had planned on having this conversation. She had wanted time to work out how to word things. Not to mention make a comprehensive list of all Sienna’s snide comments, so she didn’t forget anything, but she was just going to have to wing it.

‘Do you want a cup of tea? Or something stronger?’ she asked.

Giles didn’t speak; he hadn’t said a single word since he’d sent Hope out of the house, and the silence was even more unnerving than yelling.

‘I asked you…’ he said finally. ‘I asked you to be nice. To get to know her. She arranged this for you?—’

‘I know, Giles, but?—’

‘And if half of what she’s told me is true, then?—’

‘Half? What do you mean? I said one wrong thing at the start of the trip and apologised.’

‘Really? What about demanding everyone went to the pub because you refused to eat another juice?’

‘What?’ Holly’s jaw dropped. ‘That’s not what happened at all. And I’m not sure you can eat juice but?—’

‘And what about calling her, what was it, a narcissistic bitch?’

That one Holly couldn’t deny, but he still hadn’t got it right.

‘It was actually a manipulative, narcissist—’ Holly began, before clamping her mouth shut.

‘You are a piece of work,’ Giles said, his voice rising.

‘Me? You don’t know the half of it. She’s not right for you, Giles. You don’t understand?—’

‘What I don’t understand is why I actually thought you might be happy for me. That you might see that this is what you want.’

Though she wouldn’t have thought it previously possible, Giles was even more angry than he had been when he arrived.

She stepped forward and, despite the rage that filled her, softened her voice as much as she could.

‘I get that you want to settle down, Giles. I know you want to find someone to spend the rest of your life with. But not her. If you’d just let me tell you?—’

‘Stop it, Holly. Please, haven’t you already caused enough hurt? Sienna was in floods of tears. You know that? She was devastated.’

‘No, she wasn’t,’ Holly said. It was obvious Sienna had portrayed her as this massive villain, and she wasn’t having it. Not when she had actually spent the weekend making an effort. ‘She was hurt, yes. But only immediately after the incident. Afterwards, I went straight down to the pool. You can ask Faye. She was the one who told me I should go and speak to her. Apologise.’

‘My sister had to tell you to apologise for calling my fiancée a bitch? Great going there, Holly. Brilliant.’

‘Will you just listen to me!’ The calm Holly had tried to portray was gone. ‘I apologised to her. I told her how difficult this is for me. How difficult you moving on, and everyone moving on with their lives, is for me. We got past it, okay? And everyone wanted to go to the pub. We’d had nothing but juice for over a day! Ask Faye. You know me, Giles. You know I wouldn’t be like that. That I would never deliberately hurt anyone.’

‘I don’t know what to believe right now, but the fact you would say anything that horrible to her makes me think I don’t know you, Holly. Not like I thought I did.’

The words felt like a knife in her chest. Never for one second had Holly believed Giles would take Sienna’s word over hers.

Tears filled her eyes. ‘Don’t say that. It’s not true.’

‘People change, Holly.’

‘But you said we wouldn’t. You said nothing would change between us.’

No one was shouting now. Instead, it was a painful silence that gripped the room.