"Persephone's at your mother's?" Kat asked.

I nodded, and she leaned forward to tap the cab driver on the shoulder.

"Could you take us to the nearest hotel instead?"

"Ignore that," I told him. "Kat, you're not chickening out. What do you always tell me about facing up to my fears?"

"I'm not scared of Persephone. She just drives me around the flipping twist."

"It's character building."

"I just got out of prison for murder. I don't want to go back in."

Mo shifted uncomfortably beside Kat. "If it's not too much trouble, I'd like to lie down."

Kat sat back and folded her arms. "Fine, you win. We'll stay there tonight. But if Persephone makes one snide comment about my hair, my outfit, or my lifestyle, I'm not being held responsible for the consequences."

Sometimes, I wished I shared Kat's lack of self-restraint.

When we pulled up outside Mum's, Kat and I helped Mo out of the car and into his wheelchair. His two casts stuck out in front of him at an awkward angle. Dave took the cases while mum fussed around, getting in the way.

"I'm so glad you managed to get here, Mo. Callie's told me all about you, haven't you, dear? I'm Brenda, by the way."

Mo stuck out his hand, and I winced as I saw the line of cuts winding their way up his arm. They'd scabbed over now, but the surrounding skin was still an angry red.

"I'm pleased to meet you, Brenda. Thank you for allowing me to stay in your home."

Mum nudged Kat, beaming. "Isn't he polite, Kitty Kat?" Kat had never outgrown her childhood nickname, in Mum's eyes at least. "Once he's healed up, you'll make such a handsome couple."

"Where's Persephone?" I asked, surprised she hadn't come out. Normally she couldn't resist being nosy.

"She signed up for some kind of boot camp. Lots of men in uniform shouting at her, she said."

Kat shuddered. "I've had enough men in uniform shouting at me to last a lifetime."

"Oh, you poor dear. Do you want a cup of tea?"

In Mum's eyes, tea was the answer to all the troubles in the world.

"Please."

"Mo, would you like a drink?"

"Tea as well, thank you."

I helped Kat to unpack everything, hoping we wouldn't need to pack it all back up again when Persephone made an appearance. By the time darkness fell, Mo was settled comfortably on the sofa, talking about motorbikes with Dave. Kat walked down the path with me.

"How are you holding up?" she asked. "I still can't believe what happened with Bryce."

"I was such an idiot, and for so long. The only saving grace is that I found out what an utter pillock he was before I married him."

"There is that. And how about the other thing?"

Inside, I crumpled. "I'm trying not to think about him. If I do, well... I just can't."

"You know I'm here if you need to talk."

"I do, and I appreciate it more than you could ever know."

So much for not thinking about Adam. As soon as I walked away, he monopolised my thoughts. I ached for his touch, his words, his closeness.

When I got home, I did something I said I wouldn't. I took out my phone and looked at the few photos I had of him. The two of us grinning sleepily in his hammock. One of him lazing on a sunlounger. A snap taken by the waiter in the Italian restaurant with the sea glimmering in the background.

The one that hit me hardest was the very last picture I took. Adam stood on his own, gazing straight at me as I aimed the camera. His gleaming smile lit up the screen. His eyes lit up my soul. And not so many hours afterwards, his fingers had lit up my body.

I missed him. I'd always miss him.

"Do you think it's going okay?" Kat asked for the hundredth time.

"Somebody would tell us if there was a problem."

Mo had been in the operating theatre for six hours, and the surgeon said the procedure to repair his right leg would take most of the day.

Kat had said a heart-wrenching goodbye just after eight, and since then, we'd been sitting in the waiting room. At least I'd been sitting. Kat had mostly been pacing.

"I can't believe two weeks ago we were strolling together on the beach. Now look at us."

"A lot's happened, hasn't it?" I offered her a bottle of water. "Drink?"

She took the bottle, but rather than taking a sip, she began picking the label off with what was left of her fingernails.

"He's the one, you know."

"Yes, I do know. I saw the way he looked at you on the first day we met."

"We nearly didn't make it."

"Don't think like that. You did make it. You're here, you're together, and you have your whole future to look forward to."

"It taught me a lot, being in that dungeon. Life's too short—I never realised that before. I'm only twenty-two, and I figured I'd have forever to tick off all the things on my bucket list. It never occurred to me that I might never finish."

"Carpe diem." Seize the day.

"With both fucking hands, Callie." She checked her watch. "Where is he?"

Another hour passed before the surgeon appeared, looking haggard and a little bit blood-stained. Ick. I sat down fast when I realised whose blood it was.

"The news is good, Miss Rawlins. Mohammed should make a full recovery as long as he listens to his physiotherapist."

"Can I see him?"

"An orderly will take you through shortly."

The intensive care unit was another reminder of my own mortality. Mo looked frail, but he still smiled when he saw Kat. Yes, he was definitely the one. It wouldn't surprise me if the next wedding I went to was theirs. We stayed until a militant nurse kicked us out, and it was only when my stomach grumbled in the car park that I realised neither of us had eaten all day.

"Do you fancy cooking?" I asked Kat. I knew I didn't.

"I'd probably die of starvation before it was time to dish up."

"Takeaway?"

"We'd still have to eat near Persephone. She's got a diet app on her phone now. When I went downstairs for a snack last night, she insisted on telling me the calorie and fat content of my packet of crisps. I almost throttled her."

"Pub?"

Kat grinned. "Perfect. Let's find one on the way home."

<$img:bubbles1>

The flowerpots outside The Jolly Lion gave it a cheery feel, although the lion pictured on the sign looked more ravenous than happy. Perhaps it was the knife and fork he was waving.

There was an unseasonable chill in the air, and I huddled into my thin cardigan as I curled up on a squashy leather bench in the corner. Kat had gone to the bar for drinks.

"Coke for you, lemonade for me."

She dropped two menus on the table, then threw a newspaper on top of them. I quickly averted my gaze, but it was too late. I'd seen the headline. The sleazy tabloid was open to the entertainment page, the bombshell stamped across the top in thick black text.

Scott Lowes takes out restraining order against Velvet Jones.

I devoured the rest of the article before I could stop myself.

"Do you think it's true?" I asked.

The paparazzi weren't exactly famed for their accurate portrayal of facts.

"Bloody right it is. He said he was calling his lawyer as soon as he got home. Velvet drove him nuts in Egypt."

"I saw them on TV right after I left. They looked pretty into each other then."

Kat rolled her eyes. "Scott's an actor, Callie. He does that shit for a living. Velvet sprinted past the TV crew just as he was about to go on air and threw herself at him. All he could do was smile and get on with it. He didn't want to overshadow what happened to me and Mo by having a spat with Velvet live on TV."

"So he didn't choose to stand next to her?"

"Quite the opposite. As soon as the camera turned away, he was furious."

A small, hysterical giggle escaped my mouth.

"But that wasn't the best part," Kat continued. "She bribed one of the hotel staff to let her into his room that evening so she could wait for him in bed. Thing was, she got the wrong room. I'm not sure which of us was more surprised—me or her."

"Are you serious?"

"Yup. And she was starkers."

"No way."

"Yes way. And all those bikini pics are definitely Photoshopped."

"So then what happened?"

"She started screaming, I started yelling, and Scott heard the noise and had her escorted off the premises by hotel security. The woman's cuckoo."

"I had no idea."

"Well, I tried to tell you, but you wouldn't let me."

A horrible feeling washed over me. Horror and fear and regret and dread all rolled into one. A fist that pummelled my guts and seized my throat. Adam had said Velvet was crazy, but I hadn't believed him at the time. If he'd been telling the truth about that, what else had I got wrong?

"He wanted me to leave," I whispered to myself. I hadn't misheard those words.

"What are you talking about?" Kat asked.

"Adam. He wanted me to leave."

"What on earth makes you think that?"

"I heard him talking to you the morning I left. You told him I was leaving, and he said it was for the best."

"Did you hear the rest of the conversation?"

"No, that was quite enough."

"So you didn't hear him say that it would be selfish of him to try and stop you, no matter how much he wanted to? That because he loved you so much, there was no way he could inflict the media shit storm onto you?"

I swayed a bit, and Kat leaned over and shoved my head down between my knees.

"Don't faint on me," she ordered.

When the blood stopped whooshing in my ears, I slowly sat up straight again.

"What have I done?" I croaked.

"You've been a complete idiot."

"Thanks for that startling observation."

"Just telling it like it is."

"Remind me again why you're my best friend?"

"Because I'm wonderful and you love me."

My insides were doing backflips. I'd managed to screw things up royally with the most amazing man I'd ever met, and I had no idea how to fix it. Or if it even could be fixed.

"What the hell do I do?" I asked Kat, hoping she'd come up with a miracle.

"Call him?"

"I can't do that! What on earth would I say?"

"Duh, how about admitting you've been incredibly stupid, then telling him you've come to your senses and you still love him?"

"I can't just phone him up and say that. I barely know him."

"You spent weeks practically joined at the hip."

"With Adam. He's Scott now. I don't know him."

"He's still the same person."

"Physically, maybe. But Adam was so...so down to earth. Scott... Now that it's sunk in, I feel like I should bow at his feet."

"That's the last thing he'd want. I spent some time with him after you'd left, and we talked. He fell for you precisely because you treated him like an average Joe. Underneath all the glitz and glamour, he actually seems very lonely."

"I need to give this some thought, okay? I don't want to make any more stupid mistakes."

"Well, don't take too long. Carpe diem, remember?"

I staggered into my apartment building in a daze. Nothing made sense anymore. I had some serious thinking to do, and for that I needed wine. A bottle, maybe two. And chocolate. Chocolate always helped.

I tramped up the stairs, cursing the maintenance team for failing to replace the broken lightbulb on the landing yet again. The hallway was in perpetual gloom, and my life was quite depressing enough. Wait. What was that? I got halfway to my door and stopped short. Outside, a shadowy figure sat slumped against the wall.

My heart stopped, then started hammering. The crazy rhythm made me wonder if I should head back to the hospital for an ECG. I took a step closer, squinting.

Was that...? No... Surely it couldn't be...?