To humiliate Haydon like this in front of everyone wasn’t what Ashley had wanted at all. It wasn’t fair and nobody deserved that, not even the man her mother considered public enemy number one. Later, when the dust had settled, Ashley would have a stern word with Sue but for now she had more pressing things to deal with.

Staggering back, Haydon fell into a seat. ‘Why didn’t you say anything?’

‘Believe me, I’ve been trying to.’

He buried his face in his hands and doubled over in the chair. ‘Shit.’

‘Pretty much what I said when I saw the pregnancy test. I’m sorry, it wasn’t supposed to come out like this.’

He looked up. ‘You’re sure?’

Ashley’s expression hardened. ‘Do you think we’d be having this conversation now if I wasn’t? You think I don’t know who the father is because I slept with so many men in Ibiza that week?’

‘No, I… Oh God, Ashley. I feel like the biggest bastard on the planet.’ He got up from his seat and staggered across to the trees at the far side of the garden, by now deep in shade. ‘I need a minute… I wondered, but I never imagined… need to take this in…’

Ashley followed him across the lawns. As they reached the trees she tugged at his arm and pulled him to face her.

‘I’m sorry. I’ve honestly been trying to tell you all week.’

‘And you pick today? Here?’

‘My mother picked today. You sort of forced her hand too.’

‘She’s known all along? All those times we’ve spoken this week and she knew? What must she have thought of me? Who else knew? Does everyone here know about it? Does Molly know?’

‘Just my mum. I told her after I saw you down at the beach that first time. I never told a soul up until that point, not even Molly.’

‘Didn’t she ever ask about her dad?’

‘Sometimes. But we agreed that as I didn’t know where you were it would do no good to dwell on it. And we were happy, just me and her together.’

‘She’ll hate me,’ he said, his face sinking into his hands again.

‘She might not. She doesn’t hate you as a person so it’s only fair we give her a chance to get to know you as a dad.’

‘You thought I didn’t want to be with you. So did Molly think that too?’

‘I hadn’t really talked to her about it in that much detail.’

‘But she thought her dad was an uncaring git.’

‘She didn’t have an opinion either way. You just weren’t there and it’s all she’s ever known.’

‘She’ll never forgive me. How can you even forgive me?’

Ashley shook her head. ‘I already have. Surely what we’ve said and done this week tells you that much.’

‘So this is why you wanted to end it?’

‘Just then, when we’d had that conversation about how Molly and Ella weren’t getting on, it suddenly seemed hopeless.’

‘I never meant that they weren’t getting along.’

‘I know, but it just showed me what we were up against.’

‘Of course,’ he replied, looking up and taking a deep breath. ‘There’s no argument over that at all. You must have been going mad keeping it all in.’

‘A little. But I didn’t want to blurt it out. Turns out that’s exactly how it went.’

‘That’s my fault as much as yours – I should have figured it out myself. It’s not as if the clues weren’t there and I wondered so many times, but I just figured you’d have told me…’

‘I wish you had worked it out. Life would have been a lot easier for me.’

‘I’m an idiot. But now I know I’ll do anything you need… Maintenance payments and other stuff… I can check that with the solicitor who acted for me when Janine and I…’ He faltered. ‘What am I going to tell Ella?’

‘We’ll tell her together.’

‘Oh God, she’s going to hate me too.’

‘Don’t be daft, Haydon. How could you have known? We lost touch so there’s no way you could be responsible for any of this.’

‘I could have been responsible sixteen years ago.’

‘Don’t you dare! There’s Molly, our beautiful, talented, intelligent daughter, and I wouldn’t have her gone from my life, not for a second! Don’t you dare wish her away!’

‘I didn’t mean that… sorry. Forgive me; I don’t know what I’m saying.’

‘You’re in shock and I get that. But I don’t want you wishing the past to be different, not ever. Even if I’d known back then what would happen, I wouldn’t change a thing. I’d always choose Molly over any other future I could have had.’

‘I just need… I need time to wrap my head around this.’

‘I know.’

‘I mean, this is huge.’

‘I know that too.’

‘What the hell do we do?’

‘We just work it out, I suppose. I hadn’t really thought any further than actually telling you.’

‘I suppose you wouldn’t.’

They were silent for a moment. Then Ashley spoke again.

‘I know I said there was no reason to doubt Molly is yours. But do you believe me?’

‘You’ve said it.’

‘A lot of men wouldn’t trust my word alone. Is there a bit of you that wants to know for certain? A bit of doubt?’

‘If it had been anyone else I might have wondered. But it’s you.’

‘And that’s enough?’

‘Yes. And seeing Molly is enough. I can’t explain why I feel like this, but it makes sense. Seeing her now I just know it’s right. Other people might say I’m an idiot but I don’t care.’

‘You don’t feel like you want to do… you know… tests or anything?’

‘Put Molly and you through that?’ He shook his head forcefully. ‘No.’

‘Wow…’ Ashley let out a breath. ‘I almost wish you would. Just so we’d be straight about it all. As it is I feel as if some day later on, when you’ve got over the shock, you might look at Moll and wonder.’

‘I would never…’

‘But if you did you could talk to me about it, right? It’s better for you to feel sure.’

‘I already feel sure.’

‘I’m just saying. Promise you’ll tell me if it happens.’

‘OK.’

‘Promise!’

He gave an uncertain laugh that bordered on hysteria. ‘I’ve got another daughter. Bloody hell!’

‘You’ve always had another daughter,’ Ashley said, unable to hold back a small smile. ‘She hasn’t suddenly appeared.’

‘I know, but… Jesus, this is so weird. And Molly… Well, she’s incredible!’

‘She is that,’ Ashley said.

He looked up. ‘You’re incredible. Making her into the girl she is all by yourself.’

‘I was never by myself and I think Molly might have had a hand in that.’

Taking a seat on the lawn and leaning against the trunk of a tree, he was silent for a moment, gazing out at the party. It seemed their altercation had soon been forgotten and everyone was getting stuck into the revelling as if nothing had happened. Somewhere, Ashley supposed, her mother and Maurice were discussing the developments. She could only hope that Maurice would have enough sense to persuade Sue to stay out of Molly and Ella’s way until Ashley and Haydon had the chance to break the news to them both. She couldn’t be certain of that at all, but right now Haydon needed her and she couldn’t just leave him. She took a seat on the grass beside him.

‘What about us?’ he asked.

‘You still want there to be an us?’

He took her hand and kissed it. ‘God, yes! Now more than ever! We can be a family, like we were always supposed to be.’

‘You have another family, don’t forget. I don’t think it’s going to be quite that simple.’

‘Janine will be on our side.’

‘What about Ella? Didn’t you just say she’s got issues with Molly?’

‘That’s not exactly what I was saying.’

‘Sounded that way to me.’

‘I’m sorry if it did. Even if there was a problem the girls will want to put differences behind them when we tell them – I’m sure of it.’

‘I wish I could feel as optimistic about it as you do.’

‘We can make this work – I know we can.’

Ashley wiped away a tear and sniffed hard. All that he promised was like a dream and yet it felt so unreachable right now, despite the fact he’d taken the news about Molly so well. Their families were going to be a bigger obstacle than he seemed to imagine and she couldn’t take any happy ending for granted. Perhaps she was so used to waiting for one that she didn’t know how to stop, even when it was there for the taking.

‘We also live about two hundred miles apart,’ she said.

‘I’ve got a car and endless patience.’

Ashley leaned into him and he folded an arm around her. ‘You might well need it,’ she said.

He was silent. The sweetness of freshly cut grass filled her nostrils while his heart beat steadily in the ear she had pressed against his chest. Everything was different, and yet it was still the same. He hadn’t disowned her and now, as she sat in his embrace, she wondered how she could have been so scared. She looked up to tell him so and saw that in the moments they’d sat quietly together he’d been crying.

‘Ignore me,’ he said, hastily wiping a hand across his eyes.

Taking his face in her hands she kissed him tenderly. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘It’s me who should be sorry.’

‘I don’t want you to think that. You have nothing to be sorry for.’

‘But this is all my fault. If I hadn’t been such an idiot that night in Ibiza and left you the wrong phone number—’

‘Stop that. I believe one hundred per cent that you’re a good man who made a tiny mistake with his pen and a drunken brain and you don’t need to say anything else about it. We’ve both made mistakes and throwing around blame won’t change any of that.’

‘But all those years we missed…’

Ashley smiled. ‘You wouldn’t have met Janine and you wouldn’t have Ella. Everything happens for a reason.’

‘When are we going to tell the kids?’

‘Perhaps we should pull them out of the party now? Go for a walk somewhere quiet so we can discuss it properly?’

He nodded. ‘Sounds like a sensible plan. They’ll know something’s up as soon as we suggest leaving, though.’

‘Probably, but they’ll think it’s something to do with us dating. And I don’t suppose it really matters that they guess something’s up or not as we’ll be telling them soon enough anyway.’

He grabbed her hand again. ‘I’ll admit to being nervous as hell.’

‘Me too.’

Together they stood up. Ashley brushed grass from her skirt and gave Haydon an awkward smile. He’d taken this news so well – better than she could ever have imagined. But while he appeared calm on the outside, was that really how he felt? Was this a delayed reaction, the calm before the storm? Would he go back to his villa later and the truth suddenly fall on him, crushing all reason? Would he see his new reality for what it was and freak out? The fear of losing him returned – sharper, colder, stealing her breath – and her smile, as uncertain as it had been, faded.

‘It’ll be OK,’ he said.

Ashley nodded, her mouth dry and a reply deserting her. Looking out from the secluded shade of their tree, she now saw her mother walking across the lawn towards them. She glanced at Haydon and there was no mistaking his reaction, even though he quickly wiped it away. Ashley guessed his thoughts were along the same lines as her own – how much more trouble could her mother stir up? Hadn’t she already done enough damage? Whatever she was on her way to say or do, Ashley needed to nip it in the bud before she made things even more difficult. She stepped out from the shade of the tree, Haydon at her side, and went to meet Sue halfway.

‘Mum…’ she began, but Sue got in first.

‘I’m sorry, love,’ she said.

Ashley blinked.

‘I was out of order back then,’ Sue continued. ‘I didn’t mean to blurt everything out like that – it wasn’t my place to interfere and I should have trusted that you were going about things in the way you thought best.’

‘The worst thing was the scene, Mum,’ Ashley said. ‘Everybody else didn’t need to know what was going on.’

‘They don’t,’ Sue said. ‘Nobody has realised exactly what it’s about so don’t worry about that.’

‘Maurice knows.’

‘I think we would have had to tell him sooner or later, love.’

Ashley pursed her lips, determined not to agree with her mother even though she would have to later.

‘I feel like such an idiot. Everyone was looking at us. Haydon feels like that too.’

‘I’m sorry,’ Sue said. ‘What more can I say than that?’

‘Your mum was just looking out for you,’ Haydon cut in. ‘It’s only what we’d do for our daughters.’

‘Speaking of which,’ Ashley said, turning to Sue again. ‘I suppose you’ve spilt the beans to Molly too?’

‘Of course not!’ Sue squeaked.

‘She probably overheard us anyway, the whole business was shouted so loud.’

‘Nobody heard us,’ Sue insisted. ‘I’m quite sure nobody’s any the wiser – they were all far too busy enjoying the party to listen to what we were going on about and half of them don’t speak English anyway.’

Before Ashley could answer, Haydon’s phone began to ring from his pocket. Pulling it out he frowned at the name on the screen.

‘Janine…’ he murmured before declining the call. But a second later it rang again. He gave Ashley and Sue an apologetic look. ‘She doesn’t normally call again like this unless it’s something really important. It might be some emergency back home…’

As if they didn’t already have an emergency of their own here. But Ashley could do nothing other than nod.

‘It’s OK, I know you wouldn’t say you needed to take the call unless you really had to,’ she said.

He clicked to unlock the phone and, after a brief greeting, he walked away to a secluded corner of Madame Dupont’s grounds, a deep frown creasing his brow as he went. Ashley was distracted for a moment as she watched him. Whatever that phone call was about, she already knew it wasn’t good just by the look on his face. It seemed about par for the course considering the sort of day they were having, but she just hoped it wasn’t something so awful that it would take him away from her before they’d had time to talk through all their new issues properly.

‘I’d better round up the kids,’ Ashley said. ‘I expect they’re still messing around on the old piano in the house,’ she added, shielding her eyes and scanning the garden to see that only the adults were out there, chatting in small groups or watching the band play as they sipped glasses of wine.

‘What for? Surely you’re not going to tell them now?’ Sue asked.

‘Better now coming from us than later from someone else.’

‘I told you nobody overheard anything.’

‘I don’t even want to take the risk. The way Haydon found out was bad enough but it would be ten times worse for the kids to—’

She stopped, mid-sentence, and exchanged a look of alarm with her mum. From across the grounds, out of their eyeline, there was shouting, followed by a loud scream and a splash. And then all hell broke loose.