Copyright © Librairie Arthème Fayard, 2018

The right of Virginie Grimaldi to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Translation copyright © 2019 Adriana Hunter

Adriana Hunter asserts her moral right to be identified as the translator of this work.

First published in Great Britain in 2019 by

HEADLINE PUBLISHING GROUP

First published in Great Britain in Ebook in 2019 by

HEADLINE PUBLISHING GROUP

1

Apart from any use permitted under UK copyright law, this publication may only be reproduced, stored, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, with prior permission in writing of the publishers or, in the case of reprographic production, in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency.

All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Cataloguing in Publication Data is available from the British Library

Cover credit © Librairie Générale Française

ISBN 978 1 4722 6535 7

HEADLINE PUBLISHING GROUP

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www.headline.co.uk

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Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

About Virginie Grimaldi

About the Book

Praise for Virginie Grimaldi

Dedication

Epigraph

Anna

The Chloe Chronicles

Lily

Anna

The Chloe Chronicles

Lily

Anna

Anna

The Chloe Chronicles

Lily

Anna

The Chloe Chronicles

Lily

Anna

Lily

Anna

The Chloe Chronicles

Anna

Lily

The Chloe Chronicles

Anna

Lily

The Chloe Chronicles

Anna

Lily

The Chloe Chronicles

Anna

Lily

The Chloe Chronicles

Anna

Lily

The Chloe Chronicles

Anna

Lily

The Chloe Chronicles

Anna

Lily

Lily

The Chloe Chronicles

The Chloe Chronicles

Anna

Lily

Anna

The Chloe Chronicles

Lily

Anna

Lily

The Chloe Chronicles

Anna

The Chloe Chronicles

Lily

Anna

The Chloe Chronicles

Lily

Anna

Anna

The Chloe Chronicles

Lily

Anna

The Chloe Chronicles

Anna

Lily

Anna

The Chloe Chronicles

Anna

Anna

The Chloe Chronicles

Anna

Lily

The Chloe Chronicles

Anna

Anna

Lily

The Chloe Chronicles

Anna

The Chloe Chronicles

Anna

Lily

The Chloe Chronicles

Anna

The Chloe Chronicles

Lily

Anna

Anna

Anna

The Chloe Chronicles

Anna

The Chloe Chronicles

Lily

Anna

The Chloe Chronicles

Lily

Anna

Lily

Anna

Lily

The Chloe Chronicles

Anna

Two Months Earlier

Anna

Two Months Later

The Chloe Chronicles

Lily

Anna

Acknowledgements

About Virginie Grimaldi

Bestselling French author Virginie Grimaldi was born in Bordeaux and wanted to be a writer for as long as she can remember. She wrote her first novel aged eight in a green notebook with multiplication tables in the back. It was about love and the sea and a thirty-page-long sunset . . .

Today she is a huge bestseller in France – one of the top six ‘most read’ novelists (Le Figaro, 2018) – and has been published in more than twenty languages throughout the world.

You can follow Virginie on Twitter: @GinieGrimaldi and Instagram: @virginiegrimaldi

About the Book

Maybe if she hadn’t lost her job, Anna would never have dreamed of being so impulsive.

Or perhaps if Chloe wasn’t always having her heart broken, or if Lily was happy at school.

But when Anna realises that her family is falling apart, only a grand, spontaneous gesture will do. Which is how Anna, Chloe and Lily find themselves squashed together in a campervan, on a mother-daughter road trip across Europe to reach the Northern Lights.

The girls are horrified, but Anna is determined. This journey might just be their way back to each other.

Praise for Virginie Grimaldi’s How to Find Love in the Little Things:

‘The famous “Grimaldi touch” is a lightness of tone and style that takes your breath away’ Elle France

‘Heartwarming’ Good Housekeeping

‘A gorgeous story, charming and funny and poignant. I found it as refreshing as a breath of sea air’ Nicola Cornick

‘An uplifting journey of loss, romance and secrets’ Culturefly

‘A fabulous escape’ Take a Break

For my mother

A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavour by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts

– Washington Irving

Anna

‘Anna, can you come and see me when you finish your shift? I need a word.’

I tie my apron round my waist and do one last check of the tables before the first customer arrives. I know what Tony’s going to say; I overheard him talking to someone yesterday. It’s high time.

In the last three months L’Auberge Blanche has worked its way up to the top of the ratings for restaurants in Toulouse. We were busy enough already; now, it’s packed. I barely have time to clear a table before someone else sits down. I’m the only waitress and Tony can’t help out unless he has nothing else to do.

Last Monday I was just taking a crême brûlée to table six when my head began to spin, my eyesight went foggy and my legs turned to jelly. The dessert landed on the customer’s head and I landed up in my boss’s office.

At first he just shouted. I’m used to it – it meant he was worried. He once confided that he has situs inversus: he said his heart is on the left side of his body and his liver on the right. His communication skills are obviously the wrong way round, too.

‘What the bloody hell were you doing?’

‘Bloody fainting, that’s what.’

‘Well, why would you do that?’

‘To liven things up a bit – what a question! I mean, it is a bit quiet this evening, isn’t it?’

He relinquished his anger with a great sigh then moved on to the empathetic phase.

‘Right, are you okay?’

‘I’m a bit better. I’ll go back out.’

‘No, leave it, I’ll take care of things this evening. But you’re back on tomorrow, okay?’

‘Have I ever missed a single shift?’

He smiled. This was my moment.

‘I’m tired, Tony. I’m about to turn forty – I can’t keep this up. It would be great if you took on someone else.’

‘I know, I know, you’ve said that before. I’ll see what I can do.’

He picked up his phone and called Estelle, his mistress, to tell her he’d like to be inside her knickers right now. I deduced that our conversation was over. My neighbour Paul says I should change jobs. He’s taken over his daddy’s chain of shops and obviously thinks jobs are delivered by storks who’ve gone in a new direction since the baby market was nabbed by gooseberry bushes.

The truth is, there’s nothing else I can do. I did go to college, though; I’ve got an accountancy and management diploma. I found out I was pregnant on the last day of exams, Mathias was earning a decent living, so we decided I’d stay at home with Chloe. When she started nursery school three years later, I applied for dozens of jobs in accounts and admin. I got only one interview, during the course of which I realised everything about me was wrong: I had no experience, I’d given myself three years off to play with a baby and I had the impertinence to answer ‘no’ to the question ‘Is there someone to look after your child in an emergency?’ I couldn’t compete with the countless seasoned, uber-qualified applicants whose priorities hadn’t come out of their wombs.

So I accepted an offer of work from Tony, a friend of Mathias’s who runs a restaurant. For the first seven years I just did the lunchtime shift, which meant I could spend time with my daughters. Until I had no choice but to do evenings as well.

I’ve just wound down the metal shutters when Tony shouts for me. I go back in and sit down opposite him.

‘You know I really like you, Anna.’

Situs inversus. This isn’t looking good.

‘How long have you been working here? Ten years?’

‘Fourteen.’

‘Fourteen! Time does fly. I still remember your interview, you were so—’

‘Cut to the chase, Tony.’

He rubs his temples with the tips of his fingers and sighs.

‘Estelle’s been made redundant and I want to take her on.’

‘Ah! That’s a relief, I thought you were going to give me bad news. I have to say, I’m not sure it’s the brainwave of the century as far as your wife’s concerned, but, well, that’s your problem. When’s she starting?’

He shakes his head.

‘I want to take her on instead of you, Anna.’

The information takes several seconds to wend its way to my brain.

‘What do you mean, instead of me ? You can’t do that!’

‘I know I don’t have any reason to fire you. Mind you, there’s always something if you look hard enough, but I wouldn’t do that to you – you don’t deserve it. I’ve got a proposal for you: let’s do this amicably, come to an agreement. I’ll give you a little envelope as a thank-you.’

I don’t know how long I sit there not reacting. Long enough to think about all the bills I already can’t pay. And to picture the fridge even emptier than it already is. And to realise there’ll be more visits from the bailiffs. And to imagine the look on my daughters’ faces when I tell them their mum’s lost her job.

‘So what do you say?’

I push back my chair and stand up.

‘Go fuck yourself, Tony.’

The Chloe Chronicles

First of all, I want to thank you for all your comments. When I started this blog a year ago, I never thought so many of you would read the ramblings of a ‘hypersensitive’ seventeen-year-old. Thanks

I adjusted my beanie and took a last glance in the mirror. Perfect. Hiding behind foundation and lipstick, I was ready to take on the day.

I put my headphones on as I raced downstairs. The front door was still broken and the wind was blasting into the stairwell. If only it would blow away the smell of piss.

Lily was already at the bus stop. She waved at me, but I ignored her and kept walking. I wouldn’t be getting on the bus with her this morning.

Why bother going to school? My future’s all mapped out. In three months I’ll get a merit in my exams and I’ll enrol at uni to do Literature. And I’ll never set foot in the place. Uni – at worst, you have to pay for it; at best, it doesn’t pay to go.

Mum got another registered letter yesterday. She hid it under her trousers in the drawer with all the others, but I’m not stupid. As well as her waitressing job, she does ironing for neighbours. I can’t go on living off her so I’ll start work next year.

I watched the estate come to life as I walked through it. There’s a smell of hope about the place in the mornings. Maybe today would be the day everything changed. A chance meeting. An idea. A solution. A fresh start.

Every morning I mentally sketch out my dreams in pencil. And every evening I rub them out.

I waved hello to people – we’ve been living here five years so I know everyone. There was Leila taking Asia and Elias to school. Madame Lopez drinking coffee at her window. Ahmed going over to his car. Marcel walking his two chihuahuas. Nina running to catch the bus. Jordan struggling to get his scooter to start. And Ludmila having a fag by the front door of block D.

‘I was waiting for you,’ she said, opening the door.

She lives in a studio flat on the seventh floor. It was the first time I’d been here. She pointed to the sofa bed for me to sit on.

‘Malik promised me you were reliable,’ she said, taking a packet from under the coffee table. ‘Are you?’

‘Yes, I’m reliable.’

‘Who do you usually buy from?’

‘I’ve never bought any – this is the first time. I just smoke my friends’ stuff.’

‘Okay. Let’s see the ring.’

I handed her the gold ring and she inspected it as if she knew what she was looking at.

‘It’s worth a ten, okay?’

I gave this confident nod so she couldn’t tell I don’t know what ‘a ten’ is. She held up a little brown cube, wrapped it in foil and slipped it into my hand.

‘If anyone asks, say Jo sold it to you.’

I put the packet into my backpack with all my schoolbooks then headed for the door. I was just about to close it behind me when Ludmila called, ‘Hey, wasn’t that you what won the writing competition last year?’

I pretended not to hear her and closed the door.