CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER TEN
His alarm was unwelcome . Pulling Juliet up from where she lay in his arms in a blissful sleep. Then those arms freed her to turn it off, and she lay in that gorgeous place between being awake and asleep, just enjoying the fact that he was here…
And going back.
‘What time do you have to go?’ she asked.
‘Soon,’ he said, and kissed her shoulder.
She lay still as he climbed out of bed. She sank back into sleep as he went to shower, but soon came the realisation that their one perfect night was over.
So perfect , she thought, wishing he didn’t have to leave just yet. Perfect apart from…
There was a feeling of dread she couldn’t place, but then, even before she’d opened her eyes, she remembered what she’d overheard.
Dante and Rosa.
She took a breath, tried to recover in herself the woman who’d been able to shut it all out last night, but it was right there in the forefront of her mind as Sev came back into the bedroom.
‘I’ll make coffee,’ she said.
‘No time,’ he told her, opening up his case. ‘Dante and Susie are coming to your opening night, yes?’
‘Yes,’ she said.
‘Then there are four more performances?’
‘Yes.’
She lay on her back, watching as he dressed, trying not to think about yesterday and get back to focusing on now.
‘How about, after the performances you come to Dubai for a few days?’
She stared at him. When she wanted to nod and say yes, there was just this missed beat where she wondered how she could hold in the secret for days.
‘Yes,’ she said, but knew he’d seen her hesitation.
‘When?’ he asked. ‘I’m trying to sort a couple of things out with work…with here.’
He sat on a chair to do up his laces but he looked at her as he did so, his hair blacker than normal from the shower and his eyes not leaving her face.
‘When?’ he asked again.
‘I’ll have to check.’ She was trying to react normally, but there was nothing normal about the secret she held. ‘If we’ve got any bookings or…’
‘Check, then.’
She knew she couldn’t lie for ‘a few days’—and that would mean telling him what she’d learned. And she didn’t know how, or even if she should. She wanted time to think about what to do, and bit on her lip as she picked up her phone.
‘I thought you were just joking when you asked me before.’
‘No.’ He shook his head. ‘I am deadly serious. Juliet, I’m trying to carve some time out for us. I get that you’re building your career and that your life is here—but mine isn’t.’
His eyes never left her face and she felt as if there was nowhere to hide. ‘I can’t see myself coming back here—not for months—so I’m asking if you want to come to Dubai for a few days. If we can’t even manage that…’
There was no way forward for them.
She got that.
But they were so in tune and so honest with each other that of course he knew when she was not.
‘Juliet, what’s going on?’
She felt like an archer, scrambling for arrows to keep him back—a defeated archer, because she had no arrows and no response except a pale, ‘Nothing…’
‘Nothing?’ he checked. ‘Or is it that you would prefer not to answer? Because from the start we gave each other that option.’
They had, and she nodded.
‘What does that mean?’ he snapped, annoyed now and clearly not wanting to play any games. ‘Can you look at me?’
She tried to, but his grey eyes were like a stormy sky, and she could see he was holding anger—who could blame him for that?
‘Is there nothing wrong, or is it that you’d prefer not to answer? Which one is it.’
‘I’d prefer not to answer.’
‘Fair enough.’ He pulled on his jacket. ‘I’d better go.’
And he really didn’t play games. Because there was no shared little kiss to pretend things were fine—he just took up his suitcase and wheeled it to the door.
She sat with the crimson sheet around her, recalling her decision never to tell him.
But then the thought that had helped her last night appeared again. Something that had happened so long ago shouldn’t be ruining things now—and yet it was.
‘Sev…’
His hand was on the door handle, and he paused.
‘What?’ His shoulders were tense, jaw gritted, but he half turned.
‘There is something wrong, but I don’t know how to tell you.’
‘You just say it.’ He turned around. ‘What’s going on?’
‘I found out something,’ she said. ‘I overheard it…it’s about you.’
Sort of. But it was going to devastate him, she knew.
‘Am I supposed to be sleeping with Ella, just because we went out to lunch?’ He shook his head. ‘I know how people talk.’
‘It’s nothing like that.’
‘Juliet?’
‘Not so much about you…but about Dante and Rosa.’
‘For God’s sake!’ He let out a half-laugh. ‘It’s just gossip.’
She shook her head, and something must have told him this might be real, because she watched the colour leach from his face.
‘Something happened between them before the two of you were married. Long before.’
‘Juliet, Dante has never dated anyone from Lucca. I told you…’
Then he swallowed—the same way he had when he’d told her there had been no baby.
‘Who told you this?’
‘No one told me. I overheard it. Dante thought Rosa was trying to trap you because the same thing had happened with him.’
‘When did you hear this?’ he asked. ‘Who…?’
‘Please don’t ask. I wasn’t meant to hear it; I wish I never had. I’m only telling you this because—’ She stopped.
‘Because…?’ he persisted.
But he didn’t need her declaring her love even as she hammered him with this news. And so, she bypassed the real reason and gave him the one that loving him would lead to.
‘I think it’s better that you hear it from me. If he ever tells you…’
‘Why would he tell me?’ he barked. ‘If it’s been more than a decade since he and Rosa…?’ He briefly halted, but there was so much fury the unsaid word still hung there. ‘Why would he bother to bring it up now?’
‘I shouldn’t have said anything…’ She gulped. ‘I’ve made it worse.’
‘Worse?’ He shook his head. ‘You’ve made it easier for me to leave.’ He flicked his hand, perhaps in the direction of the family home, or maybe Dante’s. ‘Bastard.’
‘Sevandro!’ She jumped out of the bed as he reached for his case. ‘Don’t rush off.’
‘I’ve got a plane to catch.’ He shrugged her off. ‘And now I can stop being guilted into doing the right thing by my family and by Rosa’s family. I’m done. I’m out of here. For good this time.’ He glanced over his shoulder. ‘I might see you in Dubai if you can spare a couple of days.’
Juliet was too upset to cry—if it was possible to be such a thing.
She just sat in the crimson bed, holding her knees and waiting for the sky to fall. The genie was out—and, worse, she was the one who had let it out.
She thought of her parents—the fights, the rows—and of changing schools, losing her home, losing friends.
She cast her eyes around the crimson room, then climbed from the bed, peering out of the window as if expecting to see a convoy of flashing lights and emergency vehicles on the ancient streets. But there was gorgeous Lucca, bathed in a golden light, the tower and its holm oaks standing steady, oblivious of the changes surely to come.
Surely?
Yes. Everything she loved was about to be taken away.
Again.
* * *
‘Corso Garibaldi…’ Sev said to his driver.
A loaded catapult, he asked to be taken to Dante’s address. He knew damn well where Juliet would have heard the secret. No doubt Dante had told Susie, and Susie…
Susie .
Pregnant and asleep, she would not need him pounding at the door…
‘Ferma la macchina,’ he ordered the car to halt.
The driver stopped the car and the world that had been spinning since Juliet had told him came back into focus—only with the twenty-twenty vision of hindsight.
Dante had been trying to talk to him. Not just on the eve of his and Rosa’s wedding but in the weeks before…
As bloody as their fight had been, he’d always thought they ought to have been able to move past it…as brothers should.
‘I’ll be back in a bit,’ Sevandro said, and got out of the vehicle.
He really was out of here, he decided. After today he would never be back. And so now he walked along the walls for one last time, and looked out to the mountains that had taken his parents and wife, and loathed the scoffing noise he made when he thought of Rosa.
But it was too hard to go there, so he loathed instead his smart Alec comment about seeing Juliet in Dubai if she could spare him a few days…
And then he gave up thinking and sat on a bench and stared out at the verdant hills that looked so peaceful but had taken so much.
Perhaps it was better to leave without a fight, so to speak.
He would never be back here—in that moment he was sure.
And so there were things to be taken care of before he left.
* * *
His flight would be taking off minus one first class passenger, he thought, when he left the little store in the centre of Lucca, having taken care of Juliet in the best way he could think of in such a raw state.
He was about to call Helene to arrange a new flight when he saw a flash of purple and stopped outside a florist’s, looking at the citrus colours and blushing pinks.
There was no scoffing noise now when he thought of his late wife.
No more putting off what he had for more than a decade.
He’d never known what to say.
And as he stood at her grave he still wasn’t sure.
Rosa De Santis
‘You wanted to keep your family name,’ he said aloud, placing down the flowers.
In Italy some women kept their own name, some took their husband’s. It hadn’t troubled him either way back then.
Now it did. Now that the red mist of anger was fading, he could see the influence her parents had had on her, and knew that Rosa would never have come up with that plan alone.
He spent some time there at the grave, his bile when he thought of his late wife gone. Seeing things so much more clearly now.
‘What do you want me to do?’ he asked, but of course was met with silence.
He thought of Rosa’s fears, how she’d cared so much what others would think.
‘Don’t worry…’
He made her a promise he would keep. It was the best he could do for her.
‘Dei morti parla bene…’
Of the dead, speak well.
He always had.
‘I shall continue to do so.’ This would stay with him. ‘Rest now,’ he said.
Peace made—at least with Rosa—he flew away from the hell and chaos of home,
And yet there wasn’t the usual relief he felt when leaving.
Flying above the clouds, he kept going over and over things—not the past, and not Dante, not even his time with Rosa, or any of that.
Her words.
Juliet’s.
‘I’m only telling you this because…’
Was it love?
And if it was love, then where did they start?
Even in Dubai he worked ridiculous hours—had commitments from early morning till late at night. If the contracts all went ahead every minute of his next two years would be accounted for. How could he even consider plucking her from her blossoming career to a lonely ex-pat life there?
He couldn’t.
He wouldn’t do that to her.
He thought back to last night, their bodies still locked together, the closest he’d felt with another person, their souls searching for answers, for more time together and less lonely nights, and recalled the slight panic in her voice when she’d asked, ‘How, though?’
‘Signor Casadio?’
He turned at the flight attendant’s voice, realised they had landed without him even noticing.
‘We’re disembarking.’
Usually he was the first off the plane.
Today he would be almost the last.
Because Sevandro sat there on the Tarmac in Dubai, not sure where home was.
Letting himself into his apartment, he opened up the safe and took out the little stone Dante had given him. He held it up to the light, thought of his brother as a little boy in the jeweller’s, always in trouble, always the charmer, always led by emotion.
He took out his phone.
‘Dante.’
‘Hey,’ Dante said. ‘You’re back in Dubai?’
‘I am.’
Sevandro waited for his brother to mention the memorial yesterday, or the conversation they’d had the other week when he’d told Dante he’d been right.
He was met with silence.
Now he understood why Dante found it so difficult to talk.
‘How’s Susie?’ he asked.
‘She’s okay,’ Dante replied.
And Sevandro found that he frowned, because he did still know his brother—at least a bit—and there was something not right with his tone.
‘Just a few weeks to go, yes?’ he said.
‘Yes.’
‘Is everything okay?’
‘Of course.’
‘Because you know you can…’
He paused. Of course Dante would not be able to tell him anything, or confide any fears about his wife. The secret his brother had kept had forced a wedge between them, and Sevandro could see things more clearly now.
Thank God he hadn’t gone around there with all guns blazing. Instead, from the safety of Dubai, he offered better words.
‘I’m always here if you need to talk.’
‘I know.’
But instead they had a bland conversation, just as they had for the last decade—he asked about Gio, and the winery, and Dante asked him how the house sale was coming along.
‘I saw the gardens have been done—it looks incredible.’
‘I’m not so sure,’ Sev admitted.
He didn’t like how it felt now that the light shone in. He’d liked the dark space where he and Juliet had…
‘Are you going to have it styled?’ Dante asked.
‘Probably.’
They spoke for a few more moments.
Just the same conversation they’d been having for a decade. Perhaps it was a bit easier than it had been, but really they still spoke as if they were strangers on a bench in a park.
Now he knew why.
Then he called Juliet.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said immediately. ‘I shouldn’t have said anything.’
‘Stop,’ he told her. ‘You have nothing to be sorry for.’
‘I am sorry, though. I called Louanna and there’s a spare room in the apartment. The guys are going to help me move my things today.’
‘Why would you do that?’
‘Because we both agreed that my staying here was only meant to be until after my exams, and because I know that you’re going to resent me for telling you what I heard.’
‘Resent you?’ he checked. ‘I don’t do that.’
‘Maybe not, but it will change things.’
‘What things?’
‘Everything.’
‘Change can be good,’ he pointed out.
She gave a small disbelieving snort. ‘I hate change! Anyway, I’ve got performances next week to prepare for. I can rehearse with Louanna.’
Sevandro thought what best to say. He did not want to add pressure, and the half-baked plans he had in his head would help no one.
He needed to think things through properly.
‘Nothing has to change for now. You’re not to let anything mess up this week,’ he told her. ‘Go and practise…go to your rehearsals. You certainly don’t have to move out.’
‘I think I do.’
‘Is that what you want?’
‘Yes. It is. Are you at work?’
‘No. I’ll go in tomorrow. I’m just thinking a few things through.’
‘Did you say anything to Dante?’
‘I just spoke to him,’ Sevandro said.
Hearing her tense breath, he knew his decision to call Dante first had been the right one. At least he could put her at ease there.
‘We didn’t talk about anything much.’
‘Will you ever talk to him about it?’
He evoked their agreement. ‘I’d prefer not to answer that one.’
‘Fair enough.’
‘But I can say for certain that I won’t be doing anything before the operas, so don’t worry about seeing them at the weekend.’
‘Okay…’
She didn’t sound sure.
‘Sevandro, I didn’t tell you just to unburden myself.’
‘I know that.’
‘I wanted you to hear it from me. If Dante does ever talk to you—’
‘He won’t.’ Sevandro shook his head. ‘I’m pretty certain we’re past all that. Can I ask you something?’ he said, and heard her inhale. ‘Actually, two things.’
‘Sure.’
‘When I asked about you coming to visit me here you were hesitant. Is it because you don’t want to prolong things between us?’ He walked through to the bedroom and saw the coffee silk sheets had been replaced by russet-coloured ones…the colour of her most intimate hair that only he had explored. ‘Or was it because of what you’d found out?’
There was a long pause. ‘The latter.’
‘That’s good to know.’
He could invite her to come now, tell her the offer was still there. But suggesting a few days in Dubai to celebrate the end of her exams and opera performances sounded not enough—it sounded vague, and not like any plan he would make.
And as for a lifetime here…
He looked at the gap in the skyline, knew full well the commitment it would take to fill it. He’d been heavily debating the same with Sheikh Mahir in recent weeks.
‘What was the other thing?’ she asked.
‘Do you know how brave you are? After all you went through with your family, it must have been awful to overhear what you did. I am sorry you had to find out and be the one to tell me.’
‘No, no,’ she said. ‘That’s just it. I wanted it to be me.’
He didn’t quite understand why she said that, but now Juliet had a question for him.
‘Rosa…’ He heard the tension in her voice. ‘I feel as if I’ve made your memories of her worse…’
‘It’s okay,’ he said, touched that in the midst of this she would think of a woman she’d never met. ‘I’ve been thinking of Rosa too.’
He closed his eyes, stunned that he could share such a deep thought with her—that on this too bright day, when colours were too vivid and the world too sharp, he could somehow confide in her.
‘I didn’t go straight to the airport; I sat on the walls for a couple of hours. I realised it was Rosa’s family. They always wanted the land…the wineries merged. There are feuds that go way back.’ He could see it so clearly now. ‘After the accident, when the wills were read, I remember how furious they were when they found out that my father hadn’t owned a single vine. The winery was always in Gio’s name. Even after her death they were thinking of how they could benefit from her.’
‘Poor Rosa,’ said Juliet, and then went quiet. ‘Do you think she was worried you’d find out there never was a baby?’
‘I was already finding out,’ he said, and he held that unexamined heart that this morning had felt as if were being stabbed under a gentler inspection now. ‘I would have got her away from them… I think she knew that.’
‘You’d have been fine with a loveless marriage?’
‘I would have been back then. I told you—I’m a selfish bastard.’
‘You’re not.’ Then she asked him the same question he’d asked of himself. ‘What if you’d found out she’d slept with Dante?’
‘We’d have divorced, but I still would have got her away from her family. Well, that’s what I told her this morning. I went to the cemetery and took flowers. I said what I did on the day I put her in the ground—that she can rest. And I think she can now.’
‘That’s nice.’
‘Now, I’ve got a lot of work to do,’ he told her. ‘So, if I’m quiet for a while that’s why. For now, stop worrying about my family—and good luck with the move and the operas.’
‘Thank you.’
‘Do not break a leg…’
She managed a shaky laugh.
‘Juliet, it’s going to be okay.’
* * *
It could never be okay…
He hadn’t said when they’d see each other again, and nor had he repeated his invitation to her to spend those few days with him in Dubai.
She had an awful feeling she’d been let down gently.
That Sevandro had said goodbye.
* * *
On the evening before her big performance she sat with Susie at a pavement café, sipping Limoncello spritz as Susie topped up her sparkling water.
‘How is it being back at Louanna’s?’ Susie asked.
‘It’s working out well, I think.’ Juliet nodded. ‘We’re rehearsing a lot.’ It helped take her mind off things…though not quite. ‘I need it. I just can’t…’
‘Can’t what?’
‘I feel a bit wooden,’ Juliet admitted. ‘Technically, I’m playing okay. And while it’s good to have Louanna pushing me, I do miss Sev’s place…’ She shrugged, refusing to think about the gorgeous home and its owner. ‘I liked practising there. I could get into my music more.’
‘Well, I doubt you could now.’ Susie tore apart her panettone . ‘Sev’s getting it styled.’
‘Oh?’
She picked out an ice cube from her glass and sucked on it, trying not to react, trying not to think of the gorgeous house with strangers coming in, and trying not to ask questions about Dante and Sevandro.
‘He’s not coming back,’ Susie said.
Her ice cube crunched as she bit it, and she saw Susie’s blue eyes sparkling with unshed tears.
‘Apparently he took flowers to Rosa’s grave…and what with his speech at the memorial…’
‘I didn’t hear it,’ Juliet said, oh-so-nonchalantly, her face burning as she thought of them in the library. And then, breaking her own rules, she pushed for a little more information. ‘What did he say?’
‘Just how much his parents had enjoyed life… Rosa too. How she’d been on her way to Fashion Week…how they all knew that la vita è bella . Life is beautiful.’ Susie sighed. ‘Who says that at a memorial service?’
‘Life is beautiful, though,’ Juliet said, and couldn’t help but smile, pleased that Sevandro had said that. She was proud that he’d stood up and respectfully said he would not play the game any longer.
‘I was hoping that things might be sorted between Sev and Dante for the baby arriving. The wedding went so well. But really…’ Susie took a breath. ‘It’s not all Sev. Dante shuts down too.’
‘It’s between them.’
‘Yes.’ Susie nodded. ‘They were so close, though, and they both lost so much.’ She picked up a serviette and blew her nose. ‘Gosh, I’m teary.’
She looked tired, Juliet thought, and she felt worried. It wasn’t her sixth sense kicking in, as it had when she’d first thought Susie was pregnant—she’d overheard her and Dante, after all, and knew her blood pressure was high.
She tried to ask in a roundabout way, but she wasn’t very good at delving, and as they said goodbye Susie still hadn’t told her of any concerns.
‘We’ll see you tomorrow night,’ Susie said as they hugged each other goodbye. ‘You’re going to be fabulous; I know it.’
Oh, Juliet wasn’t so sure…
* * *
It wasn’t the best pre-opening night. She tried to sleep, but kept checking her phone, wishing her parents would message and wish her luck.
Not really.
She was lying to herself.
She kept checking her phone in the hope that Sevandro would call and she was trying to resist calling him, aching to hear his deep voice, feel the sense of calm he brought whenever he was near.
‘You look dreadful,’ Louanna informed her when she came into the kitchen the next morning.
‘Thanks! I’m going to get some coffee…buy some more rosin.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘We’ve certainly been going through it.’
Louanna had been pushing her to practise, which was good, but at times she could see the little frown lines on Louanna’s face as she played. Could feel her worried glances.
Juliet wasn’t playing well.
She was holding back, scared to put her heart into it for fear she’d completely break down.
She walked into the little shop that was her favourite place in the world. Well, it used to be. The crimson bed was now her favourite—but she was trying not to think of all that.
‘Signor!’ Juliet called. ‘Sono io, Juliet…’
‘I won’t be long,’ Signor said from the workroom, and Juliet told him there was no rush.
It was lovely and dark, and so peaceful in here, and she wandered around, looking at the beautiful instruments.
‘Are you ready for tonight?’ he asked as he came out.
‘I hope so.’
‘Nervous?’
‘A bit,’ she nodded. ‘Maybe not enough?’
‘It’s a beautiful piece, though rather dark at times.’
‘Yes,’ she said—because ‘dark’ was how she felt when she practised and she was scared to go there, to let loose her already off-kilter emotions and really pour herself into the piece. ‘I’ll get there. I just need some more rosin—and also to pay my rent.’
‘No.’ Signor frowned. ‘That is your violin now.’
‘It’s not. I know my rent’s due next week.’
‘But it isn’t,’ he said.
And then the world seemed to stop when she was told her friend had paid her account in full.
‘My friend?’
She thought of Susie, who kept trying to press gifts on her. But no, Susie wouldn’t even know where this place was. Surely it wasn’t…?
‘He doesn’t agree with my sign.’ Signor laughed. ‘We agreed to disagree.’
She glanced at the familiar Einstein quote and recalled what he’d said. No, that would never be enough for him.
‘Sevandro was here?’
‘Si.’
He went to fetch a leather folder and took out a ledger. Juliet stared at the figures and then saw his black spiky signature.
Yes, Sevandro had paid her account.
Yes, the violin was beautiful, and everything she had once wished for.
But really she was simply relieved to have an excuse to call him. She stepped out into the sun, almost folding in relief at the sound of his voice.
‘Juliet?’
‘It’s too much,’ she said. ‘I just went to pay my violin rent and…’
‘You weren’t supposed to find out until next week!’ He laughed. ‘I hope I haven’t messed up your pre-performance calm.’
‘I’m not calm.’ She took a breath. ‘Maybe I am. I don’t know… But I can’t accept this.’
‘Then donate it to a charity shop,’ he teased. ‘Or post it to me here. Of course you can accept it. How are the rehearsals going?’
‘Not great,’ she admitted. ‘I feel…’
‘What?’
‘Like a fraud.’
‘Fake it, then.’ He laughed again, and so did she. ‘You can do it.’
‘I’m not so sure.’
‘I know you can.’
For a sliver of time she felt their closeness again, felt warmed by his voice, felt emboldened and back on their beautiful Mars—but then he told her he had to go.
‘I have to go into a meeting now. Don’t break a leg.’
‘Sevandro, wait,’ she said. ‘I can’t take it.’
‘It’s already yours,’ he said. ‘It always was.’
* * *
He closed his eyes as his private phone rang again, telling himself to stay back…to give her the space she needed.
Certainly she did not need to know what he was dealing with here.
Helene came in. They’re waiting , she mouthed, and he nodded, about to turn off his phone. But then Dante’s name flashed on the screen…
Given the nature of his meeting, he had every reason to let it go to voicemail, and yet for whatever reason he quickly took the call.
‘Dante, hey. I can’t—’
‘Sev.’
Brothers know.
Not everything—not every detail of each other’s lives—but brothers who were close knew, and the husk in Dante’s voice was reminiscent of a day long ago, and immediately Sevandro knew something was very wrong.
‘It’s okay,’ Sev said to his brother, shaking his head at Sheikh Mahir, who had come into his office, and turning his back. ‘What’s going on?’
‘Susie went into labour last night. They’ve tried to slow things down, but they think the baby will be born soon.’
‘What else have they said?’ he asked, and then listened as his brother brought him up to speed.
‘Are her family coming?’
‘They don’t know. I’m going to call them later. Susie is quite upset, but she doesn’t want anyone to know yet. I’ll tell Gio and Mimi when we know more.’
It dawned on Sev that his brother had called only him.
An older brother was still required at times.
‘She’s going to be fine,’ he responded with certainty. ‘Both of them are.’
‘You don’t know that!’
Sev heard the sneer…knew Dante was scared.
‘I believe that—as must you when you’re with Susie.’
‘Yes.’ Dante took a steadying breath.
‘Don’t let her see you’re worried.’
‘Okay.’
‘Juliet doesn’t know?’ he asked.
‘Juliet?’ Dante’s voice was bewildered. ‘I’ve just told you we haven’t…’ Dante paused, obviously remembering they had the opera tonight. ‘We’re supposed to be going to her opening night.’
‘Maybe let her know you won’t be there?’
‘She won’t even notice—it’s a sell-out.’
Sev closed his eyes. Of course Juliet would notice. He thought of her looking up to the empty box and finding nobody there for her. Though of course Dante had far more on his mind right now and wasn’t really thinking about cancelled plans.
‘Sev?’ Dante’s voice broke into his thoughts. ‘The other week, when you told me that Rosa had never been pregnant…’
‘Don’t worry about that now.’
‘Let me speak,’ Dante said. ‘I need to say this. I’m going to be a father soon and I want…’
Sev closed his eyes and thought back to her words.
‘I’m only telling you this because…’
Thank you, Juliet.
Now he understood why she’d said what she had about wanting to be the one who told him. So he’d be prepared for a moment such as this. So he’d know what to say when his brother finally reached out to him.
Dante cleared his throat, clearly determined to do this. ‘I didn’t know how to react. Or what to say. I’ve wanted to talk to you, but I’ve been worried about Susie. She thinks I should tell—’
‘Dante,’ Sev cut in. ‘It’s okay.’
‘It’s not, though…’
‘But it is,’ Sev said.
‘No, there’s something I need to tell you.’
‘I already know.’
‘You don’t…’
It was a conversation that brothers never wanted to have, but the distance and the silence between them was killing them.
‘Dante, I know about you and Rosa.’ There was silence. ‘I know .’
‘How?’
‘Doesn’t matter.’
‘How long have you known?’
‘That doesn’t matter either. It’s time to move on. You’re going to be a father soon. I’m going to be an uncle. Things are very different now. Go and be with Susie. If it helps, tell her that we’re fine. Call if you need me, or call Helene to get hold of me.’
He could hear the shake in his brother’s breathing, the same sound he’d heard in it at their parents’ funeral, and Sev said now what he hadn’t been able to then.
‘Ti sono vicino.’
It meant, I’m close to you , or I’m right here .
And if he was going to be there for his brother, then Dante needed to be there for him too.
‘Before you go back to Susie can you do one thing for me?’
‘What?’
Sev looked at the time. Even if he left now there wasn’t a hope of him getting to the concert, but he couldn’t bear the thought of Juliet looking up to see an empty space.
She needed to prepare for that in private…
‘Can you let Juliet know you won’t make it tonight?’
‘Sure.’
‘She’ll understand, but…’
‘I’ll call her now.’
‘Thanks,’ Sev said. ‘Then get back to Susie.’
He sat for a moment, then buzzed Helene.
‘Sheikh Mahir is getting impatient,’ she told him.
‘Could you ask him…?’ He stopped, and thought of the board sitting there, waiting. He knew Mahir would not appreciate being asked to come to Sev’s office. ‘Could you arrange a private room, and advise the Sheikh I need to speak with him?’
Things were not going to plan.
Or rather things were happening rather ahead of schedule.
He’d wanted her performances to be over…for his work situation to be in better order…for him and Dante to…
That last one was already taken care of.
He opened the privacy drawer on his desk, and seeing the little gift he’d had made didn’t jolt him, or look like a foreign object. He picked it up and saw the diamonds glinting and the one tiny ruby.
The perfect plan would have to wait.
Juliet needed him now.
It was time to deal with the other because…
He was certain.
Juliet had told him because she loved him.