Chapter 50
Chapter Fifty
Flora
Uncle Nico had been with the children for about an hour and had exhausted them to the extent that they were passed out at opposite ends of the sofa while I returned to the kitchen to tidy up. That is where I found Nico and Maddie chatting and giggling like old friends.
“Not interrupting am I? I need to tidy up.”
Maddie rolled her eyes while Nico laughed, sounding like his brother.
“Let me tidy up for you,” Nico offered and turned to Maddie. “You go talk with your sister.”
It seemed I had been interrupting something. What was it that my sister needed to talk to me about and why was Nico in the know? More to the point, why were the two of them so cosy, they’d only met once before, hadn’t they?
Maddie shot a scowl Nico’s way as he began to load the lunchtime dishes into the dishwasher. “Let’s go back to our fellow double troublers then.”
Sitting opposite my sister as she nervously twirled the strands of her hair, she looked at me and smiled. “I have to go home, tonight.”
“Tonight? Why? What’s the rush?”
“I need you to stay calm.”
“I can’t stay calm when you sound worried and you’re telling me to stay calm. What is going on?”
“Tell her.” Nico appeared and sat between the children.
Glaring at him, I felt he was overstepping and there was clearly something going on here. “What the bloody hell does this have to do with you?”
“Florence!” Maddie chastened with her use of my full name while Nico laughed, a proper belly laugh.
“She’s not wrong, is she?”
Maddie returned her attention to me. “I’m pregnant.”
My mouth hung open. “Pregnant?” I managed to say many seconds later.
She nodded.
Turning, I fixed Nico with my hard stare. “Is this you? Have you done this?”
He looked horrified at my accusation while my sister screeched my name again.
“No, this is not me, and I have not done this! I met your sister a week ago, is it?”
“But you knew?”
He nodded. “Maddie and I have been talking, messaging, you know.”
Frankly, no, I didn’t know, but that wasn’t the pressing issue right now. “Maddie, who is the fath–” I didn’t need to finish that question. “Him, the married one?”
She nodded. “He doesn’t know. I need to go home and tell him and see where he stands.”
“Next to his wife is where he stands, I imagine.” I sounded judgemental and harsh. “Sorry. Will you keep the baby?”
She nodded. “I should tell him and give him the chance to be involved, but I agree that he is likely to want nothing to do with either of us, but this is my baby, Flo. I know I am Maddie the good time girl, but I have only ever wanted to settle down and have a family. I mean when I was younger, I wanted to live my best life and not risk the hurt of loving, but underneath I wanted it.”
I was already crouching down in front of her and pulling her in tight. “You’re having a baby!” I squealed, “I’m going to be an auntie.”
“Congratulations,” Nico said, but I was unsure who he was addressing.
Withdrawing from Maddie slightly, I turned my attention back to Nico. “We need a lengthy conversation about you two and the talking and the messaging.”
We both giggled, but I meant every word. I needed to know what was going on between the two of them.
“I wish you didn’t have to go so soon.”
“I already packed and there’s a train in a couple of hours.”
“I can drive you.”
“No, you can’t drive me home and come back here tonight, you’ll be tired, plus, the tickets are paid for and non-refundable.”
“At least let me take you to the station then.”
“Okay. I’d like that.”
Maurizio and Sophie returned together just as the children woke up.
There was a strange atmosphere and whilst it didn’t feel like they had argued, it was strained.
I was glad to get out of the house and return to my own space with Maddie.
Nico had remained behind and from what I could gather, he was staying for dinner.
Maddie and I were at my car, arguing over who was going to lift her case, an argument I was winning as she had got into the car until Maurizio appeared and took the bag from me with ease.
“I can manage,” I protested.
“Of course you can, but I want to help you. If I can’t help tesoro mio, who can?” He gently ran a thumb over my cheek and leaned in to kiss me. “You’re sad?”
I was going to lose the battle with my tears if he kept looking at me with love and adoration while his touch remained gentle and his tone sympathetic.
“Yes. I wish she would stay.”
“She can come back whenever she wants. My home is your home, your people are my people now.”
“Thank you.” I really needed him to stop being nice and saying such sweet things if I had any hope of keeping these tears at bay until after I had waved Maddie off.
“Let me know when you’re back, so I know you’re safe. Would you like to have breakfast together in the morning, just the two of us. I’ll even cook and we can talk.”
“Talk?” My overthinking mind was coming up with a dozen different meanings of talk.
“I can explain about Sophie.”
He looked sad, scared, upset. “Are you okay?”
Before he could answer, we were interrupted by Sophie calling from the front door. “Maurice, where are you? Come on, we’re waiting for you. Popcorn is ready, Rosie has got the sweeties out for us and Craig is choosing the movie for us to watch like old times.”
My heart was sliced in two in that moment and the laughter emanating from me was hard and lacked any warmth or amusement.
“Just like old times, Maurice.”
“Flora.” The use of my name in isolation was a plea but before he could add anything to it, the sound of Sophie and the children calling to him, chanting his name deafened me.
“Daddy, Daddy, Daddy.”
He looked torn. “Now is not the time. We both need to go.”
“We do.”
“Breakfast?”
“I’d like that.”
“Good. I love you.” I thought he was going to kiss me, but he didn’t. He’d said about telling the children that we were friends, but as he hadn’t done that yet, a kiss might have been a bad idea, for them anyway.
“Daddy!” A final call saw him retreating and I climbed into my car.
With Maddie all boarded on her train and a promise for her to let me know she’d got home safe, I drove home.
I chatted with Ash on the way and explained everything that had happened with Maddie and Maurizio since we’d last spoken.
He seemed less shocked about Maddie that I had been so perhaps I was the last to find out about my niece or nephew.
I couldn’t disguise the grin at the idea of a baby in the family.
Somehow I had always imagined being the one to have a baby first, but apparently not.
When Maddie had admitted always wanting her happy ever after with a baby, I hadn’t been surprised, not really.
She tried being party animal, wild child Maddie, and had done it well for a number of years, usually on the back of another disappointing relationship, but underneath it all she wanted no more than to be loved, valued and to be part of a family again.
Wasn’t that what we all wanted? It was what I wanted and something Maddie and I, in our own ways, were desperate to recreate.
I worried that Maddie would be left alone, literally holding the baby, as the father was married.
I really wanted to believe that I could have my happy ever after and family with Maurizio and hoped after he explained about Sophie’s presence, I didn’t end up on the losing side of a relationship with a married man.
Parking my car between Maurizio’s and Sophie’s made me shudder as if it was representative of something more, something deeper.
I looked across at the lights illuminating the house and noticed Nico’s care was still here.
Again I wondered about him and my sister, but also if he was enjoying a movie and popcorn as part of the family.
I chuckled at what that scene might look like, the three of them on the sofa with the children, most likely watching something animated.
I didn’t doubt that Nico and Maurizio would most likely be the biggest children there.
Climbing the stairs and entering my home, I felt sad.
Although Maddie had only been here with me for a short time, the place felt empty without her in a way it hadn’t before she arrived.
I sent a quick message to let Maurizio know I was home and he replied immediately with a kissing emoji with the words, can’t wait to claim that kiss.
I took a shower, redressed in loose fitting pyjamas, put the TV on and flicked aimlessly around the channels, not finding anything to watch.
Hitting the off button, I reached for the book I had been reading for the last six months but had got no further than chapter four.
As much as I could blame the book, I didn’t.
My inability to concentrate in recent months was nothing to do with the story, it was all me.
Me and the tall, dark and handsome man who was only a flight of stairs away.
Debating how desperate and needy I might come across if I messaged him or wandered downstairs, I decided against it.
Curling up on the sofa, I pulled a blanket over myself and began to scroll through social media before quickly becoming bored.
Maddie’s name lit up the screen with a message to let me know she had arrived home and was heading straight to bed.
Sadness washed over me again, imagining her in the home we once shared.
. I was genuinely lonely. Desperate and needy were distant memories as I made my way to the door that separated me from the rest of the house.
With the door barely open a crack, I heard the sound of Sophie putting the children to bed.
“Daddy will be up in a while and kiss you once you’re asleep,” she told them.
“Will you read us a story, Mummy?” Rosie asked.
“Of course. I missed our stories at bedtime when Mummy had to go away.”
Standing out of sight behind my door, I continued to listen, wondering why Sophie sounded as though she was about to have a breakdown. I reasoned that she was potentially realising all she had missed in the time she had been away.
“What story shall we have tonight?” she asked, clearly trying too hard to be perky and bright.
“Guess How Much I Love You.”
The sound of the children’s excited cries was drowned out by the sound of a single sob, masked with a high-pitched cry of, “My favourite.”
I opened the door fully, preparing to check on Sophie who was clearly upset but before I could speak or gain her attention, the children’s door was shut.
Maybe my chat with Maurizio where he explained what was happening with Sophie couldn’t wait until breakfast.
Gently padding down the stairs, I heard voices, Maurizio’s and Nico’s. Following them, I found myself coming to a stop at Maurizio’s office door.
“Cheers.” Nico’s word preceded the sound of glasses clinking together.
Maybe I should leave things for tonight.
The two men had moved themselves into the confines of the office and were drinking, and judging by the slight slur of Nico’s cheers, they may have been at it for a while.
Yes, I should go back upstairs and wait for the morning.
Walking back the way I came, I prepared to climb the stairs and had yet another change of heart.
Even if we couldn’t have the conversation tonight.
I could say hi, goodnight, and let him claim the kiss I’d sent him earlier.
Striding back towards the office once more, I immediately regretted my decision when I heard the conversation taking place.
“I love Sophie, always have, and now more than ever I want to make things right and live a long and happy life with her. She and the children are my family and my future and Flora was no more than a dream that could never be.”
The words I heard Maurizio speak with my own ears were daggers that sliced through my heart. He loved me. That’s what he’d told me, and now, with Nico, he was admitting what he really wanted and that wasn’t me. A dream. This was more of a nightmare from my perspective.
Fight, flight or freeze were my options now.
Well, there seemed little point in fighting if I was the only one who wanted this.
Freeze meant staying here and listening to more words that would break what was left of my heart, so, that only left flight, and assuming my legs that felt they might buckle allowed me to, that is what I was going for.