Chapter 24 #2
hindsight, though, aren’t we? I never told her it was because I didn’t feel loved. I didn’t want to hurt her.”
Sabrina could well imagine that. Marielle had kept the weight on her own shoulders rather than offload it. She was one of
life’s givers, that was clear.
“Cilla had a very short-lived marriage. He took off long before Flick was born, and then he died soon after, before they could
even start the divorce, so she copped for the whole of his estate. Then when Flick arrived, Cilla said she couldn’t cope alone
with her, so rather than palm her off on child-minders, we looked after her a lot of the time.”
“Blimey, Marielle, did you ever have any time to yourself?”
Marielle shook her head. “Flick was such an easy baby, no hardship at all. Sal adored her. Sometimes she felt as much my own
child as Teddy was, though I was always very careful to make sure he knew he was my number one.” Marielle took another drink,
then another.
“Sal left me well provided for,” she said after a thoughtful pause.
“Our house was way too big for one, so I bought this place and a holiday flat to rent out, even though Flick’s staying there at the moment because she didn’t want to live with her mother’s new boyfriend.
Mum left half of everything to me and half to Cilla, no surprise there, but she still wasn’t satisfied.
She took Mum’s engagement and wedding rings, even though she denied it.
I know she has them. It was pure greed. I was her daughter. They were precious.”
Sabrina realized she was touching the necklace with the ring on it again, and somehow, at that moment, she knew that it wasn’t
her own ring but her mother’s. And that’s why she touched it so much and drew reassurance from it.
Marielle put her head in her hands, ashamed.
“Oh, what must you think of me, Sabrina? That I’m a horrible person, no doubt.”
“You couldn’t be more mistaken,” Sabrina said gently. “And how are you and Cilla now?”
“As good as we’ll ever be. She’s infuriating, but ironically I can’t help worrying about her. And I worry about Flick because
Cilla has got all her priorities wrong. She gives these transient flash Harry boyfriends more attention than she does her
daughter and it’s unfair. This latest... thing, she says he’s loaded, but I don’t buy it; it’s straight out of the textbook
of gullible women and romance scammers. He says his money is tied up in long-term investments, so she pays for everything.
He said his huge pile in the Home Counties is being renovated and he won’t take her there until it’s all done. He says his
car, which just happens to be a vintage Rolls-Royce, is waiting for parts to be shipped from overseas. There’s nothing about
him on the internet because he’s ex-military intelligence and has to fly under the radar. I mean”—Marielle threw her hands
up in the air—“who believes all this... crap? But people do. We’ve all seen the TV programs and still they think it’s different in their case .
I’m waiting for him to suddenly announce he’s got a serious illness, because that’s what they do, isn’t it, these.
.. vampires. She bought him a car to run around in, but did she give her own daughter so much as a penny toward one when she passed her test?
She says Flick has to learn the value of money, which is a joke if ever I heard one, seeing as she barely earned a penny of hers. ”
“She’s not in your Mad Cow group, I’m guessing,” said Sabrina.
“No. In our little group we all trust and like each other, and I’ve said too much. I’m not being kind.”
“You’re allowed not to be a saint, Marielle. I’m sure there are people in my life I don’t like.” Sabrina wished she knew who
they were and who the people were that she did like. “Besides,” she went on, “anyone who walked in here could tell from the
ambience that it belongs to someone very lovely.”
“It does have a nice feel to it, doesn’t it?” Marielle replied, looking around. “I loved it as soon as I walked in. The old
man who’d had it before me used the flat as a storage space, but I liked the idea of it being somewhere I could have people
stay. I had more than enough money to do it up. And I gave Mum’s money to Teddy so that one day he could buy his restaurant,
and that’s what he did with it.” She topped up her glass again, wondering how it had gotten so empty so quick. “And now those
Ciaoissimo bastards want to take everything away from him.”
Ciaoissimo. Again that feeling that Sabrina knew the name. It was somewhere in her head, like a splinter in her brain.
“I’m sorry,” said Marielle. “I’ve drunk too much and I’m going to make us both a coffee now.” After two failed attempts on
her part to get up from the sofa, Sabrina got up instead and said she’d make them. By the time the kettle had boiled, though,
Marielle’s head had dropped forward and she was snoring softly. Her arm was still out to the side, glass in her hand, and
Sabrina rescued it just in time from falling to the pale blue carpet.
She cleared the drinks and the plate of nibbles away and closed the curtains.
Marielle’s house was an upside-down construction, so she had to go downstairs for a quilt and a pillow.
There were three bedrooms and a bathroom on the lower floor, the largest of the bedrooms being obviously the one Marielle used.
It smelled sweet, like freesias, Sabrina thought.
There were photos on the bedside cabinets.
In one, a young Marielle with long dark red hair held a smiling toddler, and at her side was a man who had to be Teddy Bonetti’s father because the family resemblance was so pronounced: handsome, rugged, dangerously good-looking smile.
On the other cabinet was a photo of a heavily pregnant Marielle, Salvatore’s arm draped around her shoulder.
They were looking at each other and laughing joyously.
Sabrina touched her stomach and remembered being pregnant, remembered putting her hands on the swell and feeling her daughter flutter underneath.
She’d named her Linnet, after the small, bright bird with a voice like a song, and she was presently living her best life, traveling, just as Sabrina had wanted for her.
But she couldn’t see her face in her mind’s eye, no features discernible, and she asked herself for what reason was her brain also keeping her child from her?