Chapter 13
Antonio and his father stared at each other for what felt like a lifetime after Maria left, both of them wondering where on earth they could go from here. Her demands seemed less than reasonable, and were made all the more so by David’s deception, or whatever he wanted to call it.
Eventually, Antonio stood and reached into his pocket to call Alyssia, who’d left shortly after Maria’s arrival.
He still couldn’t quite believe that his mother was, in fact, the aunt that he’d loved for so long, or that the woman he’d called ’mother’ his whole life was meant to become a complete stranger to him.
It felt like a hellish nightmare, and he desperately prayed that he’d wake up soon.
When Alyssia answered the phone, she sounded distracted, so he told her that he would be home soon, and then turned to his father, who was looking at him with a worried expression.
Everyone else quietly left the room, each person gently patting his shoulder as they went.
Even Damon put a hand on his shoulder, leaving behind his characteristic quips.
The room finally felt silent, and the only people who were left were Antonio and his father.
He picked up a glass, poured out a double whiskey, and knocked it back in one before staring at his father with eyes that were colder than Antarctica.
“You and I have a lot to discuss.” The atmosphere was as cold as his eyes. “I’d suggest you fetch what you need and meet me outside by my car in ten minutes.”
“Son?” David began, but Antonio cut him off, not remotely interested in his father’s excuses.
“I don’t want to hear another word until I see my wife. Nothing you can say will make this remotely better, so close your mouth before I close it for you.”
David looked as if he wanted to argue, but wisely thought better of it.
Once he’d fetched his keys and wallet, the two men walked through the house with Reynolds falling in behind them, and got into Antonio’s car.
The journey to the house was silent, each man deep in his own thoughts.
Antonio was still trying to figure out what he was going to say to her when they pulled up outside, only to see his wife already waiting for him.
Alyssia noticed there was a new sadness about her husband, and she wondered if it had anything to do with the meeting she’d left. Maria’s arrival had warned her that trouble was on its way, and she’d taken the opportunity to slip away before anything happened.
“Apologies for the early arrival, amore, but this couldn’t wait.
” Her husband’s kiss on her cheek was cool and distant, much like it had been before the affairs were discovered, and for a brief moment she panicked, thinking that Maria had uncovered even more infidelity.
As soon as she saw David, however, she realised it was something far worse than infidelity.
A wave of relief washed over her, and she felt the baby kick in sympathy.
“What’s happened?” she asked, her eyes fixed on her husband. “Someone died?”
“I wish I had!” David quipped, but Antonio frowned him into silence. He raised his hands defensively, but didn’t say anything further.
Alyssia raised both eyebrows, but didn’t reply until they were safely inside.
She headed straight to the kitchen, her bump leading the way like a barge.
Even though she was fast approaching six months pregnant, she still looked beautiful, and Antonio found it hard to believe just how quickly the time had gone by.
It felt like yesterday that he’d come home to find his wife demanding a divorce and informing him of his impending fatherhood.
Now, however, with a short three months before their daughter’s due date, he began to worry more than ever.
Would Maria harm Alyssia? Surely even she wasn’t that unhinged, although after her performance at his father’s house, he was beginning to wonder if anyone was safe.
As Alyssia bustled about making everybody a drink, Antonio tried his best to compose himself. Even now, with his family’s future on the line, he didn’t know if the words would come, but he knew they had to.
Alyssia slid their mugs across the table and took a seat, ushering them into their chairs as well, and took a sip of her drink.
Nobody said anything, and Antonio felt a lump rising in his throat.
How could he tell his wife that she and their daughter might be in danger because his aunt was completely insane?
Even as he thought about it, it sounded like something a particularly sadistic screenwriter might think up, rather than the brutal reality of his past.
“So, what’s so urgent that you came home before midnight?” she joked, trying to lighten the mood. Antonio reached across the table and took her hand in his, taking comfort from her warmth. She looked surprised, but didn’t try to escape his grip, realising something was seriously wrong.
“I don’t know where to start, Lissia,” he began.
Alyssia nodded, taking another sip of her tea with her free hand. “Start at the beginning. I know Maria came to the house, but I left shortly afterwards. No offence to you all, but I’m too pregnant for drama.”
“I don’t blame you,” David smiled gently, only to see his son glaring at him again. “What? She’s my daughter-in-law, and she’s pregnant! I don’t blame her for leaving!”
“That’s really not the point, Dad,” his son barked at him “What’s important is that Maria decided to demand the moon, the stars, and half the damn universe too.”
Everyone fell silent, hardly daring to speak, until Antonio finally took a deep breath and clasped both of Alyssia’s hands in his own, still unable to look her in the eyes.
“Promise me you won’t get mad at what I’m about to tell you,” he begged, his voice barely audible. “I don’t want you getting stressed when you’re pregnant, but I can’t keep this from you.”
“Why would I get mad, Antonio? It’s not like you’ve slept with her.” Alyssia laughed, before turning serious. “You haven’t slept with her, have you?”
“He hasn’t, but … I did,” David took a giant swig of his coffee.
You could have heard a pin drop in the silence that followed, as Alyssia stared from one man to the other, her jaw sagging slightly with shock. For a brief moment, she wondered if she’d misheard him, or if he was winding her up, but he wasn’t.
“You’re joking, right?” she stuttered. “You can’t be serious ? ”
“Unfortunately, he is,” Antonio interrupted her glumly. “My aunt and my father slept together when she was sixteen.”
“OK, but that doesn’t mean anything, right?” Alyssia’s voice sounded almost as desperate as Antonio’s, her eyes silently pleading with him. “Tell me it’s not what I think it is, please ? ”
“I’m sorry, caro mio,” Antonio said, a sob choking his throat. His grip tightened ever so slightly on her hands, and she realised that he was shaking with repressed emotion.
“Maria is Antonio’s mother,” David said, pressing his lips together as he spoke. “I knew, obviously, but I never told him.”
A sob burst from Alyssia as she stared at Antonio, the magnitude of the lie beginning to dawn on her.
She’d always been close to Antonio’s mother, and they’d spent many afternoons together learning how to make each other’s native cuisine, often accompanied by several glasses of Italian wine.
Even when his mother had been on her deathbed, she’d asked for Alyssia to sit by her bedside, not her own son, almost as if Alyssia were the daughter she’d never had.
“You can’t be serious.” she breathed, her eyes desperately begging her husband to say it was all one big joke.
Antonio, however, had finally released her hands and was quietly sobbing, the heartbreak and deception stamped on his features.
Suddenly his affairs seemed minute in comparison to the pain and anger he must be feeling.
The thought of Maria Blackwood being her mother-in-law was almost inconceivable, but she had to somehow wrap her head around it, however hard that might be.
For all that she was finding it hard, though, it had to be doubly – or even triply – as hard for Antonio.
Finding out that your aunt was really your mother was one thing, but realising that your own father had lied to you your whole life? It didn’t bear thinking about.
“So … what did she want?” she asked.
Antonio shook his head, staring at his coffee in misery.
“She wanted us to tell everybody the truth, and she’s after half of Dad’s assets through the family link pathway.
” He heaved a sigh. “I refused, obviously, because she’s not my mother.
Not really. She might have been part of my life all this time, but she’s been Aunt Maria, not my mum. ”
“Well, that’s up to you,” Alyssia shrugged. “I can’t force you one way or the other.”
“And that’s fair enough, but we have to do something!” his father interjected. “Even if we don’t admit the truth, what are we going to do about my assets? I can’t give her half of it, figlio mio! It would ruin me!”
“Why are your assets your primary concern?” his son roared, glaring at him with eyes like fire.
“Never mind your stupid assets, you lied to me for thirty-six years! My mother went to her grave keeping your secret, and you didn’t tell me because it was easier for you?
What about my feelings, Dad? Huh? Did you ever think about what I might have wanted? ”
“Of course I did!” David shouted. “You were all I was thinking about, but I couldn’t tell you until my own father died, and then my brother went missing! I couldn’t bear the thought of losing you too!”
“It doesn’t matter, Dad!” tears streamed down Antonio’s face. “It doesn’t matter who was dead, you should have told me as soon as I turned eighteen! I was an adult then, and I had the right to know who my mother was!”
“And what would you have done if I’d told you, huh?” His father’s voice began to sound more and more Italian as his temper rose. “Would you have run off into the sunset with her? Called her ‘Mamma’, maybe? Imagine what your mother would have thought!”
“I guess we’ll never know now, will we?”
They glared at each other, both fired up with rage, until Antonio shook his head and stood up to fetch a glass of whiskey.
The golden-brown liquor burned his throat on the way down, but the physical pain brought him back down from the emotional pain.
He stood, staring out of the window for what felt like forever, and then turned back to face his father, who was staring at the table.
“Either way, you know the truth now.” Alyssia’s voice was gentle.
“And what a truth it is.” he snapped, curling his lip.
“My aunt is my mother, my father didn’t have the decency to marry her when he found out she was pregnant, and instead married her off to his own brother, who conveniently happens to be missing!
Oh, and on top of all that, I didn’t find out until today because my dad was too scared of my Nonno to tell me, even though it’s been six years since he died! ”
“Well, when you put it like that ...” Alyssia admitted, before taking a deep breath. “Look, you can’t change what’s happened, but you can change the future. So, what are you going to do about her requests? Is there a deadline?”
“I don’t know. She’s given us until the New Year to decide.”
“Well, that’s a few months, at least. Hopefully I’ll have had this baby by then and I can be of more help.”
All of a sudden Antonio’s phone buzzed, making them all jump. He looked at the screen, his face twisting into a scowl.
“Ugh, it’s Janice.” he groaned. “Just what I needed.”
“Don’t answer it, then.” David snapped. “We have bigger things to attend to.”
“No, Dad, you have bigger things to attend to. This is your mess to deal with, not mine.” With that, he got up from the table and left the room, answering his phone with a cheer that he didn’t feel.
David and Alyssia were left in the kitchen, neither of them particularly keen on talking.
David drank the rest of his coffee in silence, and then stared at the wall, tears slowly running down his face.
The pain of holding onto the secret might have gone, but it had been all too swiftly replaced by a deeper pain – the pain of betraying his son.
“Do you think he’ll ever forgive me?” he whispered. Alyssia shrugged, not knowing what to say in response.
“Give him time. It’s a massive upheaval, especially since his aunt … sorry, his mother … now wants half his entire future.”
“You’re right,” David sighed. “What would I do without you?”
“Fall apart, most likely!” Alyssia laughed. “You’re welcome to stay here if you need to, even if it’s just for tonight. I’m sure there’s a room spare somewhere in this sprawling house.”
“Thank you, I appreciate that, but I’d better get home. Tell Antonio I said goodbye, and … I’m sorry.”
“I will. Remember, I’m only a phone call away. And, David ? ”
“Hmm?”
“Keep this between us for the moment,” she began, gently squeezing his hand, “but I’ve decided to stay with Antonio.
He betrayed me, yes, and he hurt me beyond anything I’ve ever known, but right now he needs his family around him.
In a way, Maria’s given him more of a punishment than I could have ever dreamed of. ”
David hugged his daughter-in-law tightly, a wave of relief spreading over him. Even though he agreed that his son had been an absolute fool, he also agreed that Maria’s decision to tell him the truth was far worse than anything else that could have happened.
“Thank you,” he whispered, feeling his heart swell with emotion. “I owe you the world.”
As David left, he saw his son talking on the phone, and raised a hand in farewell.
As he stepped outside and got into his car, which one of his men had kindly brought to the house, he couldn’t help but wonder what the future would hold.
All he could do was pray for a happy ending, even though the pit in his stomach warned him that that wasn’t exactly likely.