Chapter Ten
In Leo’s view, it had been worth returning to Como for Thursday evening alone, when Massimo and Sofi hosted family aperitivi in their apartment to announce their impressive feat of being eleven weeks pregnant. Leo was glad to be there to witness the joy and delight on his parents’ faces.
Though still a touch wan after her bug, Sheenagh squealed, happy tears sliding over the faded freckles on her cheeks.
Ferdinando awarded the prospective parents long, wordless hugs, kissing their cheeks and growling something too husky to understand.
Leo, mindful that he wasn’t supposed to know before their parents, loudly congratulated and enthusiastically embraced. Sofi blushed and Massimo beamed.
Leo allowed an hour for the news to be relished before making an announcement of his own.
‘I’ve been studying the details of businesses for sale and I’m arranging to see one in Italy soon.
It’s in Riva.’ Riva del Garda was a few hours away, at the north end of Lake Garda, smaller than Como but just as pretty, and popular with tourists.
Sheenagh squealed again, pulling him into her arms and tousling his hair as if he were a child. ‘You might stay here and make bambini like your brother?’
He laughed. ‘One thing at a time, Mum.’
On Friday, expecting Sheenagh for coffee, he was checking the terrace furniture hadn’t received unwelcome calling cards from the birds when his phone buzzed.
He backed into the shade of a palm tree to read the screen, heaved a huge sigh when he saw the name, and answered. ‘Good afternoon, Isabella.’
‘Oh, Leo,’ she said mournfully. ‘I’m going mad with guests and their insurance companies. It’s been in the local papers. Such bad publicity.’
He dropped onto an iron chair with a green cushion.
‘Has anybody said the Black Falcon’s to blame?
’ He imagined the office, and Isabella’s desk by the window, wondering if Teddy had taken over Leo’s old desk.
Even in the early days of the discord, Teddy used to casually sit in Leo’s chair.
It had been a power play of course. If Leo sat somewhere else, Teddy had won; if Leo tried to claim his territory, Teddy would roll his eyes and tell him not to be petty.
‘Not as such,’ Isabella admitted. ‘But it’s created a tsunami of admin. And Daddy says he’s booked his ticket to South Africa for tomorrow.’ The final word was close to a whine.
Leo thought it wisest not to comment on Teddy’s actions, so tried to be lighthearted. ‘The police officer hasn’t been back in touch, so I think she’s knocked me off her list of suspects. I wasn’t the thief in the night.’
Isabella huffed. ‘Nobody ever thought you were. It was process. Or procedure, whatever they call it. Anyway,’ she said, moving on, ‘Daddy’s made a suggestion.’
He knew he wasn’t going to like it, because he didn’t like Teddy. ‘What’s that?’
‘He says I can employ you as a consultant.’ Isabella announced this in a weird, faux-bright, undulating voice, as if trying to present the ludicrous suggestion as fabulous news.
Slowly, Leo let his gaze rove over the trees and oleanders around the terrace of Villetta Nascosta, drinking in the vivid pink against dusty green, the small yews clipped into cones and spheres.
It seemed a long way from the winding lanes and long beaches of Norfolk.
When he didn’t reply, Isabella rushed on.
‘Everything would be done by email or phone, so remote working’s no problem.
’ When Leo still said nothing, the faux enthusiasm vanished.
‘It would really help me out,’ she said quietly.
Leo sank further into the chair. Down in the hotel’s garden, a group of guests chatted around a table bedecked with bright cocktails.
Flip-flops lay tumbled on the grass and everyone looked far more relaxed than he felt.
He tried to make his voice gentle, mindful of the fact that he was speaking to the woman with whom he’d once shared his life and bed.
‘Why doesn’t Teddy “work remotely” when he reaches South Africa? ’
She was silent for so long that he took the phone from his ear to check that the call hadn’t disconnected.
Eventually, she answered. ‘He says he’ll coach me from there, but he’ll be busy with other things.
’ Before Leo could snort his disgust, she added waspishly, ‘Mummy says it’s typical of him.
He likes to control everything, but he doesn’t want to do any actual work. She’s exasperated and bitter.’
‘Teddy had that effect on me too.’ He couldn’t resist adding, ‘It dismantled our relationship, me pointing out Teddy’s deficiencies and you staunchly defending your darling dad.’
She sounded defeated. ‘I should have listened. Mummy says that when he left us and went to live in South Africa, I blamed her for “letting” him divorce her and that when I went to visit him, I came back full of Daddy’s swimming pool and the swanky restaurants he’d taken me to.
She said I became a headstrong rebel, blinded by Daddy’s charm – she calls it “smarm”.
’ Her voice dropped. ‘She also told me something I’ve never known.
Apparently, the money he used to start his first business was Mummy’s.
I mean, I had no idea, Leo! He’s never acknowledged that once.
She inherited a house from an aunt and sold it to give him money to put into a nightclub.
He’d paid it back by the time they divorced, but he’d never have had a start in business without her. ’
As ‘What do you expect from a knob like him?’ seemed inappropriate, Leo said, ‘Nice that you and your mum are having heart-to-hearts.’ All the time Leo had known Isabella, she and Maryam had exchanged cards and presents at birthdays and Christmases without in-person meetings or much other contact.
He’d never even met Maryam, although she only lived in Ireland.
Yet apparently, Isabella had turned to her mother and Maryam had answered the call. Motherly love, he supposed.
Isabella continued in the same confiding manner.
‘She said that at the time she had to be considerate of my feelings, but now she didn’t mind telling me she was glad to get rid of him.
He was selfish. It was a relief when he decided to try his luck with the South African part of his family.
I’ve been stupid.’ She heaved a miserable sigh.
Tactfully, he didn’t agree. Or not out loud.
It had felt as if his world was crumbling as Isabella became a stranger and Teddy a villain, but the rawness had gone now.
He was happy to be back in Italy and be part of his family – and Como – again, his bitterness neutralised by the relief of being out of a toxic situation.
When Isabella spoke again, she sounded plaintive. ‘I’m used to having you to talk things over with.’
He snorted a laugh. ‘You never listened.’
‘Well, I am now. What would you do?’ she asked stubbornly.
‘OK, then.’ He was secure in the knowledge that he and Isabella were no longer connected by anything other than the occasional phone call.
‘If it were me, I’d let him bugger off to South Africa and then run things exactly as I wanted.
I’d ignore his emails and let his calls go to voicemail so he couldn’t “coach” me. And I’d hope he’d gone for ever.’
She digested this for several moments. ‘But he’ll just remind me how much money he put into the Black Falcon.’
‘You won’t know or care if you’re ignoring him. Anyway, he gets a return on his investment. I wouldn’t let him win.’ A burst of laughter from the guests around the table in the lower garden came to him on the breeze. It looked as if they were already onto another round of cocktails.
‘But you did let him win,’ she pointed out.
He gritted his teeth at this reminder. ‘No,’ he said. ‘I let you and him win. Two against one. I had no choice but to let myself be eased out. Teddy wanted to control you and saw the best way to do that was to divide and conquer.’ Impatiently, he added, ‘I’ve told you all this.’
‘But why would he want to?’ she asked obstinately, sounding disbelieving as well as defeated and bewildered. ‘Why come all the way from South Africa, invest money, “ease” you out, as you put it, and then run off again?’
At that moment, Leo caught sight of two women strolling beneath the waving palm fronds in the lower garden, heading towards the gate.
His mum and Jade. He followed them with his eyes.
‘I can’t even begin to explain your father’s actions,’ he said.
‘Why come to the UK if he wants to live in South Africa? Why cause you trouble when it’s in his power not to?
’ He didn’t add, ‘Hope it works out OK,’ or, ‘Let me know how you get on,’ because he felt he’d already been incredibly patient with the woman who’d let him down so badly.
His mum and Jade let themselves through the gate and began on the zigzags of the path. ‘Sorry, Isabella. I have to go. Bye.’
He tucked his phone into his pocket, rising to greet the women as they reached level ground and approached the terrace.
‘Mum. Good to see you.’ He kissed her cheek.
‘Jade. Good to see you too.’ It really was.
Her black dress was teamed with sandals and her plaited hair dangled over her shoulder and one breast. He had to force himself to look away.
‘Leo.’ She smiled, but there wasn’t much light behind her eyes. He hadn’t seen her since that night at Bar Rita and that had been almost a week ago. She looked . . . despondent. It tugged at his heart.
‘Jade called in and as I was about to come for coffee, I invited her along so I could show her this place, now it’s complete.
OK with you?’ Sheenagh seemed to have regained much of her pre-illness energy.
‘I was going to show her what a mess the builders had left the terrace in, but someone’s repaired the damage.
’ She propped her hands on her hips and raised her eyebrows at him.