Chapter 32 Rafaella #2
She had never imagined they would come to be living here together, as sisters-in-law; when Gina had first revealed that she was pregnant, Rafaella had worried that Dante would leave her high and dry.
Their relationship was tempestuous and he made no secret of the fact that he had other women, coming back reeking of perfume, lipstick on his collar …
But then Rafaella had confided her fear to Fon and a few days later, Dante had proposed to Gina.
Fon had simply shrugged when she’d asked him about it, and to this day she still didn’t know exactly what he’d said to make his brother commit to her best friend. She was only grateful that he had.
It worked, their foursome living in the same town.
She and Gina were a familiar sight together, taking Lorenzo to the beach or shopping in the market, and people were eager to be their friends, always putting an extra ounce of cherries in their basket or the fattest fish.
It helped that Dante had quickly risen to prominence here, Fon too as his right-hand man.
Against all odds, their marriage was proving to be a quiet success.
Rafaella knew her husband was proud to have her on his arm; as a successful businessman, he couldn’t be let down by a woman who didn’t know how to act or dress.
She had to be charming but not flirtatious, beautiful but not bawdy; she had to be able to cook and make a cocktail and know how to wear her hair.
In turn, he allowed her to fill her days with meaningful purpose, raising no protest when she told him she wanted to train as a teacher.
Most importantly, he had kept his promise to her, the one condition she had insisted on when he had proposed his plan that fated August night: he wouldn’t touch her in bed until she was ready.
It was to his credit that he had waited for two years before she finally surrendered, when despair and too much wine got the better of her one night, Cosimo’s memory growing faint, like a thumbprint on a window.
She still loved him but she had lost him, and if she wanted other things – to be a mother, a proper wife; to live a full life and not exist as a shadow – then how could any of those things happen with a barren bed?
She wasn’t sure what she had expected – an explosion of pent-up passion?
– but it had been surprisingly perfunctory, a quiet, unsatisfying rocking that bore no resemblance to her experience with Cosimo.
Fon never said anything about it afterwards but she knew she had been a disappointment to him and he hadn’t ‘troubled’ her with his needs since; he had a mistress to deal with that side of things, she knew.
Rafaella felt the shame sharply but she couldn’t deny she was relieved too.
Even Gina didn’t know the truth of what didn’t go on behind their bedroom door.
‘Did I tell you about Antonia?’ Gina asked abruptly, stabbing a tomato with her fork.
‘Antonia?’ Rafaella frowned. It had been years since they had seen her. The girl had run away from home the summer of Silvana’s wedding. Rumours had swirled that she had a secret boyfriend. ‘No.’
‘Papa saw her in Lecce. He was meeting with a new supplier and he swore he saw her across the road in a bar with some other girls. And when I say girls, I mean …’ Gina lifted her eyebrows in disapproval, which Rafaella understood to mean whores.
‘Did he talk to her?’
‘Tried to. He called over to her and she looked right at him, but by the time he got there, she had gone.’
Rafaella frowned. ‘Did he tell her parents?’
‘Sure. They went looking for her, but …’ Gina shrugged. ‘No sign of her.’
‘It’s a big place, I guess.’
‘Yes.’
Rafaella looked out of the kitchen window, watching a pigeon sitting in the pomegranate tree, cleaning its wing. ‘Well, at least she’s still alive. That’s something. After what happened to Donatella …’
‘Don’t.’ Gina crossed herself. Rafaella knew her friend had always felt guilty that her dance with the devil had somehow ended fortuitously; her life was far from perfect, but she had married the father of her son and she had respectability if not peace.
Donatella hadn’t been so lucky. The guy who had knocked her up wasn’t interested in doing the right thing by her and she’d gone to a back-street doctor to ‘get the situation taken care of’; she’d died from an infection five days later.
The last Rafaella had heard, the guy was married now with a kid.
They heard the slam of the pedestrian door downstairs, footsteps on the stairs taken two at a time.
Both women pulled down their skirts and took their feet off the chairs just as Dante came through, taking off his tie.
Sweat patches had formed on his shirt under the arms and his hair was slicked back.
He looked hot but handsome. His brooding features had somehow deepened over the past few years, like patina on wood, and he seemed to exert more power over women than ever.
But Rafaella still didn’t like him. His stare always lingered on her a little too long, as if suspicious of her immunity to his charms. Or perhaps he worried about her having Gina’s ear, for she too was often disdainful of him; but Gina’s passion for the man always overrode her dislike of him and sometimes, when Rafaella listened to her friend’s stories of their tempestuous fights and make-ups, she wished she loved or even hated her own husband enough to scream.
‘Rafa,’ he said, greeting her with light kisses on the cheek as usual.
There was no doubt he wielded the power in all their lives and he was always quick to assert it, but with her, he held back.
She was Fon’s wife and that gave her a special status in his eyes, almost equal to Gina’s.
His brother’s happiness rested with her and he wouldn’t do anything to shake it.
‘Why are you back so early?’ Gina demanded, reluctantly getting up, a hand on her thigh.
‘I came to wash and change. There won’t be time la—’ He frowned as he finally noticed the state of the kitchen – their empty lunch plates and current lack of industry at the table told a false narrative.
‘What is this?’ he asked angrily. ‘I told you this meeting is important! How are you going to be ready if you’re just sitting around? ’
Gina groaned, waving a hand at him dismissively. ‘We were just having lunch! I have to eat, don’t I? Or do you want this baby to starve?’
‘No fear of that!’ he snapped, hitting her where it hurt. Her curves were the currency she held over him, the reason she was the woman he kept coming back to. It was why she was so agitated about this pregnancy – she couldn’t afford to lose her figure.
‘The pasta is made and I will make the sauce fresh!’
‘When?’
‘When they’re all here! Seven thirty, you said!’
Rafaella sat quietly; they were forever shouting at one another and would fight savagely, sometimes literally.
‘Always the last minute with you!’
Gina walked over to the fridge. ‘Look – tiramisu, like you asked!’ she said, holding up the dessert. ‘Who is this important visitor who has you in such a fluster, anyway?’
‘That is none of your concern.’
‘No? He’s coming to my house, eating my food, and I’m crazy to want to know his name?
’ Gina put her hands on her hips, her bosom wobbling with indignation, and Rafaella watched Dante’s look change.
She had seen it before, the sudden switch from irritation to desire.
Gina saw it too, and her chin lifted a little across the kitchen.
‘I’d better head back,’ Rafaella said quickly, reaching for her bag as the silence grew weighty. ‘Fon will be waiting for me.’
‘Take Lorenzo, will you?’ Dante muttered, not taking his eyes off his wife. ‘He needs his nap.’
‘Sure. See you later,’ she said, hurrying from the room before their flames could burn her.