A Savage Betrayal

‘Look, do what you have to do first…for your mother’s sake,’ Mina urged.

‘Susie’s waiting for us,’ he mumbled, visibly finding it an effort to concentrate.

‘I’ll pick her up and bring her back here…after I’ve sat with your mother for a bit,’ Mina sighed. ‘I can’t leave her like this.’

‘But——’

Mina gave him a helpful little push in the direction of the door. ‘Find out what’s happening at the police station.’

Her heart went out to him. She had never seen him in such a state of bewilderment. He simply wasn’t functioning. Like a record stuck in a groove, he could focus only on the issue that was central to his marriage. ‘You didn’t do anything!’ he said with sudden harshness. ‘And all this time I’ve been——’

‘Right now you are going to the police station to enquire after your brother,’ Mina informed him, ushering him out into the hall, dimly wondering if he was in any fit state to enquire after anyone. Shock had wiped him out. ‘For your mother’s sake,’ she said again.

His expressive mouth curved bitterly. ‘Sì…’

‘So unemotional, so judgemental…how did I give birth to a son like that?’ Louise Falcone appealed tearfully to Mina. ‘Sandro’s the complete opposite.’

While marvelling that any mother could make such a blatant favourite of Sandro with Cesare around, Mina took charge. She had coffee brought in and she located a box of tissues for her mother-in-law, who had by then surrendered completely to the need to establish what a wonderful son Sandro had always been.

Mina sat with a wooden smile through it all, her sympathies firmly with Cesare for having a mother so absorbed in one son that she had no time for the other. The afternoon crept away until Louise complained of a headache and decided to go and lie down. Mina mentioned that her daughter was waiting for her.

‘I always wanted a little girl. Cesare is such a disappointment,’ his mother lamented helplessly.

‘Not to me,’ Mina said brittly, having held her tongue as long as she could bear, but it washed off her motherin-law completely.

The drive down to Thwaite Manor was the first chance Mina had to assimilate the devastating change that had taken place in her marriage. She smiled. It was as if an enormous weight had fallen off her shoulders. Cesare knew the truth now. He finally knew the truth. Sandro had clearly presented him with a very impressive body of evidence and her own apparent disappearance had played into Sandro’s hands.

She didn’t blame him for believing Sandro. She had only had one night with him. Family was family and she suspected that all his life Cesare had been made to feel protective towards his infinitely weaker brother. What reason would he have had to distrust Sandro?

When she arrived at the manor Susie surged into her arms and hugged her tightly. ‘Where’s my daddy?’ she demanded.

‘You’ll see him soon,’ Mina promised. ‘We’re going straight back to London.’

‘Wonderful,’ Winona remarked, avidly reading the details of Sandro’s arrest in the evening paper. ‘I hope they throw the book at the creep after what he did to you! How’s Cesare taking it?’

‘He’s pretty shocked.’

‘I bet he is.’ Winona sighed, looking wry. ‘But blood is thicker than water. I would believe you quicker than I would believe anyone else. But right now Cesare must feel like the ground has vanished beneath his feet.’

When Mina and Susie reached the town house, it was late. Susie was half asleep and Mina put her straight to bed. When she came downstairs again, Louise was talking angrily on the phone. Her face frozen with fury, she cut off the call, caught sight of Mina standing in the doorway and snapped, ‘I’m not staying here. I’ll stay at Sandro’s apartment!’

Mina frowned. ‘But why?’

‘Cesare’s not doing a damned thing to help his brother!’ Louise hissed resentfully, and stalked off. Mina attempted to reason with the older woman but she wouldn’t listen.

It was after eleven when she finally heard the front door opening. She leapt up as Cesare appeared in the doorway. He looked exhausted.

‘Your mother’s gone,’ Mina told him.

Cesare shrugged. ‘Probably for the best. I’m not going to work any miracle on Sandro’s behalf. He’s facing very serious charges. It’s very unlikely that he’ll get off without a prison sentence.’

‘Did you see him?’

‘No. However,’ he sighed, ‘he admitted what he had done four years ago to my lawyer and asked him to pass it on to me.’ Mina’s surprise was unhidden and Cesare released a bitter laugh. ‘Why should he think of us in the midst of all his trouble?’ he asked for her. ‘I’ll tell you why. The news that we’re married has panicked my brother into the belief that I already knew that he had falsified the evidence against you. He chose to admit the deception in the hope of retaining my sympathy and support.’ He framed the final three words with deadly cold finality.

‘Why did he do it?’ That was all Mina wanted to know.

‘Apparently you heard him talking on the phone in the penthouse apartment the morning after we spent the night together.’