The Italian's Token Wife

A frown creased between his eyes. He started to rotate the gold cufflink on his left wrist.

‘When I come back,’ he said abruptly, ‘we must talk. You understand that, cara?’

She nodded. A lump had formed in her throat, hard and choking like an unswallowable stone.

‘Yes—’

His mouth tightened. ‘We have been living in a dream, these days together…’

The stone swelled in her throat. ‘Yes—’

She tried to hide her expression, desperate for him not to see what she was terrified must be there. He stood looking down at her, his expression troubled. Then, with a sudden softening of his eyes, he spoke, and for a moment it was Rafaello back again, the man who took her to paradise and held her in his arms.

‘I will take care of you, cara—be assured.’

Then, twisting his wrist, he glanced at his watch and gave a rasp of displeasure.

‘I have to go—’

He bent swiftly, leaning his arm against the wall, and dropped on her mouth one last, hurried kiss.

And was gone.

CHAPTER TEN

MAGDA was at the pool with Benji. Her heart was heavy. Rafaello couldn’t have made it clearer that this golden, magical time was over. Again and again she heard his words echoing in her head—When I come back we must talk.

They tolled like a funeral bell against all her happiness. She did not need to be clairvoyant to know what it was he wanted to talk to her about. Rafaello’s real life had reclaimed him—the real life that consisted of him being a driven, powerful businessman, with important things to do in the world far beyond dallying with a woman he had never intended to dally with in the first place.

She had known it would happen eventually. Yet all the knowledge in the world about just how temporary her bliss could be did not make its impending loss any easier to bear. Her sense of oppression thickened, bowing her like a physical weight.

The sharp click of heels upon the stone path approaching the pool area made her turn her head. Her gaze froze as she saw Lucia approaching her. What was she doing here? Every instinct told Magda her arrival was not happy.

‘Magda—I have bad news.’ The other woman’s voice was staccato, and for a second Magda bristled. Then, a second later, she realised Lucia was not being hostile—her face was stiff with shock.

‘Enrico has had a heart attack!’

A gasp escaped Magda, and she stood up from the shaded lounger, sliding Benji to his feet.

The other woman ploughed on. ‘He has been taken to hospital. Rafaello is with him. They do not know if he can live—’

She broke off with a choke.

Magda stood there, not knowing what to say. Oh, poor, poor Rafaello, she thought—what agony for him.

‘I’m so sorry,’ she heard herself say in a whisper. She took a breath, feeling helpless as she said it, but knowing she must, ‘Is there anything…anything I can do?’

Lucia looked at her. She nodded.

‘This is difficult for me to say.’ She paused, then went on, ‘I do not say this in enmity, you must understand that—but…’ She paused again, then continued, ‘The best thing you can do now is go.’

For a moment Magda thought she meant go to Rome, to Rafaello, and then, as if a knife were suddenly slicing into her heart, she realised that was not what his cousin meant.

The expression on Lucia’s face was troubled, and she seemed to find what she was saying uncomfortable.

‘Enrico needs Rafaello—and Rafaello needs Enrico. I once thought…’ She hesitated, then continued, ‘I once thought that the way to bring them together again was through Rafaello marrying me. I was mistaken. Rafaello merely saw it as his father’s ploy to control him—and he will not be controlled. You, of all people, know the ends he went to in order to escape being controlled by his father. But now—Enrico may die. He must make his peace with his son—and Rafaello with his father.’ She looked Magda straight in the eyes. ‘They cannot make their peace if you are still here. You must see that.’

The knife was still slicing through Magda’s heart. But through the pain she heard the inescapable logic of what Lucia was telling her.

‘I must be able to tell Enrico—if he still lives—that you are gone. Then he can make his peace with his son.’

The pain was so bad Magda did not know how she was bearing it. As if it were visible in her face, Lucia spoke again. Her voice was kinder this time.

‘I know it will be hard for you. You have fallen in love with my cousin. No, do not deny it—it was obvious from the start that you would do so. How could you not? To you Rafaello is like some prince out of a fairytale. But, though you will not thank me for saying so, he should not have awakened you with his kisses. While you were…as you were when you first came here…you were safe from him. But now…’ She sighed. ‘Oh, Rafaello does not understand—he never has. Girls have been falling in love with him all his life. He does not mean to be cruel, but he just does not see it happening.’ She gave a little shrug. ‘That was why I thought a marriage between us might work—I know him too well to fall in love with him, so he could never have hurt me.’