“Now, please. Take me away from my past. From here on, I only want my future.”

Matthew grinned and started the car. “With pleasure, baby.”

But before we could leave, there was a quick rap on my window. I jumped, and we turned back to find Rosina standing there, gesturing for me to roll it down.

“Hello,” I said. “Is everything okay?”

She looked unsure, harried, as if she had run out without telling Lucrezia.

“There is something more…I think you should know,” she said. “Lucrezia doesn’t want me to say, but she is wrong.”

I frowned. “What is it? You can tell me.”

“My father. Do you know how he died?”

A sharp ripple of something etched up my spine. “I—it was heart failure, wasn’t it?”

Rosina nodded. “That is what the doctors said. I was only eleven, so I only knew from my mother. But when I got older…well, I am in medical school now. I looked at the autopsy report.” She sighed. “And there were significant amounts of poison in his system. Not enough to be an overdose immediately, but later, to mimic a heart failure. No one would have known if my mother had not insisted on the autopsy.”

I pressed a hand to my chest. “I hadn’t known that. My God.”

“My mother, she told me later. There was an investigation. The university said a man visited him in his office. But they never found him. And…there was an alibi for him, I think.”

Beside me, tension radiated off Matthew’s entire body. I could hardly breathe.

“What happened with it?” Matthew asked. “Is the investigation closed?”

The girl shrugged. “Unsolved, they said. My mother said we should move on, that Babbo was maybe just an addict. Maybe she thought one of you gave him this drug. But I never stopped thinking about it. I was young…but I don’t think my father was an addict. I wondered if maybe you knew.”

She looked directly at me, her dark gaze unwavering. The question was clear: Had I known about her father’s drug problem? Was I, the impetuous student with apparently no moral compass, perhaps responsible for it?

I cleared my throat. “I—no, Rosina. I never knew Giuseppe to do any sort of illegal substance.”

She gave me a hard stare for a moment more, then finally stood up, seemingly satisfied.

“That’s what I thought,” she said. “And that’s all I know.” Then she glanced over the car, noticing for the first time its expensive make. It’s apparent wealth. “Goodbye, Nina.”

I raised a hand in farewell, startled at the sound of my name issuing from her mouth. Maybe because she looked so much like her father. It felt like Giuseppe himself was the one wishing me farewell.

“Goodbye, Rosina,” I said. “And good luck with the farm.”

Chapter Seventeen

Matthew

Nina was quiet for the entire drive back to Florence. This time, I didn’t press her to talk, sensing she needed a minute to process. It’s not every day you introduce yourself to the daughters of your married former lover. Most people would rather jump off a moving train.

I was proud of her. I was. She looked her mistakes in the eye and took it on the chin like a champ. But I couldn’t lie to myself either. Seeing that farm and the way Nina’s gaze traced lovingly over its worn interior and admittedly picturesque grounds, sick trees and all? Listening to her all but offer to buy the damn place, to keep that part of her life forever? It was hard. More than hard.

I had my own relationship with this country. With Naples, and parts of Rome, where my grandmother was from, and Sicily, where I was stationed. Before today, I’d dreamed countless times of visiting the land of my ancestors with the woman I loved, sharing in its culture and history with her, making the kinds of bonds that last a lifetime, all swimming in what Italians called la dolce vita: the sweet life.

But today made me want to get the hell out of Italy. Take Nina someplace else. But not back to New York either. Somewhere we could start fresh. Where we could maybe lose the ghosts of our pasts and get a real chance at a future together.

Jobs. Family. Secrets. None of that seemed to matter to me anymore. All I wanted was freedom. For her. For me. For us, together.

But here she wanted to anchor herself to those ghosts for Olivia’s sake.

Or maybe her own?

I shook off the idea. It was jealousy, plain and simple. Nothing more.

Still. She was the one who brought up secrets on the way to the farm and asked for mine without offering any of hers. And while I still believed everyone had rights to their own, it did make me wonder what she might be hiding. I wanted to believe the time for secrets between Nina and me had passed, but I wasn’t a fool. I’d hurt her. She had plenty of reason to hold things back.

So it wasn’t a huge surprise when we reached the pensione, and Nina dawdled a minute outside the two rooms we had paid for—one of them still completely unused. Then she asked quietly if she could have some time to herself.

I tipped my head. “You sure, doll? You don’t have to be alone if you don’t want.”

Nina nodded. “I’m sure.”

She fingered the edges of my jacket for a moment like she was considering pulling me close. But then she released them.

Part of me wanted to fight it. Wanted to wrap my arms around her and make her accept that she had a partner whether she wanted one or not. But that’s not partnership. That’s force. I’d decided back in December that I would do whatever I could to show Nina I wasn’t going anywhere. That if she needed a champion, she had me. On her terms, not just mine.

And right now, Nina needed some space. Well, that was all right. I had some questions of my own that needed answering.

“I’m going to walk, then,” I said as I delivered a quick kiss to

Добавить отзыв
ВСЕ ОТЗЫВЫ О КНИГЕ В ИЗБРАННОЕ

0

Вы можете отметить интересные вам фрагменты текста, которые будут доступны по уникальной ссылке в адресной строке браузера.

Отметить Добавить цитату