Although the rain offered a break to the city, they preferred to have a seat in the room inside the cafeteria. The scent of coffee and fresh pastry filled the room and pleased their senses as they came inside. The place had a few patrons seated at the tables, and they chose one that was on the far end of the room, where they could hope for some privacy and chat.
Nevertheless, they remained in silence for a while before one of them could find the way to express what was on their minds.
Willing to break the freezing silence between them, he turned his eyes at her. “Waking up in the room my mother prepared for me, gave me a strange feeling of what I’m also guilty for,” he said, keeping her hands in his own, collecting all the thoughts swirling in his brain since the previous day. “For all my life I considered my father an example to follow. I have been looking up to him as a role model. Not even the fact that he cheated on my mother and got divorced by her to date your mother helped me to see his true colors. His behavior toward my mother didn’t influence my opinion of him and the need to be not simply accepted but being appreciated became a priority. I needed him to be proud of me. I failed to understand he was mostly absorbed with his own life, which not necessarily included me.”
Irina remained silent allowing him to take out the bitterness and the feelings he kept inside himself for, perhaps, too long of a time.
Since she met Luciano, she could sense his frustration toward an absent father, who could find something better than spend his time with his son.
“I’m not blaming your mother for dating my father; she fell in love with him, and it wasn’t her duty to care about his relationship with me. I mostly blame myself for having been so blind and having decided to go and live with him, rather than moving away with my mother.”
There wasn’t a steady thought he could grab onto, the most important thing he considered was getting rid of the Police from his apartment and his life. His hands grabbed his head as if to avoid it from exploding.
“I do!” her voices filled with bitterness and resentment, toughened as she clenched her fist, squeezing Luciano’s fingers. “She said she loved him, but I know she was aiming to have an easy life and get out of that club.”
“What if they start suspecting me of his assassination?” He suddenly raised his head to look Irina in her eyes. “How am I going to defend myself from such an accusation?”
“Don’t think about it. They couldn’t possibly accuse you! Everybody knows how much you loved your father, everybody who knew anything about the relationship between you two...”
“...Could have said we were often arguing!” Luciano interrupted, bringing the family relationship into a more realistic perspective. “I’m almost certain our neighbor heard the times we were raising our voices against each other when he promised to spend the weekends with me, only to break his promises regularly. Everybody could testify my frustrations of being the last of his thoughts!”
“There isn’t any proof against you; there isn’t any proof against any of us. Did you have the chance to talk to the detective who’s taking care of the investigation?” She lowered her voice, glancing at the two girls who came to have a seat at the table close to theirs.
She turned to face him. “We need a proper place where to talk; a place where nobody can hear us.” Her whisper came as a breeze to his skin.
With a nod, and without having had the time to get a coffee, he stood from the chair, gently pulling her to follow him, and without saying another word to each other, they left the cafeteria.
“It’s not easy to find a good place where we can talk in private. I believe the best one is my mother’s apartment. I’m now living with her, and she’ll be at work until five. There, we won’t have anyone who can possibly hear us.” He wondered why he didn’t think about inviting her there before. That could have saved some time and the awkward feeling of being watched at every step.
They walked hand in hand to the parking lot of the University, where Luciano parked his car. A giggle escaped Irina as she noticed the utilitarian car he used.
For the first time, also his face brightened, “I would have loved taking the Lamborghini, but I predict we’ll have it back after a few months. The investigation of the forensic team might take some time to analyze all the traces. I hope they’ll return it in one piece.” He started up the engine and immersed himself in his thoughts.
“When was the last time you talked to your mother?” That sudden question interrupting the background noise of the engine reached her ears like the boom of thunder on a clear blue sky.
Almost wondering what he asked, she took a pause, “it was yesterday. The Police had already come to ask her questions about their relationship, and she was quite shaken. For now, they considered her the main suspect, except a random thief, or someone in his working environment who considered him an obstacle to his plans to be in charge of the firm.” She paused for a second, thinking about the possible suspects. “She doesn’t know I’m back in Italy; I simply called her yesterday with an excuse. I’m not going to come even close to her, as she begged me not to return here until things would be cleared. She is scared that my presence would make things difficult to explain.”
“This is going to get more
