Modern Romance July 2015 Books 5-8. Louise Fuller

then I am meeting with Matteo.’

      He didn’t want to go in.

      He didn’t want to see just how poor his father had kept them.

      ‘I might go for a walk,’ Bella said. ‘I would like to look at my old home, even if there are other people living there...’

      Sophie looked at Luka but he gave her a slight shake of his head and pulled her aside. ‘I haven’t told everyone what I am doing. I don’t want anyone feeling beholden. My lawyer will contact people once I’ve gone. Bella will find out soon enough that she has a home.’

      Thank God for the nurse, because she took an exhausted, overwrought Paulo to his room for some oxygen and medication.

      ‘It is your last day as a single woman,’ Paulo wheezed. ‘You should go out with Bella.’

      ‘I’m just happy to be home.’

      Sophie was. Though it felt so strange to be back.

      Happy her father was settled, she set to work. There was a lot to be done and also there was Teresa to pay.

      She walked into town, trying not to look up. She didn’t want to see Malvolio’s home spreading out over the top of the hill.

      She didn’t want to glimpse the bedroom where she and Luka had first made love and she averted her eyes as she passed the church where tomorrow he would leave her standing.

      Sophie walked into Teresa’s deli and, just as they had the last time she’d done so, the people in the deli fell silent. Angela was there, chatting with Teresa and a couple of other locals, and Sophie felt her cheeks turn to fire as she stepped up to the counter.

      ‘I’ve come to pay for the catering for the wedding tomorrow.’

      ‘Gratuitamente,’ Teresa said, and Sophie was about to slam the money down, as she had all those years ago, but she chose not to.

      She was older and wiser now, even if she’d prefer not to be at times.

      ‘Teresa, I know it must be difficult for you to know that my father is back. He just wants to see Luka and I marry...’ Just as Sophie always did, she held back her tears. ‘That is all we are here for, to give my father some peace in his final days. Soon we’ll be gone and out of your lives for good.’

      ‘Sophie?’ Angela asked. ‘How is Paulo?’

      ‘He’s weak. He just wants to be home and to see me married.’ She put down the money. ‘We don’t want any trouble.’

      She walked out of the deli. A part of Sophie wanted to go to the beach, to sit there a while and remember days when life had seemed so much simpler, but instead she made her way home.

      Bella was back from her walk and busy finishing off the dress, and Sophie dealt with the flowers and cleaning the house, as she had done so many times before. But then Paulo awoke and declared that he wanted to visit his wife’s grave.

      It was a long slow walk to the hill.

      And agony to walk back down.

      Spare me from your grief, she wanted to plead to her father as the nurse took him, weeping, to bed.

      ‘Another walk?’ Sophie smiled as Bella again headed out with a full face of make-up.

      ‘Who knows who I might bump into?’ Bella smiled.

      Almost the moment she left there was a knock at the door and, no, it wasn’t Bella to recheck her make-up, it was the priest.

      ‘Do you want to let your father know I am here?’

      Sophie nodded.

      He looked so tired when she went into his room and Sophie knew then that tomorrow might not be the embarrassment she was dreading. Luka had been right. The journey, no matter how luxurious, had depleted him and visiting Rosa seemed to have taken the last of his strength.

      ‘The priest is here,’ Sophie said. ‘Do you want me to send him through?’

      ‘Please.’

      She went out to the garden and lay on a sun lounger and tried not to think of what was happening. Her heart seemed to still as she felt a shadow fall over her and she looked up into the strained features of Luka.

      ‘You’re crying.’

      ‘No,’ Sophie corrected, ‘because I never cry. I don’t think I know how to. I’m just tired.’ She looked up into navy eyes. ‘The priest is in with my father. He is making his confession. I would expect him to be some considerable time.’

      He sat down by her knees on the sun lounger but she shrank away.

      ‘Please, don’t be a hypocrite,’ Sophie said. ‘Don’t offer me your arms and then remove them tomorrow. I’m drained, Luka. I’m tired of being a parent to my father. I’m exhausted from absorbing his tears so I’m going to sit and watch the sunset and then I’ll get up and put on my green dress, as per tradition, for a Sicilian bride on the eve of her wedding.’

      ‘About tomorrow—’

      ‘I’m not even thinking about tomorrow, Luka,’ she interrupted. ‘The day will bring what it shall bring and I’ll survive it.’ She looked up as the priest came out and stood to see him out.

      ‘He’s made his confession.’

      Luka heard the priest’s reedy voice as Sophie saw him out.

      It was, Luka knew, time for him to make his confession.

      Just not to Sophie.

      * * *

      Paulo was sitting in bed, holding his rosary beads and a picture of Rosa, but he turned and smiled as Luka made his way over and joined him.

      ‘Is it good to be home?’ Luka asked.

      ‘It is,’ Paulo said. ‘I have made my confessions. Most of them anyway.’ He looked at Luka. ‘How long will you two pretend to be together for? Till after my funeral?’

      ‘What are you talking about, Paulo?’

      ‘I’m not a fool. I’ve always known that Sophie was lying to me. I knew, with what you said about her in court, that you were over before you even started.’

      ‘She doesn’t forgive easily.’

      ‘She is like Rosa.’ Paulo smiled. ‘Even if I believed at first you were together, we do see the news in prison. I’ve read about your affairs and your scandals. I’ve seen the many beautiful women that you’ve dated.’

      ‘You went along with it?’ Luka frowned as he sat on the edge of the bed.

      ‘She thought it made me happy knowing she was being taken care of.’

      ‘Yet here you are you are. pushing for us to get married, even though you know it is a ruse. Why?’

      ‘Because for all the mistakes I have made in my life, that wasn’t one of them. You two are right for each other. I hoped that maybe being forced to spend time together you both might see that. It didn’t work though.’

      ‘No,’ Luka admitted.

      ‘It’s time to be honest,’ Paulo said. ‘Now, while we still have time to be.’

      Luka gave a small nod.

      ‘You paid people a lot of money to work on my case these past months. What happened to make you suddenly want my release?’

      ‘I always thought you were weak,’ Luka admitted. ‘I saw you as my father’s yes-man but then I found something and I realised then that you had been protecting the person you love most.’ He went into his pocket and handed Paulo the cross and chain. ‘I found this amongst my father’s things.’

      Paulo let out a small cry as he took his beloved wife’s cross and chain and pressed it to his