‘No, especially at short notice when we wouldn’t get the best price. In the end, I had to split the proceeds with him forty/sixty. It made an already uncomfortable situation with your mum even worse.’
I remember the year or so after Dad’s return from a solo trip to Cyprus how frosty Mum was with him. I was terrified it would end in divorce.
‘That was incredibly generous of you – brave, too.’
Tears well in his eyes, but his voice doesn’t break. ‘Nella, you know I love you and all my children, but there was never a choice. You don’t ignore that sort of violence. Not if you can do something about it. My father used to hit my mother. Maybe it wasn’t as bad as what Giovanni put his family through, but it was terrible all the same.
‘I was so helpless as a boy – I couldn’t do anything about it, so I knew that if there was something I could do now, so another son and another mother didn’t have to go through what we did, I would give my right arm to stop it.’
‘I had no idea Granny Maria had been through that.’
‘It was a different time then. People didn’t talk about it, even when it was happening right under their noses. Anyway, at least my father died young – too much drinking and smoking. It was the best thing that happened to us.’ He swallows back a tear. ‘Having a violent father doesn’t make a boy violent. It makes him realise how important it is to do everything he can to defend those who can’t defend themselves. When I see how Mark has flourished, I feel so proud. He needed someone to give him a chance and he grabbed it with both hands.’
I’m properly crying now, I can barely see anything. I get up and wrap Dad in a huge hug.
We both sob, but I’m conscious not to press too hard on him and break open his stitches.
I pull a couple of tissues from the box next to his bed and give him one. Then wipe away my own tears.
He holds his finger up. ‘I haven’t finished.’
‘There’s more?’
‘Mark wants to pay me back, but I’ve told him it’s not his debt to repay. And besides, it was never a loan. It was a gift. He tried to give me a cheque but I wouldn’t touch it. He says one day he’ll convince me, but in the meantime he is being very sneaky and paying for other things. He paid for our anniversary dinner and that villa you all stayed at in Cyprus. Yan’s flight, too, I think.’
Fresh tears fill my eyes. ‘Oh, bloody hell, Dad.’
This time, he lets the swearing go.
‘I hate it when your mother says Mark is like his father. He isnot– he has decency and honour.’
‘I think he learnt that from you, Dad.’
‘I would be very proud to call him my son.’
‘Not Mum, though,’ I say.
‘Your mother saw her friend duped by a terrible husband – she wouldn’t want the same thing to happen to her daughter. It’s oneof the reasons she pushed you towards Leo. She didn’t want your head turned by Mark.’ He pauses, before continuing. ‘My dad was the villagebalikari– the local heart-throb. That’s why your gran and mum always tell you to beware of good-looking boys.’
‘Is that why mum says she married you because you look like the back-end of a donkey? She doesn’t mean it as an insult.’
Dad chuckles. ‘No, not the back-end of a donkey – thefaceof a donkey. I don’t mind. I happen to think donkeys are beautiful.’
‘Me, too, Dad. Me, too.’
Chapter 50
My mind is reeling as I leave the hospital. Dad did all that? He risked financial security and possibly his marriage because he couldn’t stand by and watch a brute destroy other people’s lives.
And he lived through violence himself, as did Granny Maria. I’m shocked that I had no idea.
On the bus on the way home, all I can think about is what an amazing thing my dad did. And yet, I’m not even that surprised. Dad is amazing. Mum is, too. I get she wanted that financial cushion for her kids, not for a new kitchen or a loft conversion, even though Tig and I moaned for years about sharing a bedroom.
And Mark. Jesus, what a weight to have carried. No wonder he was so adamant he didn’t want any thanks. I get it now. My family stepped up when no one else did. And he’s never forgotten it.
My phone rings as I get off the bus.
I smile when I see the name.
