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‘You always thought your father was a saint,’ Jennifer said as she tossed back her drink in one swallow and then flung the glass on the table. ‘Even when he walked away from you for good.’ She turned around, her arms folded tightly against her chest. ‘You can’t prove anything. There’s no paper trail, nothing. Trust me on that.’
‘So you did do it,’ Allegra cried, tears streaking down her face. ‘How could you...?’
Jennifer pressed her lips together. ‘Your father kept me on very short purse strings.’
‘But why did Papa leave...?’
She looked away. ‘I told him if he made me leave he’d never see you again. He didn’t want to go through the courts, didn’t want the stain on his precious reputation. To have a criminal for a wife! He couldn’t bear it. And I thought... I thought he’d change his mind, if he couldn’t have you. I didn’t know he’d be so bloody stubborn.’
Allegra leaned back against the sofa cushions, her whole body weak and trembling with shock.
‘I never meant Vitali to be blamed the way he was,’ Jennifer said defensively. ‘I just suggested it once. I didn’t expect Vitali’s business to be ruined by it.’
‘You destroyed the life of an entire family,’ Allegra said, her voice shaking. ‘You have blood on your hands.’
‘Is it my fault that he chose to do that?’ Jennifer cried. ‘He didn’t have to.’
‘No, he didn’t,’ Rafael interjected quietly. To Allegra’s surprise he didn’t look as angry as she expected him to. He looked sad and resolute, and the surest rock upon which she could depend. He put his arm around her, drawing her close to him. ‘You are not to blame for his death,’ he said to Jennifer. ‘But you are a criminal all the same, and you know it.’
Jennifer’s eyes shot sparks as she lifted her chin and said nothing. ‘Tell me,’ Rafael said quietly. ‘Did Mancini ever try to contact Allegra?’
Jennifer looked as if she wasn’t going to answer. ‘There were letters,’ she said finally, and looked away.
Allegra let out a gasp. ‘Letters... Did you keep them? Why didn’t you show them to me?’
‘I could hardly do that,’ Jennifer dismissed. ‘You would have started asking questions. But I’m not completely heartless, you know.’ She pressed her lips together, and then she turned on her heel and walked out of the room.
Allegra pressed her cheek against Rafael’s chest and he put his arms around her. ‘How did you know...?’ she whispered.
‘I guessed.’
‘I never thought...never imagined...’
‘Maybe now you’ll find some answers.’
Allegra look up at him, her eyes wet with tears. ‘I already have, Rafael. With you. In you.’
A brief, trembling smile touched his lips and he rested his forehead against hers. Allegra closed her eyes.
‘I’m so sorry to interrupt this touching scene,’ Jennifer said. She tossed a packet of letters on the table in front of them and Allegra took them up, scanning the faded envelopes. There had to be at least a dozen.
‘We’ll go now,’ Rafael said, rising from the sofa.
‘Wait.’ Allegra touched his sleeve. ‘Don’t you have anything to say to Rafael?’ she demanded of her mother. ‘Do you know how much he has suffered? His family has suffered?’
Jennifer flinched a little but then pressed her lips together and said nothing. She wouldn’t admit any more guilt than she had to.
‘It doesn’t matter, Allegra,’ Rafael said quietly. ‘This isn’t about me.’
‘But it is—’
‘No.’ He cut her off with gentle firmness. ‘This was about you. You needed to hear this.’ He gestured to the letters. ‘You needed to see this.’ He tugged her up to standing, his gaze intent and full of—dared she believe it?—love. ‘And now we can truly move on.’
Moments later they were standing in front of her mother’s building, blinking in the bright sunlight. Allegra pressed her father’s letters to her chest as she shook her head in wonder.
