Page 67 of The Fall Affair

“We don’t have to talk,” I said softly. “You can just let it out.”

Allegra threw her arms around my neck and did just that—crying and crying until all the weight she’d been carrying poured out. I held her tight, one hand tangled in her hair, the other across her back. Eventually, her sobs slowed, and her shoulders slumped.

I stroked her hair, waiting until she was ready.

“Thank you,” she whispered, lifting her face. Her eyes were red and swollen, yet they somehow smiled at me. “For letting me use your shirt as a tissue.”

I glanced down. Sure enough, the entire front of my shirt was damp and wrinkled. I pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead. “Anytime.”

She took a few shaky breaths before pulling back. “I decided to stick with my cover, pretend I was there for a business consultation. But she knew.”

“She knew who you were when you walked in?”

“I’m not sure. I don’t think so, not right at first. She sort of looked at me like maybe I was familiar, but then we went on with the meeting. At one point, she asked me what village the winery was in, and then later she asked for the address. I drew a blank on anywhere other than my grandmother’s, so I said Montepulciano and gave her the street address. I’m pretty sure that’s when she put the pieces together.” She shook her head. “But she let me keep going and finish up the meeting. I was at the door, about to leave, when she finally called me out.”

“Why do you think she waited?”

“I’m not sure. Maybe she didn’t know how to handle it either.”

I nodded.

“I asked her how she knew who I was, and she said she’d stalked me on social media a lot over the years. Apparently, she has always known of my existence.” Allegra looked down at her twisting hands and took a deep breath. “She didn’t hold back any details. They were together for six years.”

“Your father and her mother?”

She nodded. “They met in college and spent a semester together. I knew my dad did a study abroad and lived in Florence for a time. It was before my parents met. According to Camilla, they fell in love, and her mother had been planning to move to the U.S. after she graduated, but then he met someone else—my mom.”

“Did you know about that?”

“No, but I wouldn’t have expected to. I don’t know who my mom dated before my dad either.”

I nodded. “So things continued even after he met your mother?”

“No, not according to Camilla. She said it wasn’t until ten years later that they reconnected. Her mother was working in Florence and ran into my father on the street one night.”

“They just happened to run into each other?”

Allegra shrugged. “That’s what she said. And honestly, she was so brutally honest about everything else, I’m not sure she would’ve held back if there was more to it.” She stared out the car window before shaking her head. “They were together for six years after that. She told me about all the times he lied to my mother, all the hidden trips, the gifts he would bring to her and her mom.”

“If they were only together for six years, she couldn’t have been more than six when they split up. How would a child remember all that?”

“She said she didn’t know any of it until she got older and asked her mother for the truth about her father. She’d only remembered that he would come and stay for a while and then disappear for a long time again.” Allegra shook her head. “I’m four years older, so I do remember some of the trips he used to take. She said my dad told my mom his firm had opened an office in California, and I remember that. He used to go there all the time, on long trips. But apparently, there was never a West Coast office at all.”

I raked a hand through my hair. “Jesus, Allegra. You didn’t need to know all that.”

“Probably not. But I do anyway.” Tears welled in her eyes again. “I never imagined he’d had a six-year affair. I figured it was a one-night stand or something short-lived. A mistake. It’s so much worse that it was someone he cared for. He lived a dual life for years without my mother or me ever suspecting a thing. It makes me feel like I never knew my own family.”

Anger flared in my chest, aimed at her father and the betrayal he’d caused his incredible daughter to feel. Yet I kept my voice calm as I reached out and took her hand. “You don’t need to figure it out alone. I’m here.”

She looked over at me. “You have a way of knowing exactly what I need, like holding me tight when I cry or letting me talk your ear off. If you tell most people your problems, they want to give you advice. But you let me get it out, and you really listen.”

I smiled. “Do you remember when I told you that your grandmother always made me dinner on my birthday and gifted me with her wisdom?”

“Yeah?”

“The advice she gave me on my last birthday was, Smart men know that sometimes da best words to give an upset woman are no words at all.” Thinking back to that night under the loggia, I smiled. “I believe that sentence was followed with Why can’t men just shut da fuck up and listen once in a while?”

“She really was wise.” Allegra rested her head against my chest. “Thank you, Matteo. I don’t know what I would’ve done if I’d come here alone today.”