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‘Did you truly not see it?’ he asked, looking down at her with disbelief in his eyes.
‘How could I? How could I think such a miracle would happen to me?’ There was wonder in her voice.
He smiled, and his smile was an embrace. ‘You are my miracle, Magda. You and Benji. You crept into my heart, the pair of you, day by day, and now you are there for ever. My love for you was in my eyes, my touch.’ His expression changed. ‘Lucia saw it that day in Firenze—saw that we were in love with each other. And she knew she had found a way of revenging herself for my rejection of her. She determined to part us. So she came to you with that story of Enrico’s collapse—oh, yes, I got the truth out of her, spitting and snarling though she was by the time I managed it. Lies, every word of it.’
‘But…but the cheque? She gave me a cheque from you…’
A growl rasped from his throat. ‘A forgery! She had gone through my desk to find a chequebook before seeking you out. She knew it would convince you that I indeed wanted you to leave Italy right away.’ His face shadowed. ‘How could you believe her lies, cara?’
‘She played on my fears,’ said Magda achingly.
His mouth thinned. ‘Just as she played on my father’s obsession for a grandchild and my own obsession with the company. Trying to manipulate us all. Well—’ his voice hardened ‘—that is over now. I have warned her that if she ever tries to make trouble again I will press charges for fraud. But,’ he went on, his voice softening, ‘that cheque did give me the means of finding you at last.’
Magda stared, not understanding. He gave her a wry smile. ‘I stopped the cheque as a forgery, cara. My bank informed me the moment it was presented for payment, and at which bank. That’s how I traced you.’ His voice changed again. ‘You do not know what I have been through—every day has been an eternity without you.’
He pressed her hands so tightly that the pressure should have hurt. But she could feel no pain. Only a happiness so deep, so absolute that it consumed her very being. How could fairytales come true?
She looked at him, and all the love she had for him blazed from her eyes.
He kissed her again, in sweet possession, and she folded against him. As his arms wrapped around her, holding her so close she could feel his heart beating next to hers, one last doubt assailed her.
‘Rafaello?’ She lifted her face, eyes troubled.
He smoothed her hair. ‘Si?’
‘Your father—?’
‘—is perfectly well. I told you—Lucia lied to you.’
‘No—I meant—I…I don’t want to come between you.’
He brushed her brow with his lips.
‘You have brought us together—finally, after so many stupid, stubborn years.’
She looked at him questioningly.
‘When he saw my despair when I could not find you, my grief at losing you, something broke between us—that cruel, hard wall that had separated us for so long. You see…’ There was a catch in his voice as he went on, ‘I was reminding him of himself—fifteen years ago—when my mother died.’
She felt her hand clutch at him more tightly.
‘I didn’t know—’
‘Her death drove us apart. It shouldn’t have—but it did. I went…wild. I can see that now. And my father…he simply locked himself away inside himself. We both of us grieved—but we could not reach out to each other, father to son, to comfort each other. And once the wall was built between us, neither of us could undo it. Until now. It’s thanks to you, my beloved heart, that I have my father back as well.’
But still she was troubled. ‘He can’t want me—’
‘Si!’ He took a breath. ‘I told him, Magda—I told him everything about you. How you took a dying woman’s child to care for and love, how your loyalty to your friend, your love for a motherless child, made you put aside your own life, whatever it cost you. And he was as stricken with remorse as I was—he begs your forgiveness, cara. And he asks you if you will accept this, and wear it every day—for him and for me.’
He reached inside his pocket and drew out an antique ring box. There, inside, was a ring glistening with diamonds and sapphires.
‘It is the eternity ring my mother wore—my father gave it to her as a symbol of his undying love. And I give it to you—’ there was another catch in his voice and Magda’s throat tightened in response ‘—as a symbol of my undying love for you.’
He slipped it on her finger and the tears spilled out of her eyes.
