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‘I’m so glad my father was well enough to ask for some of his things.’ Claudia’s voice right beside him jolted him out of his thoughts.
‘Yes.’ The single word was all he could manage, with the memory of his grandfather’s needless death fresh in his mind.
Claudia jumped eagerly out of the car and hurried up to the front door as if she couldn’t wait to get inside. He stood still, looking up at the traditional Piedmont property that until twelve years ago had been in his family for generations. It was a fine day and the majestic mountains in the north were clearly visible. They provided a never-changing, solid point of reference but, as he looked, nothing about the house, or the garden that was visible from his viewpoint, appeared to have changed.
And, as he stood there staring, a battery of other memories hammered through to the front of his mind. He felt every muscle in his body tighten.
The door opened almost before Claudia had reached it and Marco realised that someone inside must have seen the car approaching. An older lady appeared, presumably the housekeeper, and laughter and greetings followed. Then suddenly the friendly chatter ceased. Everything had gone silent.
‘Signor De Luca?’ The woman who had welcomed Claudia was staring at him as if she had seen a ghost.
‘I’m sorry,’ Claudia said, looking almost as startled as the older lady. ‘Let me introduce you. Rosa, this is Marco De Luca. He was kind enough to drive me out here from the city today.’
Marco studied the kindly-looking woman who was staring at him with her eyes as wide as saucers, and suddenly he realised who she was. Or rather where they had encountered each other before. She was one of the many people who had been employed by his parents to run the house, back when the estate had belonged to them.
‘Rosa—’ Marco stepped forward and surprised her by taking her hand ‘—how good to see you looking so well. How are you? And your sons? They must be grown up by now.’
‘Very well,’ Rosa stammered. ‘Everyone is well. Paolo, my oldest, is engaged to be married next year.’
‘Congratulations,’ Marco said. ‘I am sure you are very proud.’
He glanced at Claudia and saw that she was following the exchange with a bewildered expression.
‘Rosa used to work for my parents,’ Marco explained, watching her carefully to see her reaction.
‘But…Rosa, I thought you’d worked in this house since you were a young girl?’ Claudia said. Her cheeks were flushed and there was a mixture of confusion and disbelief on her face.
‘Si, that’s right,’ Rosa said. ‘Before you came here, the estate was owned by the De Luca family.’
For a moment Claudia forgot to breathe.
She stared at Marco, hoping to see some indication that this…this coincidence had been as much of a surprise to him as it had been to her. But there was nothing. No surprise. No awkwardness.
He had always known about this link between them.
‘Oh, my God!’ she cried. ‘You knew all along!’ She clapped her hand over her mouth and fled into the house. She ran instinctively to her father’s study and opened the window, gasping for air.
‘Don’t be so dramatic.’ She heard Marco’s scornful voice behind her and spun round in time to see him closing the door of the study. ‘You knew as well as I did about our little connection.’
‘Little connection!’ Claudia exclaimed. ‘We grew up in the same house! And, although you clearly knew that, you never saw fit to mention it to me.’
‘Why tell you something you already knew?’ Marco asked. ‘You obviously wanted to pretend that you were unaware of us—of Bianca, of me—of all of the people who were torn apart by the unscrupulous dealings of your family. At the time it suited my purpose to go along with that.’
‘I don’t know what you are talking about.’ Claudia stared at him with wide eyes, struggling to comprehend what was happening. ‘What unscrupulous dealings? What do you mean by torn apart?’
She couldn’t understand the accusations he seemed to be making. And, as she stared at his hostile expression, it felt as if she hardly recognised him. Had he truly believed such appalling things about her all the time they’d known each other?
‘You can give up the lies now,’ Marco grated. ‘You have nothing to gain by continuing to keep up the pretence.’
‘I haven’t been lying to you,’ Claudia said.
She was shocked to discover that her family had moved into the house that had once been the home of the De Lucas. It was hard to believe, but it must be true—after all, Rosa had confirmed it.
In that case, Claudia could understand why there might be hard feelings. But Marco seemed to be accusing her of something much worse. He really seemed to think that Bianca, and the rest of his family, had been deliberately hurt by her family.
‘There is no point in clinging to your petty fiction,’ Marco said. The disdain that dripped from his voice matched the expression on his hard face. ‘It’s time to move on from that now—get it all out in the open at last.’
‘Everything I’ve ever told you is true.’ Claudia felt her eyes fill with tears but she blinked them away and faced him squarely. ‘I trusted you with so many things—things that really mattered to me. And you repaid that trust with deception.’
