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‘How can we work things out?’ she sobbed. ‘You don’t need me any more. You never needed me.’
‘Of course I need you!’ Vito exclaimed. ‘I’ve always needed you. From the very first time we talked I knew I had to make you part of my life.’
He cupped her face and looked at her puzzled expression. She’d stopped crying and was looking at him in confusion.
At that moment it hit him.
Like a punch in the solar plexus, he suddenly knew the truth.
He loved her.
He’d always loved her. That was why her pregnancy had hurt him so deeply, why he’d forced her to marry him, and why the thought of letting her go now was grinding into him like a steel bar.
He let his breath out with a whoosh, and smiled at her.
Love. That must be causing this ground-rush of emotions that was rising up to meet him as the clouds of doubt fell away, finally revealing the woman he loved.
‘What?’ she whispered, looking anxiously into his face. ‘What is it?’
‘I love you,’ he said.
‘But…’ Lily stared at him in disbelief. Where had that suddenly come from? A moment ago he’d said he planned to divorce her—which she’d expected, now he had finally accepted he was not infertile.
So why had he said he loved her? Had she even heard correctly?
‘I love you!’ he said, hauling her into his arms and nearly crushing her with his exuberance. ‘Oh, my God! Why have I only just realised it?’
‘It can’t be true,’ Lily said. She couldn’t let her hopes be raised. It must be guilt for what he’d put her through making him momentarily lose his common sense.
‘It is true,’ Vito said, cupping her face with gentle hands again and looking deeply into her eyes. ‘I’ve never said anything more true in my life.’
‘But…’ Lily didn’t know what to say. She looked deep into his sky-blue eyes, trying to suppress the tingle of excitement that was bubbling inside her. It was what she’d yearned to hear for such a long time that she hardly dared to believe it. ‘Why are you saying this now?’
‘I only just realised,’ Vito said. ‘I think I was so closed off to my feelings that it took me a long time to realise the truth. Even though it was staring me in the face all the time.’
‘What do you mean?’ Lily asked.
‘Back before Easter, when you went to the doctor with your stomach bug,’ Vito said. ‘I was so worried about you.’
‘I remember you waiting for me,’ Lily said, thinking about the black cashmere sweater she had tossed into the canal.
‘You came home looking white as a sheet, and I thought something might be seriously wrong with you.’ Vito took a breath. ‘I couldn’t bear that thought. It cut me like knife.’
‘I didn’t know that,’ Lily said. ‘But I remember how kind you were to me. Until…’
‘Until I lost my mind with jealousy,’ Vito said. ‘I couldn’t bear the thought of you with another man. I think I lost my reason for a while.’
Lily gazed at him, the lines of his distress clearly etched onto his face.
‘It’s all right,’ she said. ‘It turned out all right.’
‘Thank God for Luigi,’ Vito said. ‘And for your friend Anna.’
‘I would have been okay,’ she said. ‘I don’t need someone to look after me.’
‘I know,’ he said seriously. ‘You are the strongest person I know. When I think how you dealt with all the appalling difficulties I threw your way…I’m sorry.’
‘Please, stop saying that,’ Lily said, placing the flat of her palm against his chest. She could feel his heart beating beneath her hand, and the power of its rhythm gave her hope. ‘We can’t turn back the clock. Let’s go forwards.’
