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The adrenaline was already fading before she reached the privacy of her room, having checked on Mattio and been assured by Rosa, who had an adjoining room to the nursery, that she would get up in the night if needed.
By the time Maya had closed the door it had gone completely. She could barely stand and she was shaking with anger.
She looked at the champagne in the silver bucket, the two glasses clearly ordered earlier before Samuele had got a better offer. Presumably he was somewhere celebrating his latest acquisition with someone else. A female someone else.
She walked across and picked up the bottle.
During the evening she had imagined, numerous times, the pleasure of throwing his ring in his face and walking away.
But the moment she had looked at the sleeping baby she’d known that was not an option open to her. The trouble was she’d made the mistake of equating great sex with caring, possibly even love. She shook her head at the extent of her own wilful stupidity.
She had allowed herself to believe that Samuele had started to care for her, that his tenderness in the bedroom and the closeness they enjoyed there had translated to them as a couple outside the bedroom too.
Well, tonight her self-deception had been revealed in all its horrific glory, and she only had herself to blame. She was convenient in bed; outside it, she was only there for Mattio. In fact, she was little more than a nanny with a ring.
Samuele fought his instinct to go straight to his room, but fortunately he almost immediately bumped into Diego.
The other man’s jaw dropped in shock. ‘What happened to you?’
Samuele dragged a hand across his hair to remove some of the excess moisture. ‘I fell into a river. Could you get me some dry clothes? I’ll get changed before I—’
‘Of course, of course...did you get the statues?’
‘Never actually got there,’ Samuele admitted, not adding that he’d got halfway there and turned back. With every mile he had driven the image of the expression on Maya’s face that had said she was far from fine hadn’t faded; it had got clearer, as had the excuses he had used to assuage his guilt.
Yes, the acquisition of those statues would finally give him closure over what his father had done, but at what cost? People broke promises every day, and yet he’d convinced himself he would be back in time, and that, even if he wasn’t, it would be good for Maya to face her fears.
Like you’re facing yours, had mocked his inner critic as the small pokes attacking his conscience had become a sharp knife blade.
Cursing, he had taken the return exit at the last moment and, ignoring the recalculations of the onboard satnav, he’d headed back to the city.
He’d almost made it too. He would have done, if he hadn’t glanced across at the exact moment that guy had climbed onto the railings of the bridge.
By the time he’d reached the foot of the bridge there had been quite an audience gathered. Several had been taking videos on their phones yet no one had been going near him.
‘Has someone called the police?’
‘An ambulance more like...’
‘Yes, I called them—and an ambulance.’
There was a communal gasp as the man tottered.
Samuele swore and began to climb the bank towards the pedestrian path across the bridge.
‘Keep back!’ the guy yelled hoarsely.
Hell, he looked so young! What could lead someone with their whole life ahead of them to a place like this? ‘Fine, I’m not coming nearer to you, but I’m afraid I can’t hear very well, so I’m just going to climb a bit higher.’ He put a hand up and vaulted onto the guard rail where the man stood, though still a good twenty feet away.
‘I’m not going to come any closer... My name is Samuele...and yours is...?’
‘Go away! I know what you’re trying to do!’
Which is more, Samuele thought wryly,than I do. It wasn’t really a matter of doing the right thing; it was more a matter of doing something. Something that hopefully didn’t make a bad situation even worse...
The thing was, he really thought that he was talking the man down, or at the very least injecting some level of calm into the situation, but it was the sound of a police siren that did it. One moment he was listening to Samuele tell him that he too had lost someone he loved very much and the next he had just launched himself off the bridge into the river below.
Samuele’s response had been less down to finely honed logic and more to a split-second instinct. He’d jumped in after him.
