AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘What?’
‘Whatever you think of menow, can you please for a moment rememberthen? We used to speak about this...dream of this.’
‘No,youdid.’
‘Dante, we would sit in the cemetery or lie by the river...’ Her breath hitched as she recalled their innocence and lying by the river like two fat starfish, holding hands and deciding who their family might be. ‘I was there at the beginning. Please let me know how it ended.’
He never discussed such things, but it was her dream, he knew. Hours and days they had spent together as she anticipated the moment she’d find her parents, or he’d meet his father.
Well, it had been Alicia’s game that they’d played, and so he would tell her a little more.
‘Very well, it was...’ He searched for the right words. ‘Conditional, I guess.’
She shook her head, not understanding.
‘I didn’t really trust him.’
‘You don’t trust anyone.’
‘I’m aware of that, and so I tried. But I’m not very good at being grateful.’
‘I can imagine.’
‘There had to be compromises made from the start—some I wasn’t comfortable with...’ He took a drink of his wine and watched as so, too, did Alicia. In fact she even pushed her half-eaten food away.
‘What sort of compromises?’ she asked.
‘What if I told you that my father asked me to take his name?’
‘So?’ Alicia shrugged. ‘I’d take my parents’ name in a heartbeat. I’d be so happy...’
‘Well...’ he gave a grim smile ‘...for what it’s worth I would be sorry to hear you were no longer Alicia Domenica.’ He said it with a sincerity that elicited his own surprise, given it came from someone so cold. ‘And you would now be sitting opposite Dante Ricci.’
‘No...’ Alicia frowned, for that was not the man who sneaked into her wildest dreams. ‘You’re Dante Schininà.’
‘I told my father the same,’ Dante said. ‘For all her faults, my mother at least made some sloppy effort to take care of me the first few years and gave me her name.’
‘She did,’ Alicia agreed. ‘What other compromises?’
‘I have an older half-brother, Matteo, and my father has a wife Giustina...’
‘Your stepmother?’
‘There are no steps to her ever being my mother. However, she is his wife. My motherwasthe localpoutana, Alicia.’
‘Oh, yes.’ She guessed that would take some explaining! ‘Remember when I thought she was a beekeeper?’
For the first time he actually smiled.
It felt like a victory.
Growing up, Alicia had thought Dante smiled easily. It had only been when she’d seen him with others that she had realised what a rarity that smile actually was. So beautiful, though, to see that full sulky mouth spread and the reward of his white teeth, and sometimes...just sometimes...there was the greater reward of his laugh.
‘So, how did he explain you to his wife?’
‘Death can be kind to those left behind.’ Dante shrugged. ‘It allowed my mother to go down in his history as a long-time lover.’
‘And Giustina was okay with that?’
