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We stayed there by his bedside for a while in absolute silence. Salvatore made no mention of what I’d just told the two of them.
‘Salvatore, I’m so sorry.’
He nodded that he’d heard me, but didn’t take his eyes off his grandfather. In a bid to bring him back to me I attempted to place his hand back onto my stomach.
‘No… not here.’ He shook his head at me. ‘Not now.’ He snatched his hand away and I was left feeling stunned and bereft by his actions.
Placing his arm over my shoulders, he pulled me tightly to him. But his hand hung loosely in the air. Then we were moving back through the corridors and out into the early evening sunshine. Without saying another word, he helped me into the car, fastened my seatbelt, deliberately not touching any part of me and slammed the door shut.
The car pulled away as suddenly as it had stopped. With the absence of his previous happiness and joviality when I’d told him I was carrying his child, I instinctively shielded the baby I was carrying. Making a pact inside my head to love our baby even if his papa couldn’t. Trapped in the pain filled stillness, and with grief developing inside my heart, I managed to shelve the rejection.
As the sun lowered in the sky, we tore back through the countryside. At last, our beach came up on the horizon and I took comfort from the view.
But instead of pulling up outside our front door Salvatore drove further around to the back of the villa, until we were at the steps that led down to our beach, to the sea.
‘I don’t understand.’ I released the words, as slowly an understanding of sorts swept over me.
‘I’ve marked you with blood before, Serafina.’ He got out of the car and moved around the front of the car to open my door. Once there he offered me his shirt covered arm.
‘You have,’ I agreed, as I took hold and got out of the car.
‘I won’t touch you or our children again with blood on my hands.’ Understanding swept through me. He hadn’t rejected us at all. He was, in his own way trying to protect us both.
‘The sea?’ I questioned.
He nodded and together in silence we descended to our beach. Where our lives together had first started and now where I knew we would carry on as the family we were always meant to be.
As we stood finally on the edge of the water, with the waves lapping soothingly at our feet, and with our eyes firmly fixed on each other’s, we slowly began to remove our clothing. We removed each item sensuously, and I relished watching him reveal himself to me. His body that he’d worked so hard for, every single muscle and undulation covered by a myriad of tattoos, all of which represented something in his life, came under my scrutiny. But it was so very much more than that. As he threw his clothes dramatically down onto the sand, I knew he was giving the whole of himself to me.
He was wordlessly letting me know I owned him, all of him.
Finally, the need to feel his bare flesh against mine became so all-consuming I threw away my underwear and stepped towards him.
He shook his head, not wanting me to carry on and I smiled in understanding. Taking a few steps further into the sea, Salvatore dived through the waves and stood up waist deep in the azure blue. He rubbed his hands over his arms, and it took only seconds for the blood he’d carried on his skin from the factory to wash away.
Then his eyes found mine and his hand extended towards me.
‘I love you, Salvatore Diavolo De Luca. I love you despite your past, I love you now in our present and I’ll love you in our future together.’
Clasping my hand, he pulled me towards him and after kissing the inside of my wrist, I came into the shelter of his arms. His hands came to either side of my face, then he stroked my cheekbones with his calloused thumbs as he held my gaze.
‘At last, I can accept your love.’ Tears fell instantly from my eyes as emotion overcame me. ‘And I want you to know that I love you too, Serafina. You are undoubtedly the best of me… I love you too, little one.’ One large hand left my face and gently caressed over the top of our almost imaginary baby bump. ‘I don’t deserve either of you, but I’ll fight for the rest of my life to prove myself worthy.’
With enough words spoken, his mouth captured mine and we got lost in each other’s arms. The sun set in the sky behind us and for a few wonderful hours the world around us drifted away.
THE END
