Guilt hits me like a punch in the gut. I haven’t told Josh very much about Italy and I didn’t tell him anything at all about the Ormanni family. Or Max’s problems. We usually share our innermost thoughts and worries, unless we’re trying to protect each other. Josh held back for a while about his work pressures because he didn’t want to worry me unnecessarily. He thought he could fix it. So why don’t I tell him about Max? Am I hiding it from him, or am I simply choosing not to involve him as it’s work-related, really?
‘You’ve gone very quiet.’
‘I’m having very complicated dreams at the moment. You know, when your thoughts get all mixed up and you wake up having to sort out what’s real from what isn’t.’
‘I’ve put you through a lot recently, Ellie. Things will settle down for all of us. But if any problems arise, please don’t feel you have to cope on your own. Let’s address them together. Promise?’
‘Promise.’ Josh is talking about our own family and so I feel I can reply with honesty. ‘And if you need me for anything, or just to talk, I’m available 24/7.’
‘See you later, alligator. Well, tomorrow, actually.’ His voice lifts.
‘In a while, crocodile. And drive carefully.’
I suddenly feel angry that fate is meddling in my life at a time when things aren’t settled. I’m happy to help anyone at any time, but why now? If things were normal here, of course I would be talking to Josh about the Ormanni’s. I mean, it’s a mystery and having been there and met the people, I’m sure he’d understand how I feel.
In the kitchen, I see that Hettie has already disappeared back upstairs and, much to Rosie’s annoyance, has taken the entire bag of pretzels with her.
‘It’s not fair, Mum. She never listens to me. I bet she’s texting her boyfriend again.’
It’s now an open secret, it seems. But we wouldn’t dare raise the topic if Hettie was still in the room.
‘It’s an age thing, pumpkin. In two years’ time you’ll be hiding yourself away and doing the same thing. Do you want to sit and watch a film together?’
Rosie’s eyes narrow. ‘Do you want us to watch a film together?’
Is there an echo in here? It wasn’t a trick question. And then I realise that she thinks I need her company because I’m lonely.
‘Only if you want to. If not, I’ll go up to the study and sort through my photos. I need to move them all into one folder, have a bit of a cull and then do a back-up. But I can do that any time, so if you want to do something together, I’m free.’
‘Well, I did have plans.’ She looks at me in a matter-of-fact way, as if weighing up the pros and cons of the situation.
‘Oh, plans, eh?’
‘I want to enter a short-story competition. It’s only a thousand words and there are three age groups. There will be a winner in each category and the prize is a gift voucher and a medal. My teacher says entries have to be in by tomorrow, so they can get sent off in time.’
Her little face is so serious. I’m thrilled she’s doing something that will stretch her mind and doesn’t involve playing computer games or watching the TV.
‘Sounds like fun. Will I get to read it before it’s sent off?’
‘Maybe yes, or maybe no.’
I pull two apples out of the fruit bowl and a small bar of chocolate from the drawer.
‘Here, you’ll probably need a little sugar boost to help the thought processes. Shout if you need anything.’
‘Thanks, Mum. Let me know if you are lonely, though.’
Josh and I are so lucky. I know Hettie is a bit distant and moody at the moment, but it could be a lot worse and Rosie, bless her, is still at the stage where she’s fairly easy to please.
It’s time to look at those photos. Josh only shared my desk for a couple of weeks and now all of my clutter is back out of the bottom drawer. Mostly it’s cuttings from home interior magazines, especially new trends. My involvement with design is certainly a big help now I’m in buying. Livvie relies upon me to keep putting fresh ideas in front of her that will excite the client. But everything revolves around being able to find a reliable source, at the right price.
Josh said my computer is creaking along and he hoped I was backing everything up, because one crash and I could lose everything. Now he’s working again I suspect he’ll talk me into an upgrade, so I’m going to back up the important stuff to a new external hard drive he bought for me, in readiness.
I plug in the iPad and connect the lead, ready to download the photos onto my desktop, when the FaceTime icon pops up. I smile, thinking Josh has forgotten something, then see that it’s Max’s name on the screen. I press the green accept button.
Nothing prepares me for the sensation that hits my stomach as Max’s face appears in front of me. He’s here and he’s real. This isn’t a dream. As my life goes on as normal, so Max’s life in Italy is being lived out as if we are in parallel realities.
‘Ellie, it’s good to see your face. Is this a bad time? You said after eight.’
I shake my head and raise a smile, willing my heartbeat to slow down.
‘No, it’s fine. The girls have settled down in their rooms and I probably won’t see them until morning now. Teenagers like their own space.’
He nods and I realise he expects me to continue. All I can think about is how good it is to see him and how tired he looks.
‘Emails are so cumbersome, aren’t they? I mean, the emotion is lost and it’s just a jumble of words. I always feel they should be short and to the point, when often it’s not easy to stop the flow. I’ve never been the sort of person to fit what they want to say into a 140-character Tweet.’
He laughs.
‘You Tweet?’
‘For the company, yes. We all take a turn. But not a lot gets said.’
He laughs again and it’s good to see, as he begins to feel more comfortable in this surreal setting.
‘So, where are you in the house?’ he asks.
‘This is the study. But it’s actually my study, because no one else really uses it. I keep all of my design stuff in here, as I often play around with mood boards and then take my ideas into the office.’
‘Am I stopping you from working?’
‘No, tonight I was going to begin sorting out my photos. One of those jobs that I keep meaning to get around to, but can’t quite find the motivation to tackle. So you are saving me from hours of weeding out, and deleting, those out-of-focus snaps I won’t even remember having taken. Where are you?’
He looks as if he’s sitting outside, so I’m surprised there aren’t people milling around.
‘I’m at the refinery, still. Most people have gone home but I’ve been catching up on paperwork. I like sitting here at the end of the day when it’s quiet. I’m in a little corner, tucked away and with a stunning view of the mountains in front of me.’
He raises his wine glass to me.
‘Give me one moment.’
I head out of the room and downstairs to the kitchen, returning with a glass of red wine.
Settling myself back in my seat I raise the glass to the screen and say, ‘Cheers.’
‘It’s like you’ve never been away.’ Max’s words have a sad ring to them.
‘Except for the rain. It’s awful here at the moment. A few low-lying areas have had flash floods.’
He grimaces. ‘Sorry to hear that. I’ll send some sunshine your way.’
‘So what’s been happening? You sound a little more optimistic and that’s nice to hear.’
Bella’s questions are whirling around inside my head. I just don’t know how to broach them.
‘I will admit I’ve had an awful time of it lately. As you so intuitively picked up when you were here. It’s hard sometimes. Something sparks a memory and it all comes flooding back. I can’t live in the past, I have too much to do in the present to keep everything going.’
‘How’s Trista?’
‘Taking the hotel from strength to strength. Her manage
rial skills reflect her character; she’s a strong woman who doesn’t give in easily. Nothing can dent her motivation, no matter what goes wrong. She’s unstoppable and she has one goal, which is to provide for the wider family around her. But she wears a mask and behind that is a lot of sadness and pain. Without Stefano she feels alone and isolated, but she should still have her daughter to help her through that.’
Max sounds angry and I can see that etched onto his face. Anger isn’t an emotion he’s ever displayed in front of me before and this is a real step forward. But I have to tread carefully.
‘Does Trista ever talk about Aletta?’
He’s staring into space and I have no doubt he’s replaying some incident in his head. The sound of my voice brings him back into the moment and he turns square on to the screen.
‘Not since the day of Stefano’s funeral and the family have taken their lead from her.’ His tone implies it’s only to be expected.
‘That can’t be good for her, Max, bottling up those feelings. Maybe she’s waiting for someone to let her know that no one expects her to keep holding back. Trista probably needs to step aside from her role as the head of the family and allow herself to simply be a mother whose daughter is missing. She’s a victim, too. When it first happened I assume everyone talked about it openly?’
Max has relaxed a little and his body language indicates I haven’t said anything he considers to be out of order.
‘Aletta left for London planning a five-day stay. It included a trip to some sort of trade show, she’d said, that was showcasing luxury and boutique hotels. But when the police investigated they could only find details of one exhibition fitting that description. Aletta was travelling a full month before it was due to begin.
‘When the police interviewed me they kept going over and over that point, seemingly convinced I was covering up the truth. She was my fiancée, and it was supposed to be a business trip. Obviously, they thought it was bizarre that I didn’t know the details of her itinerary. I had to agree it was odd, but for Aletta it was the norm. No one told her what to do, or when.’
‘But surely Trista would have said pretty much the same thing. It wasn’t as if you were the only one explaining her rather strange behaviour?’
‘Trista was watching her husband grow weaker by the day and the stress became almost unbearable. Her state of mind would have made her very difficult to question. You have to understand that it was also the year of the bad harvest and emotions were running high throughout the region. Locally, tough decisions were being made, as sons and daughters headed for the city hoping to get jobs and earn money to send back home. But everyone knew that if they succeeded they were unlikely to come back here to work, ever again. So it was a bitter-sweet solution that ended up tearing families apart. Trista was beside herself as the tension built up and up. That’s why she begged me to stay, because she couldn’t face what lay ahead. Everything she had ever known as a constant was being taken away from her, piece by piece.’
I sip my wine, hearing the despondency in Max’s words.
Then he adds, ‘Hey, I didn’t mean to suck the joy out of your evening. Bad things happen and yet people survive. The success of the cooperative is like a blood transfusion, putting life back into the community. And you are a real part of that!’
He smiles and those mysteriously deep, hazel eyes twinkle back at me. I feel myself blushing, but in the semi-darkness of the room, and with only the light from the screen, I don’t think Max can see that.
‘I’m glad some good came of my visit. As soon as I arrived I could feel the passion and the will to succeed running alongside a real fear of failure. Livvie’s business is in a strong position and going from strength to strength, so your order book should continue to grow. It means so much more to me, I suppose, because I’ve met some of the people and seen for myself the impact this will have on their lives. And their skills are matched by their determination to guarantee a future to hand down to their children. I know exactly why you couldn’t walk away, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a life of your own.’
Max stirs in his seat, readjusting his position. ‘You’ve seen the way things are here, Ellie, but what you didn’t witness was the doubters, or the damage that a scandal like this can do. Trust is quickly eroded away and slow to re-build. I’m in limbo and until the situation is resolved there are no options open to me. I have to sit and wait, but there’s more than enough to do to fill every hour of my day.’
With each sentence Max is filling in the gaps and as the picture begins to reveal itself I, too, can see it’s a hopeless situation to be in.
‘But if you could find someone to share your life with, then you could move out of the villa. That doesn’t stop you managing the Ormannis’ affairs, it would simply allow you to escape the constant pressure. You aren’t giving yourself a chance, Max.’
‘Maybe I feel the situation is partly my fault. I was so besotted with Aletta that I didn’t try to curb her unacceptable behaviour. If only I had challenged her; walked out, or something, then maybe she would have come to see reason. Trista and I had to work hard to keep everything from Stefano and look how it all ended. Imagine any woman walking into this situation now. Wouldn’t they always wonder if I’d had a hand in Aletta’s disappearance? Wonder if she pushed me once too often and I did the unthinkable? After all, what kind of a man doesn’t know exactly where his fiancée is going, because they hardly talk to each other any more? I guess the moral of this story is that sometimes what you want isn’t necessarily what’s good for you.’
‘It’s easy to be wise with hindsight, Max. Does it help to talk about it?’
He nods at the screen, raising his hand to sweep them over his eyes.
‘It does, actually. Anything that gives me a reprieve from this constant swirl of questions and scenarios that I can’t get out of my head whenever I’m alone. I imagine her being involved in a car accident, but realise even if she lost her memory her personal effects would confirm her identity. Or what if she was kidnapped and before they were able to ask for a ransom something awful and unexpected happened?
‘I feel she is no longer with us, but how, or why, remains a mystery. That’s something I would never admit to anyone else but you, Ellie. Aletta is gone; there, I’ve said it. You never once looked at me with that question in your eyes, even though you were a stranger and must have been shocked at what you were hearing.
‘And now it’s time I left you in peace. Please don’t go to bed with all of this running around inside your head. If you have to dream of Italy, then let it be about the view from the terrace. That earthy smell as the cool evening air brings with it the scent of the forests high above Castrovillari, or the rich perfume of the oleanders.’
He yawns and I think that maybe tonight, after finally unburdening himself, he will sink into a deep, untroubled sleep.
‘Nothing would please me more. Sleep well, Max.’
‘Thank you once again, Ellie, for your trust and for your friendship. Fino a quando ci incontriamo di nuovo.’
As I press the end call button I’m left with mixed feelings. Anger at Trista for what she did, and didn’t, do. Anger at the people who doubt Max’s innocence without a shred of evidence to support their hastily drawn conclusions. Anger at Max for accepting the situation he’s been forced into, but that’s accompanied by an overwhelming sense of respect.
I have no idea what Bella has discovered, but it must be something significant. Max seems unaware of it, of that I’m very sure. But what if some sort of evidence does exist, something that could shed light on the mystery that is trapping him there? What would Max do with his freedom, I wonder?
Checking on the girls, I find them both tucked up and sound asleep. I turn off Rosie’s TV and gently kiss her cheek. I have to ease out Hettie’s earphones, untangling her iPod, placing it under her pillow.
After a quick shower I sink, very gratefully, into bed. Italy is waiting for me in my dreams.
Chapter
24
We begin the day counting down the hours until Josh is home again. Tonight we are going to the cinema, so I’m taking the girls out for pizza first and we’ll pop back to collect Josh at around seven o’clock. We never used to plan our weekends with such precision, but it’s something we talk about each evening now, when we are all gathered around the iPad. It’s funny how habits are formed and we often wasted Friday evenings just lolling around and doing nothing in particular. That included constantly flicking around channels on the TV in an effort to find something everyone could agree on, which rarely happened.
Josh has arranged for the two of us to go and look at some cars tomorrow. So Hettie is going to Charlotte’s house and her mum will take them to their ice-skating lesson. Rosie will be spending the day with her friend, Alice, and in the afternoon they are going to a friend’s birthday party.
The plan is that Josh and I will grab some lunch out, in between test drives. He’s worried that my old car will break down when he’s not around and leave us stranded. I told him I was sure it would last a while longer, but he was adamant. The girls love his new company car because it has all of the latest gadgets and, parked alongside, my old, well-loved Mini just looks well-worn. He has a point, I know that, but I begrudge what I see as the waste of a day.
But, first things first. I drop the girls off and head into work. Livvie is bursting to tell me some good news.
‘I had dinner last night with Richard Dale. The rumours about his latest acquisition are true. It’s costing him four and a half million, so you can imagine the size of the budget for the refurbishment contract.’
The Secrets of Villa Rosso Page 14