Page 57 of Twisted Obsession

‘Enough,’ he demanded, and Serafina knowing, after all the years they had spent together, how to placate her husband, stopped. Secretly, though, she looked at me and waggling her eyebrows she grinned in conspiracy.

‘I thought as things were stable, and I had the qualifications needed, you would be happy and proud to let me teach music to deaf students, Salvatore?’ I looked at the smiling little boy stood holding his papa’s hand. Luca was five and partially deaf, but the apple of his papa’s eye. ‘You know how much Luca loves to listen to and play music.’ I had absolutely no guilt in using my trump card.

‘Why didn’t you say anything about it, Gi?’

I knew exactly why, but I wasn’t about to let him know the finer details about the appointment just yet. I was doing something for me. It had taken me seven years to find this sort of courage. But I knew I had questions to answer about myself. Ones that I needed the answers to, before I moved forward with my life.

‘What about your engagement, Gi?’ Salvatore questioned.

‘He will wait a while. If I’m lucky enough to be accepted, I’m only asking for a year. If he loves me like he says he does, he will surely wait a short time.’

‘I wouldn’t have waited.’

‘You are you, Salvatore.’ Serafina spoke again and folded herself closer to him and placed her hand on his chest.

‘He has already waited.’

‘It’s just a year, Salvatore.’ I lowered my voice as the baby I was holding in my arms eyelids began to flutter.

‘She hasn’t even read it yet, Jnr.’ Romeo teased our older brother as he spoke. He lifted the envelope and waved the manila paper in the air to grab everyone’s attention.

‘Read it to me please, Romeo.’

‘Drum roll please.’ Although his humour wasn’t received well by our older brother, Serafina and I smiled at him as we tried in vain to lighten the atmosphere. Romeo ripped open the envelope with gusto and pulled out the paper inside.

‘Dear Giovanna… blah, blah, blah. We are delighted to offer you the position…’ He stopped and looked between me and Salvatore.

‘Congratulations, Gi!’ Serafina practically squealed, without releasing her hold on Salvatore, having worked out many years before that she was the one who anchored him and stopped him from losing control.

‘What do you think, Salvatore?’ I whispered, as I ran a fingertip down baby Giovanna’s soft, pink cheek.

A cacophony of noise suddenly erupted from outside, and an untethered, three-year-old Matteo ran from his mama’s side to join in with whatever trouble his older brothers were creating. Salvatore handed Luca’s hand to Serafina and began to make a move back outside to sort out his sons and the unholy row young Salvatore and Alessandro were making. As he crossed the threshold he turned and looked back.

‘Congratulations, Gi. I’m very proud of you, like always. I will firstly need to check the security arrangements we would need for you in Rome, and you must check with your fiancé. If both things are found to be suitable, then and only then can you accept the position.’

‘Thank you.’ I smiled at him.

‘But, even if it’s all satisfactory, by this time next year, you will be married. Do I have your agreement on that?’

‘I want to be married, so that’s an easy promise to make.’

But first, I needed to check that I wasn’t still married.

Chapter Three

Giovanna

Although I’d visited Rome as a young girl with my parents, it was completely different living there. I’d been in the penthouse apartment Salvatore had bought, just off the Piazza Del Popolo, for a total of three weeks and couldn’t have been any more in love. The vibrance of the city was all-consuming. The hustle and bustle of the many tourists, each of them falling in love with the history and beauty of our capital, was addictive to watch.

Then, there were the students of the St. Cecilia Conservatory themselves. The previous two weeks I’d spent with them had been so satisfying. I loved all my nephews, but Luca, with his struggles, held a special place in my heart. I realised that helping other young people discover their musical talents, when others had written off any creative skills they might have, could possibly be the vocation I knew I’d been searching for.

It was the second week in June, the term was coming to a close and although Salvatore would have preferred for me to stay in Calabria until the start of the next school year in September, I had held my ground and fought to be here. The reasoning I’d given, was that I needed time to settle in and get to know my surroundings to give my best to my students, but truthfully, Ihad my eye on staying a while during the summer break. Sitting at the little café I’d already chosen as the place I always went to after my day’s work, I watched the children playing in the water from the small fountain nearby.

Rome not only offered me a job I was already convinced I was going to love, but it also extended its hand in an offer of a little time to become me and space to think. I already knew I missed my home, with its rugged coastline, and I missed my family, especially my eight nephews and nieces. But the very best and worst realisation was that, even though the last time I’d seen him was almost six years before, I still missed him, with every single beat of my heart.

It had been a sighting without words, but the depth of pain captured between us for those all too short seconds, I knew I would carry with me for the rest of my life. As was each of the phone calls I received. The ones I was convinced were from him. They only happened two, or maybe three times in any one year, but truthfully, I lived for them, and I knew I had to get the answers I needed to move forward, and to finally throw away the phone.

I sipped at my espresso, trying to swallow down the painful recollections as I once again relived those fraught few seconds that left me wondering all the years since. The last time I’d seen Dante had been a chance meeting.

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