Page 60 of Twisted Obsession

‘I knew you would.’ Mia nodded at me. ‘What’s your favourite place?’

‘The Pantheon.’

‘Fantastic, it was one of mine too.’

‘How are the students?’ Serafina enquired.

‘They are…’ I lifted my hands in a bid to find the right words. ‘Talented, surprising, hard-working, and so very creative.’

‘You’ve found your place, Gi. It’s an amazing feeling when that happens.’ I understood she too had found hers, with the voluntary work she still did at our local hospice.

‘It is,’ I agreed. ‘I just wish I had a bit more freedom.’

‘It’s to keep you safe, Gi,’ Serafina insisted.

‘I know. I’m trying not to be ungrateful…’

‘But?’ Mia pushed.

‘Well, it’s the end of term here this week coming, and I’d like to stay in Rome a while.’

‘Okay.’ I watched as Serafina bit into the side of her cheek the way she always did when she was uncomfortable.

‘Why?’ Mia questioned.

‘You two have your mama, and she’s wonderful.’ I raised my eyes back to theirs after looking down for a few seconds. ‘The last we heard of my mama was that she’d married into a Greek shipping family.’

‘She did. The Aritis?’ Serafina recalled.

‘That’s right.’ I nodded at them. ‘She married Peter Ariti. Now, I know she wasn’t much of a parent, but when you’ve only got one left, it makes you wonder if you could have worked harder at having a relationship with them.’

‘It must be hard,’ Mia sympathised. ‘I know how we all felt nearly losing Papa all those years ago.’

Serafina sighed loudly as she listened to Mia.

‘Once it came to light just how… well, how awful my papa was, it’s made me think about how that could have affected her?’

‘What’s going on, Gi?’

‘I need help,’ I whispered and watched the two of them lean as near to the screen as their pregnancies would allow.

‘I know Mama resides some of her time here in Rome and I’d like to contact her. I don’t want to upset Salvatore. I don’t want him to think badly of me, as though I’m going against his wishes… not again.’ I shook my head. ‘But I wondered if you could talk to him for me, Serafina? Could you plead my case and get him to give me permission to stay here a few weeks, and his blessing to go and see her?’

‘Wow! I didn’t see that coming,’ Mia exclaimed.

‘Is that all of it, Gi?’ Serafina stared intently at me, knowing full well even before I’d answered her that there was something else going on.

‘No.’ I hung my head, suddenly ashamed of what I’d very nearly tricked her into. ‘It’s just…’

‘Yes. It’s justwhatexactly?’

‘I’m twenty-seven years old. By June next year I’ll be married,again.’ I let the last word hang between us for a few seconds. ‘I’ll never get this freedom another time. Peter Ariti is a shipping magnate. When the heat becomes too much here in Rome he comes by and picks up his fashionista of a wife and together they sail around the Mediterranean for a few weeks. Or at least that’s what all the fashion magazines report.’

‘You want to go on holiday with her?’ Mia asked, looking at me in confusion. ‘You don’t even know if you like her.’

‘Possibly.’ I shrugged as I tried to navigate one of the most difficult conversations I’d ever had, and I’d had a few in my life. ‘I love the two of you as though you were my own flesh and blood, but you both know that your lives, however wonderful with your children and husbands, have next to no freedom to do anything else.’

‘It’s the way we live, Gi.’

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