Page 92 of Twisted Obsession

‘I agree wholeheartedly, Lorenzo,’ I heard her answer him and had no idea what it was they’d been saying. But having never heard her agree wholeheartedly with anyone except herself, let alone a near stranger, I was convinced it had been what Nonno meant, my head was screaming at me that I was in danger. Dropping the wet towel from my head and turning away from her, I grabbed at my brush and began to brush through my hair as I looked out to sea. Malta was beginning to shrink against the horizon, leaving only one boat anywhere near us. Realisation of just where I was, and who I was with, made me feel very alone.

‘You’ll make a spectacular autumn bride, Giovanna.’ My mama spoke again, and I quickly established she had said something that required me to talk.

‘Yes, autumn in Calabria would be lovely.’ I turned and smiled back a response, hoping it fooled her and Lorenzo.

‘Or we could do a late summer/early autumn wedding in Rome?’ my mama informed me.

‘Rome?’ I could hear the shock in my voice and knew it would be replicated on my face.

‘I’d want to attend, and I’m banished from Calabria… remember?’ All at once, the sweet and sickly smile she’d been moving around my stateroom wearing slipped and I saw her,I mean… really saw her. For a few seconds, she became the woman I remembered from my childhood. Spite overtook her features as though she couldn’t or no longer wanted to contain it anymore. Before, just as easily, she righted her expression, leaving me doubting what I thought I’d just seen.

‘It sounds lovely, and I know Rome is very beautiful, but Salvatore as head of the family wouldn’t allow it.’ I tried to reason and not to argue, not wanting to see the side of her I knew had terrified me since I was little. ‘What do you think, Lorenzo? I spoke once again into the phone I was holding away from my face, and as I did a message flashed up.

“I miss you already.” It wasn’t signed by anyone, but her phone named the contact as Ricco.

Ricco?I only knew one Ricco, and he was Nonno’s Ricco?

What on earth?

Thinking, I recollected that he too had gone to Malta to work for the family a few years after Nonno had died. If he missed her already, it could only mean one thing. She had seen him while we were there. Did Peter know she’d spent time with another man? And did Salvatore know he still saw a woman his Don had banished?

Of course, Salvatore didn’t. Peter, I was unsure of.

What on earth is going on?

As I tried to make sense of just what was happening, my head began to hurt with the dehydration I’d inflicted on it. My heart began to pound as it entered the fight or flight mode, even though I knew I couldn’t do either, and my body went onto high alert, as adrenalin flooded my system. My limbs were beginning to shake as I fought so hard to keep my fear under wraps.

‘I’ll marry you wherever I’m ordered to.’ I heard Lorenzo speak and wished I could have seen my fiancé’s face as he’d replied, because now I was wondering just who he was taking his orders from.

In my head, I once again replayed smashing up the phone Dante had given me on the hardwood of his stateroom floor. I had never contacted him in all the time we’d been apart, but I had been comforted from knowing that if ever I was in real trouble, I could call him to ask for help. Carrying it with me all those years made me feel we were still connected. Now it was gone, and I was once again alone. Only this time I was terrified for my life, not the restrictions my family had put on it.

Stop it, Giovanna. You’re emotionally overwrought, you’re tired—you need sleep. This must be all in your imagination.

‘Let’s see what Salvatore has to say.’ I pictured my home in my mind and for the first time I could ever recall, I wished I was there, with all the restrictions and concern for my welfare once again in play. I wanted to be at home and feeling safe. With those who I knew loved me.

A sudden knock at my door made me jump.

‘Yes,’ I called out desperately, hoping for an interaction with someone other than who I was stuck inside my room with. The door opened to reveal one of the stewards.

‘Miss Giovanna.’ He smiled as he opened the door. ‘Mr Peter says he is convinced this is yours.’ He lifted his hand and I saw my engagement ring being held tightly between his fingers.

‘It is.’ It wasn’t hard to fake my enthusiasm, as I quickly worked out that Dante had gone out of his way to get the ring back to me. ‘I thought I’d lost it yesterday in Valletta, and I was dreading telling you, Lorenzo,’ I lied, as I wondered why he’d made sure it had been returned.

He must still care.

‘You lost your ring?’ Lorenzo questioned.

‘I did, it was an accident.’ Again, I lied, as I thought back to removing the object from my finger and dropping it to the ground as though it meant nothing to me, because of course, it didn’t. ‘But I have it now, and it was meant to be if you’re intenton bringing our wedding forward.’ I cajoled as I put down my brush and took the ring from the steward, before pushing it back onto my finger in a flourish. In doing so, it scratched the top of my finger and I discovered it felt different. ‘Thank you.’ I smiled at the steward. Before holding my hand out in front of me as I pretended to admire it, when all the time I was studying it to see if it not only felt different but looked different too. Happily, my eyes found nothing.

‘Giovanna,’ my mama admonished from behind me, spurring me on to get myself out of my stateroom.

‘I’m hungry, after my illness yesterday. Do you think chef could make something for me?’ I questioned the man, reluctant to let him out of my sight and leaving me once again with just her and Lorenzo on the phone.

‘I’m sure he can,’ the steward smiled.

‘Lorenzo, can I call you later?’ I took him off speaker and placed the phone back to my ear. ‘Ciao,’ I added without waiting to hear what he replied. Then I dropped my mama’s phone onto my bed between us, before following the steward out of the door and leaving her in my wake.

Chapter Nineteen

---