Page 200 of Modern Romance Collection February 2025, 5-8

He took her hand and kissed the back of it. Gently, because the skin looked bruised and paper-thin. ‘I am hoping that things might get better in your world. I have a surprise for you, Mamá. I have someone I want you to meet. She’s waiting just outside if you’re up to meeting her.’

‘Who is it, Dominico?’ she said, struggling to sit higher on the bed. Dom gently put his arm around her back and eased her higher, slipping another pillow behind her. ‘I’m not in a fit state for visitors. How do I look?’

‘You look beautiful, Mamá,’ he said, blinking moisture from his eyes. She’d lost more weight since he’d seen her last. Her shoulders were no more than jutting bones and he could feel her ribs and the individual vertebrae of her spine through her nightdress. She was shrinking by the day. ‘You always look beautiful.’ Even with her sunken cheeks and the dark circles around her eyes, she would always look beautiful to him.

‘Tell me, who have you brought?’

‘My wife.’

His mother stared up at him in shock. ‘You’re married? How can that be? Who did you marry?’

He squeezed her hand. ‘Do you remember Marianne, Mamá? You met her once in Sydney when I was studying there.’

‘Marianne? Marianne?’ His mother was shaking her head, looking for answers. ‘Not that beautiful girl you utterly adored?’

‘The very same. We met up again in Melbourne when I was there, and—’

‘And you fell in love all over again.’ She crossed her hands over her chest. ‘It’s just like a fairy tale ending, Dominico. It couldn’t be better.’

It was indeed a fairy tale, if not exactly the way his mother believed. But she was happy, and his heart swelled. This was what he’d wanted. If his mother was happy, if she believed in this marriage, then it was worth every euro it had cost him. It would even be worth the grief he’d borne from the intractable Marianne.

‘Something like that.’

‘Oh, well, what are you waiting for? Bring her in, bring her in. Are you sure I look all right?’

He smiled. Because his mother was smiling, the light shining brightly in her eyes. ‘You look perfect,’ he said, and went to open the door to collect Marianne.

Dom took her hand, his eyes seeking hers as he drew her into the room. She expected them to contain a warning to her again to play the part of happy newlywed, but rather what she saw was almost a plea, a plea that, if nothing else, she get this right. Mari sucked in a breath. This was the moment of truth.

The large room was both masculine and feminine, the chunky timber furniture balanced by soft curtains, all dominated by the big king-sized bed. It had an elaborately carved timber headboard and, above that, a wedding portrait of Rosaria with her Roberto, painted many years previously, their love for each other shining out from their eyes.

Dom drew her to the bedside. ‘Mamá, here is Marianne, my wife.’

‘Marianne!’ his mother said from the bed, patting down the covers beside her. ‘Come sit on the bed, dear, so that I can see you properly.’

Rosaria was barely a bump in the bed, little more than a ripple in the bedclothes. Her once long black hair was now silvered and plaited down over one shoulder, and her face looked gaunt, the skin pulled tight over her bones. But nothing could erase her strong features and the beauty she’d once been. The high cheekbones were still regal, her eyes still piercingly bright.

‘Hello, Rosaria,’ Mari said softly as she sat down on the edge of the bed. ‘It’s good to see you again.’

‘I remember,’ she said, finding and clutching on to Mari’s hands. ‘I remember you. I used to think you were such a pretty girl. Now I can see that you have grown up into a beautiful woman.’

Mari dipped her head. ‘Thank you.’

‘And now Dom tells me that you are married.’

‘It’s true,’ she said. ‘It happened more quickly than we would have preferred, but it’s true.’

‘Didn’t I tell you,’ Dom said, ‘that there was someone special? That person is Marianne.’

Rosaria beamed. ‘I’m so delighted for you, but however did you find each other again?’

‘A chance meeting,’ Dom said quickly.

‘Serendipity,’ said Mari. ‘We were in the same place at the same time, our paths crossed, and well, here we are.’

‘Serendipity,’ Rosaria said approvingly. ‘I like the sound of that. But I still don’t understand how you could get married so quickly.’

‘We didn’t want to wait the weeks it would take before we could be married here,’ Dom said. ‘So we flew to Las Vegas and made it official.’

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