She started to button her blouse. ‘I’m not Matteo’s niece,’ she said, and her voice was as expressionless as her face. ‘For the simple reason that his brother was not my father.’
‘What?But Matteo—’
‘Matteo thought he was because his brother thought he was. And his brother thought he was my father because that was what my mother told him.’
Luca saw her take a breath, and then something finally showed in her expressionless face.
She finished doing up her blouse, slipped her feet back into her shoes.
Luca stared at her. ‘Youknowthis?’
He saw her swallow.
‘I’ve known for a few days now. You see…’ She hesitated, as if speaking was difficult. ‘When I came back to London from Italy there was something I knew I needed to do. You know that after my mother died my aunt took me in, even though she resented me? She gave me a home when she could have handed me over to be put into care.’
She paused, then went on.
‘She hasn’t stayed in touch before—I send her Christmas cards, but never hear back—but now she’s getting on, and she hasn’t had an easy life. I wanted to do something for her. Matteo had settled some money on me, saying it was from my father’s estate. Out of that I wanted to buy her a bungalow near the sea, which I knew was her dream. After all, why not? I could afford it now I’d discovered who I was. So I went to see her and I told her.’
She paused again for a moment, her expression changing again.
‘And she told me I had no right to offer her anything.’
Her voice dropped.
‘Because I had no right to accept anything Matteo Fiarante possessed. Because I was not his brother’s daughter at all. Because…’ she took another ragged breath ‘…my mother was already pregnant when she met Matteo’s brother. She’d been “carrying on”, as my aunt put it, with an Irishman who worked at a pub. A red-headed Irishman.’
She picked up her handbag from where she’d dropped it on the floor.
‘That’s where I get my red hair from, Luca, and my green eyes.’ Her mouth twisted. ‘And that’s probably why I was pouring drinks in a bar when you first met me—blood will out, after all.’
She looked at him with eyes that had no expression in them—none at all.
‘I won’t tell Matteo. Not yet. If the treatment is successful—as I hope with all my heart it will be—then I’ll tell him. He’ll be able to take it then. And if it isn’t successful…’
For the first time Luca could hear emotion in her voice.
‘Well, then what I think I must do is go and see his lawyer on some pretext…explain the situation to him. If…if he thinks it would hurt Matteo too much to know the truth then I won’t tell him. When the time comes, I’ll simply refuse his legacy to me. I have no right to it, and presumably whatever Matteo was going to do with it before he knew of my existence can still be done—I’m sure the lawyer will sort it out.’
She hitched the strap of her bag onto her shoulder and took another breath, steadier this time. Her face had gone back to being expressionless.
‘I want your word, Luca, that you’ll go along with me on this. I may not be Matteo’s niece…there may not be a drop of shared blood between us…but I’ve come to care for him—care about him. I can’t turn that off just because I’m nothing more than a stranger to him after all. And I can’t hurt him with the truth before he’s strong enough to take it. And if that time doesn’t come—well, he shall die in peace, in the happy belief that I’m his long-lost niece, his brother’s daughter. As for his other fantasy…’ She paused. ‘That’s all it was—all it is. I’m not your godfather’s niece, not his heiress, and not suitable to be yourviscontessa. I’m just a common-as-muck girl out of the East End of London, just like I was six years ago.’
She walked to the door. Pulled it open. Cast one last look back at him.
‘Sorry about that, Luca.’
Then she was gone.
Luca stared at the closed hotel room door. Inside his chest, his heart had started to thud like a hammer pounding him into the ground.
* * *
Bianca had reached the lift. How she’d got there she didn’t know. How she walked inside it and found a button to press she didn’t know either. Because she couldn’t see. Her vision had gone.
Everything had gone.
Luca had gone.