Absolution (Disenchanted Book 3) Read online

  “I wanted to tell you I’m going out. The girls are coming with me, but Gavin is staying here.”

  His eyebrows pulled together like I’d just spoken a language he didn’t understand. “What? Where are you going?”

  “To the zoo and then lunch. Salina is sending someone to pick us up.”

  I shouldn’t have been surprised when he reached for his wallet and tried to hand me a stack of euros.

  I put my hands up and took a step back. “I didn’t tell you my plans so you would give me money.”

  With a sardonic lift of his lips, he asked, “How will you get into the zoo and have lunch without money?”

  “I have some. Salina is going to exchange it for euros for me.”

  “Well, have some more.”

  Honestly, the money I had wasn’t exactly for recreational activities. A trip to a foreign country had not been on my agenda when I’d left Ohio. With a sigh, I took the cash from him.

  “You should ask Celia to go with you. I am sure she can stand to have some female companionship. She needs to get out of the house and have a breather from Massimo.”

  I inwardly cringed but outwardly forced a tight smile. “Well, how lucky for her that Massimo is in the hospital, so she can breathe all she wants until he returns.”

  I started to turn away, but he stopped me and peered down at me with disapproval.

  “You know what I meant.”

  “I’m not inviting her out with us.”

  His eyes darkened. “You promised you would give her a chance.”

  I had not promised him anything regarding Celia. It wasn’t my place to invite her out anyway. Salina and Tess had both made it clear they didn’t like or trust the woman, so why would I bring her along? I inhaled deeply, prepared to tell him that in simpler terms, but that was when I smelled it, smelled her. Celia had been in the room recently. I would recognize her stupid perfume anywhere.

  Looking at Marco more closely, I reached up to his cheek, close to his mouth, and wiped away a very faint smudge of lipstick. I held my thumb up for him to see. A coldness had seeped into my chest, making my stare and voice icy. “I haven’t had lipstick on since Lily’s wedding.”

  I released a sound of angry frustration and tried to leave, but he moved in front of me, blocking the way.

  “Wait. Lydia, it isn’t what you think. Celia came in to talk for a few minutes. It was nothing.”

  “I’m sure it wasn’t easy for her to talk with her lips smashed against your face.”

  He groaned with exasperation and pushed a hand through his hair. “Why do you do this? Why do you turn small things into big things?”

  “Screw you, Marco.” I tried to exit the room, but he slammed the door and turned me to face him again.

  “Why are you angry?” He was genuinely perplexed by my indignation, which only made me madder.

  “You still don’t get it. You still don’t see the problem. I don’t know if you’re purposely being obtuse, or if you’re seriously that stupid. I just wiped another woman’s lipstick off your face, Marco. It smells like Celia’s whore house perfume in here—the same scent that is all over you when you sneak into bed in the mornings.”

  “I do not sneak, and once again, you are blowing the situation out of proportion.”

  I laughed cynically. “You don’t even deny that you come to bed smelling like another woman. Tell me, how does that happen without her rubbing her body all over you?”

  Anger flashed in his eyes, but I thought I saw another emotion, too. Guilt. Although, I couldn’t be sure because it was gone just as suddenly as it had appeared.

  He spoke in a low tone, slowly, as if he were hanging on to the last of his patience. “Her husband, my brother, is very ill. I realize it is difficult for you to understand the depth of emotions involved under the circumstances, considering how you shut yours off when Gavin died. An embrace can go a long way for those who are suffering. Someone who was dead inside for most of her adult life may not be able to comprehend that.”

  He may as well have punched me in the face, pushed me to the ground, and stomped on my chest. That would’ve hurt a lot less. It was the lowest of blows, a betrayal bigger than anything else. When Gavin had died, I became cold and distant to protect myself and my kids, and because it was all I could do to keep it together. Facing my feelings about Gavin, our marriage, and his death hadn’t been an option for me. When Marco and I had first met, I did everything I could to freeze him out, but he’d been persistent. Only recently was I able to somewhat deal with my complex emotions, and he knew that. He knew how hard it had been—and still was—for me.

  I held his gaze, willing myself no to cry. He was first to look away.

  “I have work to do before I see my brother. Enjoy your day at the zoo.”

  He headed back to the desk and picked up the phone. Before he could unmute it and put it to his ear, I marched up to him and hurled the stack of money at his face.

  “As I said before, screw you, Marco.”

  While he watched the euros float like confetti to the floor, I left the room, slamming the door behind me.

  My mood was not improved by the time we got to the zoo. My two new friends and their children waited just outside the entrance. As we approached, I realized the man who had driven us was trailing behind, and there were three other men standing in different locations nearby trying to appear inconspicuous. They reminded me of the bodyguards who worked for Lily and Kyle. During my first visit with Salina, I’d found out Giovanni was Interior Minister of Italy. One of his responsibilities in that role was the security of the country, so it made sense that he also made sure his own family was protected.

  Not for the first time since meeting Marco, I wondered at the reality of my life. In the past few months, I’d met the kinds of people I would’ve never even thought of before and have experienced things I’d only read about in books or seen on TV.

  Soon after we entered the zoo, it became clear that I wasn’t the only one who was pensive and moody. Salina and Tess were both pleasant—as always—but they, too, were quiet and distant, lost in their own thoughts.

  When it started to drizzle a couple hours into our excursion, we decided to leave. I was glad for it, because my leg ached badly from all the walking I’d done yesterday. Besides, no one wanted to be cold and wet. Salina recommended we go back to her house and have food brought to us. Once the kids were in the playroom, we settled down with glasses of wine for Salina and San Pellegrino sparkling water for me and Tess. The conversation started off light at first. Somehow, we ended up discussing the Feast of Epiphany again.

  “Will you, Gia, and Giovanni be at the house again for the celebration?” I asked Salina.

  There was a ghost of a smile on her lips as she shook her head. “No. The original plan was to stay here in Lecco until the day after, but Gio changed his mind. He wants to be back in Rome by tomorrow afternoon. He feels he has been away for too long, even though it’s only been a few days.”

  I was immediately disappointed to hear this news. I didn’t know Salina well, but I felt like we could have a good friendship if given the time. “You don’t have to go with him right away, do you? Maybe you and Gia could follow in a couple more days.”

  She continued to smile, even though it looked like it hurt. “No. I tried to convince him to do that already without success. I mean, I could stay, but Gia would have to return with her father. He doesn’t like to be separated from her. If I want to go back to America or go anywhere more than fifty miles from our home, if he can’t go, she can’t go.”

  My mouth opened, but I didn’t know what to say to that. Seeing my reaction, she let out a small laugh and waved her hand as if to wave the subject away.

  “It’s okay. Really. I am…grateful to Gio. He’s generous and the best father to our daughter that I could’ve ever asked for.”

  I didn’t want to tell her that she sounded like a prisoner of an upscale, minimum security prison, especially since I didn�
�t really know their story. So, I just smiled and nodded once.

  Eager to talk about something else, Salina asked, “So, how are things at the Mangini homestead?”

  Still very accustomed to keeping others out and not sharing the things that troubled me, I started to say everything was fine and dandy at the freakin’ Mangini homestead. Instead, after a moment’s hesitation, I told the truth.

  “I knew when I agreed to come here that Marco might not be able to spend a lot of time with me, but I thought that would be because he’d be with his brother or doing other things for the family. What I didn’t expect was for him to spend so much of his time with Celia.”

  I told them everything, starting from the reason Marco and I had broken up to begin with, to Celia’s constant hunger for his attention and his absence in bed every night. I shared the things she’d said to me that she didn’t think I could understand, and about the argument Marco and I’d had this morning. Both women gasped when they heard what he’d said to me about being dead inside.

  “He hasn’t even asked about the pregnancy,” I said the thought as it came to me. “We haven’t talked about it in two days. Earlier, before the fight, I thought he was just distracted because of work, but now that I’m really thinking about it, he wasn’t distracted. I’ve been around him many times in the past when he was working, and he never treated me like that. I feel like he was distancing himself from me. Why would he do that?” I asked the last more to myself than to them.

  “It is her,” Tessa’s soft voice interrupted my silent thoughts. “I speak Italiano? You understand? Easier for me to say.”

  “Yes. If I don’t understand Salina can translate.”

  “Celia is very sneaky. She doesn’t say things outright. She implies and suggests and worms her ideas into your head. Sometimes this works with women—as it did with Giovanni’s sister in Salina’s case—but most of the time her willing victims are men. Marco especially has always been easily taken in by her, ever since we were children. Even after she did what she did and married Massimo, he forgave her much sooner than he forgave his brother. She was still perfect to him. It won’t be shocking to find she has somehow put doubt in Marco’s mind regarding your pregnancy.”

  My whole body froze. I think I even stopped breathing. “What do you mean? What kind of doubts?”

  Salina and Tess exchanged knowing, uneasy glances before Tessa responded. “You said yourself that you and Marco were broken up. Then you admitted your reluctance to tell him about the baby right away. If Celia knows any of that, she could make him question himself and you about the paternity of your baby.”

  Of all the possibilities, that one had not once crossed my mind. I never thought for a second that Marco would doubt me after finding out I was pregnant. My eyes burned with tears as I thought about even the chance of him rejecting our child based on Celia’s hateful meddling.

  “This child is his,” I insisted.

  “We believe you,” Salina hurried to say.

  “But you don’t think he does.”

  She held out her hands, palms up. “We’re not sure. Tess is just saying it’s a possibility that Celia got in his head.”

  I couldn’t just sit there anymore. I stood and began to pace even though my leg hurt from all the activity over the past few days and the cold and rainy weather. My heart was racing, and anxiety crawled beneath my skin. I started asking questions to no one in particular.

  “Why does she do this? Why is she trying to get her talons in Marco when she’s married to Massimo? Is it just for attention? What does she expect to accomplish?”

  At the absolute worst, I thought the girls would say Celia was just trying to get into Marco’s pants, and that she was a cheating, insensitive bitch for wanting to do so while she was married to Massimo. That was a bad enough thought, but as it turned out, it was much worse.

  “You should tell her,” Salina murmured in Italian to Tessa.

  Tess’s eyes went big and she shook her head, looking horrified. “I can’t. No one can know.”

  “I know.”

  “You know because you eavesdropped on Massimo telling Gio.”

  “Eavesdropping implies that I listened on purpose. I just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

  I stopped pacing and looked at them, my eyes almost rolling with frustration. “You know I can mostly understand you.”

  They glanced at me, and then at each other. A silent understanding passed between them before they finally turned back to me.

  Tess sighed heavily before speaking in Italian. Her voice was so low it was almost a whisper. “They’re not.”

  “They’re not what?” I asked slowly.

  “Married,” Salina answered in the same quiet voice Tess had used.

  I cocked my head to one side. “What?”

  Tessa cleared her throat and spoke in a normal voice, like she was telling me about the weather or that she liked tacos.

  “Massimo and Celia are no longer married. They’re divorced.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  I have kept plenty of secrets in my lifetime. Many were big, like the state of my marriage as well as my state of mind during those years, but the secret Tess bestowed upon me just before the delivery guy showed up with lunch felt like the biggest secret ever.

  The cliffhanger was agonizing, but we had to feed our kids. Then it took me some time to get Mandy to lay down in Salina’s room for a nap. Daniel the Wrecker literally ran himself into the ground. He’d crashed on a pile of stuffed animals in the playroom, leaving Cora and Gia to play peacefully and happily. Once the kids were settled, the three of us sat down in the living room.

  “I want to be clear, Lydia,” Tess said somberly. “I am not in the habit of violating the privacy of others. Everyone is entitled to their private lives, even Celia. We all have our secrets, but Salina is right. You should probably know this.”

  “I’m listening, but please speak slowly so I can understand.”

  For a moment, I thought she was going to change her mind. She looked very reluctant to tell me anything, and I didn’t blame her. Like she said, we all had our secrets, and she was about to spill some about her best friend and his wife.

  “Massimo began divorce proceedings with Celia about five years ago when he discovered the twins weren’t his natural children.”

  My eyes widened so much that I thought a vessel would pop. “What do you mean they aren’t his natural children?”

  “Celia had an affair. Massimo suspected it, but he was not absolutely sure until he had a DNA test done without his wife’s knowledge. He was paranoid after that and had all his children tested. Only the twins weren’t his, but he was still devastated. Their marriage was not all everyone believed. They had their problems, but Massimo has always been an honorable man. He may not have been in love with Celia, but he had respected her and their marriage vows. So, her betrayal was very difficult for him to swallow. He could have forgiven her had she come forward about the affair after it happened, but instead, she chose to deceive him. No matter what, he would have accepted those children as his own, but Celia did not even give him the option. She took away his right to choose.

  “I know in America, it is easy to dissolve a marriage. Getting a divorce in Italy, however, is still a taboo thing. Much too often it is very public, but Massimo was able to do it very carefully, and very quietly.”

  “And Celia just let it happen?” I asked ruefully.

  Tessa gave me a grim smile. “She had taken away Massimo’s choices, so he took away most of hers. He gave her an ultimatum. She could consent and they could have a quiet divorce, or she could object, and he would drag her through the mud. He told her that he had DNA evidence that the twins were not his children, and if that was not enough to shake her up, he had pictures, videos, and printed text messages and emails that clearly proved she was an adulteress. If she did not consent, all of it would be made public. Not only would she have been humiliated, but her children woul
d have been as well. Even her mother would have received backlash over her treachery. In addition, the man—the married man—she’d been spending her time with would be ousted. His wife would have been informed, and their family would have been thrown into turmoil. In Italy, the mother is more often than not granted custody of the children, but Massimo is a Mangini.”

  “In other words,” Salina cut in acerbically, “because of his old money, strong family background, and prominence in this area, Celia would’ve lost a custody battle. Being a good mother wouldn’t have mattered under the circumstance.”

  Tess nodded. “That is correct. However, Celia consented to the separation and divorce. Massimo promised that he’d tell no one about her infidelity. He established residency in an apartment closer to his office to appease the separation requirements and lived there during the week. He was home every weekend for his family, unless he was away for business—and sometimes during the week as well so no one would suspect anything. They continued to coparent, celebrate holidays and such together, but their days of sharing a bed were over. There was nothing between them but their children. After the legal separation period of three years passed, and the divorce finalized, they were going to make their separation known to everyone and say they had irreconcilable differences. There would have still been some gossip and backlash, but no one would really know the truth, and therefore, the situation would be tolerable.”

  “But…it’s been almost six years, and they’re still together,” I said. “What happened?”

  Tess and Salina exchanged glances, and once again, Tess seemed resigned to say more than she wanted. “Their divorce was finalized just about three years ago. He came to Greece almost the next day. I won’t go into all the details because it is another long story—and a difficult one for me to talk about. I will tell you that we spent some very special time together, but in the end…” She trailed off, swallowed hard, and looked away for a moment to compose herself. “In the end, he needed to be with his children, and I married someone else. Up until a few months ago, we had no communication, not until Francesca told me he had cancer. Very quickly thereafter, things dissolved between my husband and me, and I returned to Lecco to be with my best friend.”