That plaster on your knee… Did you fall off your skateboard again, Gabba?
Yes, Mamma. I cleaned it like you showed me.
Good girl. And did you get back on?
I did, Mamma. I can heelflip better than Luca now!
That’s my girl!
For a moment, Gabriella could feel the brush of her mother’s hand on her hair, rubbing it as she’d always done when Gabriella made her proud.
She could only imagine the fear her mother had had to swallow to allow Gabriella the freedom to pursue activities that always left her cut and bruised. Cut and bruised but happy.
“She wanted you to be happy,” Tommaso said, breaking into her memories. “That’s the woman I remember. I don’t doubt that she hated my father, but her love for you far outweighed her hate for him. If heaven exists and she’s looking down on us, how do you think she’ll be feeling to see your misery? If she could see in your heart and see into mine, do you really think she would consider your love for me a betrayal?”
A sense of helplessness washed over her. “She’s not here for me to ask.”
“And I’m sorry for that. I’m sorry for what my father did, and I’m sorry you lost her so young. But, Gabba, you knew her better than anyone. If you truly believe she would prefer you to be unhappy than take a chance on happiness with me, and if you truly cannot live with that, then I will walk away. I will not be the cause of your misery. I want to love you and protect you and do everything in my power to make you happy, like I should have done from the start, not cause you more pain. I’ve given you enough of that.” His lips brushed hers, a tender, fleeting kiss that filled her heart like nothing else in the world.
It wasn’t until he was framing her face to kiss her again that she realised they’d got to their feet.
“I will leave you now,” he said quietly, rubbing his thumb across her cheekbone. “Know that you have my heart, Gabriella. My heart and my life belong to you, and my door will always be open for you. Say the word, and I will come for you. I don’t care if I spend the rest of my life waiting.”
She felt the warmth of his breath and mouth on hers one more fleeting time, and then the air around her moved, and all the warmth she hadn’t even felt enveloping her was gone.
Tommaso was leaving. The man she’d loved for as long as she had memories. The man she’d had to fight her very soul to hate. The man who’d saved her life and brought her to life; switched on the light inside her, and as she watched his long legs walk out of her apartment, the light began to flicker and dim, and when the door shut behind him, her heart splintered, and the light turned off, leaving her so very, very cold.
On her narrow sideboard sat a collection of photos. Her parents on their wedding day. Gabriella with her mother at various ages. Her mother alone, smiling that loving smile for the little girl behind the camera.
Her splintered heart throbbed. She’d never known her father, but she’d always known he loved her. She’d alwaysknown her parents’ marriage had been a happy and loving one. The one time Gabriella had asked if she would ever have a new father, her mother had smiled sadly and said, “No man could love me like your father did.”
No man could love Gabriella like Tommaso did. She knew it in her heart, and if she knew it, her parents knew it too, and as she thought this, she thought of everything Tommaso had been through and the lengths he’d gone to protect her. He’d walked away from the chance to head his family for her. He’d gone against his family for her: his living family. By sparing her life, he’d betrayed them, betrayed them because he loved her.
Her eyes swimming with tears, she lifted her parents’ wedding photo. “He loves me, mamma. And I love him. We’ve both fought it. We’ve hurt each other so badly, but nothing hurts more than living without him. Understand that I love you both and I’ve tried so hard to honour your memories, but Tommaso is my heart. He isn’t his father and never would be. He belongs to me, and I belong to him, and we both deserve the chance to see if we can find the happiness together that you two shared. I believe we can. I believe that with my whole heart. Please believe it too.”
She kissed both their beaming faces, and then she was running, flinging open her front door and charging down the exterior walkway to the stairs and flying down them, finally catching sight of him when she reached the final set of stairs. “Masino!”
He was heading across the courtyard.
Holding onto the walkway’s railing, she yelled his name again. “Masino!”
He stopped walking and turned his head. An instant later, he turned his whole body and, his legs quickening with every step, came back to her. When he was three paces away he came to a sudden halt. His gaze lifted.
Following his stare, her brimming heart spilt over. Floating between them, two white feathers.
Their eyes locked together. Identical smiles lit their faces.
He took the final three steps.
Without even thinking about what she was doing, Gabriella climbed over the railing and jumped straight into his waiting arms.
Epilogue
On the firstanniversary of her wedding, Gabriella faced her husband in a tiny chapel off the Bay of Naples. Her heart full to the brim with happiness, she listened to him recite the same vows he’d made three hundred and sixty-five days earlier. Then, her voice clear and true, she recited them too.
The gold band he slid on her finger gleamed under the sunlight pouring through the windows, and when she slid the larger gold band on his much larger finger, she gazed into his black eyes and sent a prayer of thanks to her parents for their blessing. The white feathers that had floated between them that magical day had been framed and now hung in the nursery the baby girl nestled in Gabriella’s belly would call her own. Gabriella’s parents would love and protect their child while she slept, just as Tommaso loved and protected her. And just as Gabriella loved and protected him.
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