I didn’t know what acurvawas, but I assumed it didn’t translate into ‘beautiful bride’.
‘No,’ I said, but once again, she’d assumed correctly.
Of course it would sadden him not to have his children with him on his big day, which is why, without his knowledge, I’d taken a black cab across London to beg Ioana to change her mind. Personally, I wasn’t fussed if the kids were going to be there or not. But I did want to make my husband-to-be happy.
‘What can I do to make your life easier?’ I asked.
‘Die.’
I rolled my eyes. ‘Apart from die.’
‘There is no apart from die,’ she smirked. ‘That’s it. That’s all I wish from you.’
‘How can you hate me that much?’
She walked towards a Juliet balcony and flicked her cigarette over the side, and immediately lit another.
‘Actually, hating you is the easy part,’ she said as I followed her. ‘It takes a lot less effort than you might imagine.’
I hadn’t smoked in nine years, but a few minutes in her company was enough to reactivate the craving. I took one from the packet without asking and lit it.
‘Tell me what else you think of me,’ I said.
‘What are you, a fucking psychiatrist?’
She laughed, but there was no humour in her tone.
‘I told you I was here to listen, so now’s your chance. Get it off your chest, woman to woman.’
‘You are no woman,’ she jibed. ‘Someone like you could never understand what you’ve done.’
‘And who exactly do you think I am?’
‘You’re amoroaica,’ she replied.
Another word lost on me.
She rolled her eyes. ‘It’s a ghost, a type of vampire in Romanian folklore. They use their charms to steal the milk from cattle, leaving them empty. You do the same to people. You take what is not yours because you can and because you’re greedy. Nicu was, and still is, the love of my life. And then you, themoroaica, appear and steal him away from me and drain him of all he felt for me. I bet you thought I’d have faded into the background by now until eventually I disappeared. Well, Margot, that is not going to happen. Ever. Because I am a vindictive bitch and I will spend the rest of my life making sure you two can never be happy together. I’m going to make it hard for Nicu to see his children, I am going to sell every story I can about you, I will publicly criticise all you do and I will ensure people never forget what you did to my family. I am going to be your worst nightmare until I destroy any love that might remainbetween you and my Nicu. And then you will know how it feels to be me. To be left with nothing.’
I took one last deep drag from my cigarette as her words sank in, then stubbed it out on the floor.
And in the split second it took for Ioana to look away, I moved like lightning.
A voice comes from behind, snapping me back to the present.
‘I’m so, so sorry,’ he says.
‘You’re late,’ I snip as he approaches me and apologises again.
I finish my vodka and orange in two gulps and set an alarm on my phone. I need to be home in an hour and a half with no one any the wiser as to where I have been.
Or who I have been with.
Chapter 43
Anna
I’m not expecting anyone when the doorbell rings. I huff, as I’m in the middle of some intricate work shaping a cut stone, and no matter how many times I try, it isn’t going well. The man standing on my doorstep must be in his fifties, is smartly dressed in a shirt, V-neck jumper and casual trousers, and has a rucksack over his shoulder. He offers me a crooked smile and brushes a salt-and-pepper fringe across his forehead.
