‘Well, I’m there, Sarah. Is it foolish of me to hope that the rest of this journey will just go to plan? That we will emerge victorious and we can finally start a life together beyond this?’
She closed her eyes momentarily. ‘It’s not foolish to hope. Whatisfoolish is to believe that joy can’t be found in this new place. In the world of the unknown.’
He dropped his forehead to hers. ‘Thank you.’
‘In a perfect world, you would’ve inherited the estate, none of the drama of the past eight months would’ve happened, we wouldn’t have had to renovate a crumbling fourteenth-century villa, I would be super fertile and endometriosis-free, Nonno would be alive and you,tesoro mio, would know how to cook. But that’s notour world, so it’s not perfect for us. Everything happens for a reason, Matthew. I just know it.’
Sarah woke with a start and immediately sat upright, causing Matthew to stir beside her. She tried to catch her bearings in the dark unfamiliar bedroom.
There it was again.
Her phone was ringing.
She peeled herself from the bed and tried to follow the direction of the sound, which led her to the dining table. Matthew was now also awake, and he had turned on the bedside lamp to make sense of the situation.
Sarah had six missed calls. Just as she was about to open the notifications, it began to ring again. It was Margherita.
‘It’s after midnight,’ Matthew said. ‘What the hell is going on?’
‘Pronto? Margherita?’ Sarah started.
‘Sarah! Oh my God, you have to come back.’
Shocked by Margherita’s harried voice, she asked, ‘What’s going on?’ and quickly switched the handset to speakerphone.
‘La Viola . . . it’s on fire!’
trentasei
‘Where are you?’ Sarah’s hands trembled.
‘In the kitchen!’ came Margherita’s voice.
Sarah and Matthew’s eyes locked. ‘Get the hell out of there,’ Sarah bellowed into the handset. ‘Get out!’
‘The fire . . . the barn. It’s on fire!’ Suddenly, far off in the distance, Sarah and Matthew could hear the echo of emergency service sirens. ‘The firefighters are here. Get in the car. Now!’ Margherita ended the call.
Sarah’s entire body was weak and her legs felt numb. Matthew was pale-faced, his eyes darting around the room. ‘What the fuck do we do?’ he asked, starting to pace.
‘We get in the car. C’mon!’
Suddenly, the phone rang again. Sarah fumbled to answer it. ‘Sarah! I have two minutes to get things from inside. What do I save? Quick! I’m running back in.’
The most impossible question to answer.
Through the frantic, panicked haze, only one thing came to Sarah’s mind. ‘Grammy’s book!’
‘Where is it?’
‘In the safe! In our room.’ Between the deafening sirens and the sound of Margherita’s pounding footsteps and laboured breathing, it was difficult to know if Margherita had heard any of it.
‘Nonno’s will. Our passports. The laptops. iPad. It’s all in the safe.’ Matthew stood by Sarah’s side. ‘Margherita, get everything out of the safe. We’ll text you the combination. And get the family tree. Then get out of there!’
The last thing they heard was Margherita talking to someone, presumably a firefighter, then she disconnected again. Sarah quickly typed the combination lock code as best as she could with her nervous fingers and hit send.
Within minutes, they were in the car.
Clouds of billowing smoke punctuated the indigo night sky, stunning both Sarah and Matthew into silence as they tore around the corner and over the ridge.
