"Heading to Florence tonight." He rolls his head from one side to the other, stretching his neck. "It's been a while since I rattled Benito's cage."
His brother, Benito, works closely with Lorenzo.
"He works on the vineyard now."
"I know." Adriano's sour tone is consistent with the way his mouth turns down at the corners. "He's following Lorenzo's path onto the straight and narrow."
"Everyone's settling down."
"Even you." Adriano shakes his head as if he can't believe it. "Et tu, Gabriele?"
"It's just an arrangement." That sounds hollow even to my own ears.
"Sure," Adriano scoffs. "I like her by the way. Katya." He pauses for a moment. "Great tits."
Though I know he's joking, I growl. "Don't make me kill you."
He laughs again. "Lukas told me to behave around her." He sets his glass down on the coffee table in front of him. "But you're avoiding the topic. What do you want me to do with her?"
"Pick her up," I say. "Bring her back."
"And then?"
Now, that is the million dollar question.
"Do whatever the hell you want with her."
Adriano nods as if he was hoping for precisely that answer. I don't know what I'm condemning Eliza to but the gleam in his eye tells me it won't be pleasant.
He picks up his glass, drains it and gets to his feet. Now he's got what he came here for he won't hang around.
When he reaches the door, he pauses.
"What will you tell her about all this?" he asks. "Your wife. She's going to ask."
"I don't know," I tell him honestly. The last thing I want is for the past to taint my relationship with Katya. Since my birthday, things have been going well.
When Adriano nods and leaves, I sit at my desk and nurse my Scotch. My hand trembles as I pick up the glass. I close my eyes and count slowly to ten. It doesn't work. The tremor grows. With a furious roar, I fling the glass against the door.
Fuck.
SEVENTEEN
Katya
After three days of silence from Gabriele, with meals being eaten separately once more and doors closing before I reach them, I feel as if the progress we made has simply evaporated.
I don't know what news Adriano brought but it was bad enough to make my husband retreat into his study and for Lukas to take a vow of silence.
It's frustrating being shut out like this. If Gabriele doesn't want to tell me what Adriano's news was, I can live with that.
What I can't accept is being treated as if I don't exist. Perhaps if the house wasn't still on lockdown I could cope. But being stuck within the same four walls day in and day out is only making me angrier. There's nothing to distract myself with.
It’s not just me who feels the tension. Though nobody has said anything, the whole house is on edge. Maria has kept the staff away from the corridor where Gabriele’s office is located. They still clean the living room where I spent most of my days, but they move quickly and quietly, afraid to disturb.
Lukas is the only one Gabriele allows into his inner sanctum and when he emerges he’s noticeably tense.
Unable to sleep properly, I’ve come down well past midnight the last couple of nights and noticed a light coming from under Gabriele’s door. I’m not sure he even goes to bed.
