Page 56 of The Strength Of A Woman

I tell him everything about what happened tonight in shabby little words of guilt and embarrassment.

“Why did you let him do it?”

“Because I thought he’d stop?”

“Did he?”

I nod.

“After he jerked off,” I add.

His fist hits the table so hard that his glass of wine shatters into pieces.

No one in the house even opens a door to ask if either of us needs any help.

"You watched him jerk off?”

“No. I couldn’t see him. Besides, I didn’t want to have that image in my head.”

“What else did he do?”

“He laughed and smirked and said no one would pay attention to me even if I went to Giorgio and Sylvia and lodged a complaint. He was right about that. Then he said my family was way more focused on my new husband. And then he dropped Stefano Varela's name.”

“How did he know about him?”

“The walls have eyes and ears in that house. You know that. You lived with us.”

His eyes soften as my voice breaks.

He hands me a handkerchief, and I blow my nose before he studies my face.

“Do you know who Stefano Varela is?”

I shake my head before I speak.

“All I know is that he’s ugly and disgusting. He doesn’t even have to be ugly to be disgusting, if you ask me. Julian is just like him.”

10

CALLUM

I lookat the broken woman in front of me and realize how much I misjudged her.

How easy it is to let yourself be fooled by some immature act, or simply not see beyond a facade.

Sadly, Bianca was not a good mother to her. Most of the time, she forgot she was her mother.

It was her idea to send Leilani away way before her untimely death. Way before she understood that she and I would never be a couple.

As strange as it seemed, she was jealous of Leilani, even though, with her antics, her daughter had ruined her chances of being taken seriously by anyone.

Bianca came to me one day and described this property in Sicily.

She wasn’t overly concerned about sending her daughter to college or about letting her live a normal life.

All she wanted was to see her gone. Removed from her life.

The fact that she was going to be eventually exiled was hardly a surprise, although at the time of Bianca’s death, it served a different purpose.