But when she reached Villetta Nascosta she found it locked, with no light showing.
Despondently, she flopped down on a chair on the terrace and tried to call Leo again. It rang out. She sat there, staring into the gathering twilight, barely noticing the garden glowingapricot with the setting sun. Finally, she saw a familiar figure approaching slowly up the zigzag path.
But not Leo. Sheenagh.
Jade rose. ‘I can’t find Leo. We had... an argument.’
Sheenagh halted. ‘So I gather. He’s gone storming back to the UK.’ A note of accusation hung on the evening air.
‘Oh,’ Jade answered blankly. ‘To see Isabella?’ Her mind flew back to the way he’d told Teddy off on the phone for breaking up their relationship. And he’d initially left Isabella out when telling Erin and Rosalie about the fraud against him, as if protecting her. Jade had tried not to mind, but...
Sheenagh shrugged. ‘He wouldn’t tell me. I thought you’d keep him in Como,’ she grumbled.
Jade was stung by Sheenagh turning disagreeable again, just when they’d put snitty behaviour behind them. ‘That’s twice I’ve failed, then.’ Brushing past the older woman, she dragged herself off to Three Sisters, uncaring if she’d been rude, or how upset Gran would have been. Tears burned. It wasn’t great that Leo had stalked off to the UK – even if it might be with good reason, if Isabella was falling apart with the stress of being ripped off by her dad. But Jade had assumed the worst of him. She was to blame.
Finally, she reached the apartment and slumped onto a sofa in thesalotto, miserable and tired. Wretchedly, she closed her eyes.
Perhaps she drifted into a doze, because she startled at the sound of an unfamiliar text tone. Blinking, her gaze searched the coffee table, floor and window ledge. Finally, Rosalie’s lilac-coloured handset gleamed at her from between the sofa cushions. She fished it out. Should she call Erin, in case the two were together? Or leave it on Rosalie’s bed? But then a notification leapt out at her from the screen.
Let me know how it went. Dad.
Jade’s stomach cartwheeled. How surreal that Joey messaged Rosalie so casually. From any other father, it would have seemed an innocent catch-up with his child’s news. But fromJoey, who’d been ungenerous with contact with his loving mother and had actively avoided two of his daughters? It was an insult. In her current shitty mood, it slid a blade of anger through her middle, allowing all the bile she’d suppressed for so long to boil out.
The phone was scratched and worn. It wasn’t recent enough for facial or fingerprint recognition. Jade had noticed Rosalie tapping out her PIN and that it had made a distinct pattern: the four corner numbers, bottom first, right to left, and then the centre number twice. Tentatively, heart skipping, she tried it. Nine-seven-three-one-five-five. The home screen sprang to life.
She should have put the phone down then and walked away with a mental apology to Rosalie for the intrusion.
But instead... she entered Contacts and scrolled down toDad. As if someone else controlled her finger, she tapped and watched, fascinated, as the display changed tocalling. For her whole life she’d accepted Joey’s wish for no contact, refusing to grant Mairead’s request that Jade make the first move. Yet any moment now... he could answer his phone.
The ringtone sounded once. Twice. Three times.
This is wrong.Panicking, she made to end the call. But then the ringtone was replaced by a deep, impatient voice with a faint Italian accent. ‘You didn’t need to call. I just wanted to know if the formalities went through.’
Jade began to shake. In Italian, she whispered, ‘It’s not Rosalie, it’s Jade.’
Silence.
She couldn’t keep back a snarky, ‘You once got Geneva Gallo pregnant. I’m the result.’
More silence. Then, gruffly, quietly, he replied, ‘I don’t know what to say.’ He didn’t sound embarrassed. More searching for pointers.
She licked her lips. ‘You could ask how I am. How are you?’
‘I’m fine. How are you?’ he asked, like a student parroting simple phrases in a language class.
‘Well...’ Jade pretended to consider. ‘It’s been a difficult summer with Gran dying and me discovering your other children. But I’ll cope.’
Rather than respond to the mention of his mother’s death, he sounded cautiously intrigued. ‘Do you want something from me?’
Jade examined that question. Did she? ‘Not really,’ she said aloud. ‘Curiosity got the better of me. Listening to Rosalie talk about you, a real man emerged. An extremely flawed man, it’s true, but a human. Just like my flawed, human mother, who abandoned me too, yet I met recently. When I saw your name on Rosalie’s phone, I dialled on impulse. Goodbye.’
Gently, she ended the call and sat cradling the phone, her heart careering around her chest as she tried to analyse his demeanour. Intrigued? Yes. Interested? Maybe hesitantly. Shocked. Uncertain. Wrong-footed.
Then, from the doorway, came Rosalie’s voice. In Italian, she said, ‘Feel better now you’ve made him feel bad? You knew he’d answer a call from my phone.’
Jade jumped. The phone flew from her hand. Stupidly she said, ‘Tu parli italiano.’
‘My dad’s Italian,’ Rosalie replied sarcastically, stepping forward to snatch her phone. ‘I didn’t mention it because you didn’t ask. You asked Erin, but I expect you didn’t think I’d be educated enough.’
