LITMIR.BIZ

       CHAPTER TEN

      BELLA SAT UNSEEING as the morphine infusion dripped into her mother’s thin arm.

      Her mind was back on that morning—and all the hope that had carried her home.

      That Matteo had said that Maria could come with them had meant everything to her. Not just that it gave her a means to leave but that he had accepted the whole of her heart—the love she had for her mother was a part of Bella.

      And, too, he had accepted her mother as a person when all too often Maria’s wants and needs and rights to exist safely had been cast aside.

      Bella’s shoulders and back ached from sitting in a chair all night and long into today but after three months of fighting to live, her mother had finally given in and was fast fading.

      A nurse came in and Bella looked up and gave her a tired smile.

      ‘There’s a phone call for you, Bella,’ she said. ‘You can take it in the office...’ She gestured to her sleeping mother and Bella was grateful for the nurse’s insight because she didn’t want to discuss just how ill her mother was beside her bed. ‘I’ll be in to change your mother’s IV soon.’

      Bella nodded and stood up. She knew that the next twelve-hour infusion would probably be the last one her mother had. She didn’t like to leave her even for a moment but she knew it would probably be Sophie calling—yesterday Paulo had been sentenced.

      When she had first arrived in Rome, Sophie had called her friend and Sylvia had been at Bella’s home, cleaning up the mess from Maria’s fall, and had answered the phone and told Sophie the sad news.

      Now Sophie rang when she could, usually from a pay phone, and so of course she wasn’t able to speak for long.

      ‘I’m so sorry,’ Bella said. ‘I saw it on the news.’

      ‘They gave him forty three years minimum,’ Sophie said, her voice thick with tears. ‘He’ll never get out.’

      ‘I know. How is he taking it?’

      ‘He keeps crying, he is very weak and confused, and so worried about me too. I’ve told him that Luka is here in Rome with me and that he is taking care of me well.’

      ‘Good,’ Bella said. ‘At least that gives him one less thing to worry about.’

      ‘I have found work,’ Sophie said. ‘It is at Hotel Fiscella. You have never seen such luxury, Bella...’ And then when Bella said nothing Sophie asked the difficult question. ‘How is she?’

      Bella couldn’t speak.

      She looked out at the ward and the nurse was going in to change her mother’s IV.

      ‘Bella?’ her friend pushed gently. ‘Tell me.’

      ‘I think she is very near the end.’

      Sophie was silent for a long moment too and then she said what she had to to her friend. ‘Then you need to make plans.’

      ‘I know,’ Bella said. ‘After the funeral...’

      ‘Bella, you can’t go back there. If you do, he won’t let you leave.’

      She knew Sophie was right.

      Very deliberately Bella had not gone home, telling Malvolio, when he’d dropped in, that her mother drew comfort from her being near.

      True.

      His patience had just about run out.

      ‘I have to go,’ Sophie said. ‘I’m using the work phone and I’ll get into trouble if I’m caught.’

      They said their goodbyes but as Bella stepped into her mother’s room she saw that Malvolio had just arrived. He came in every now and then, more, Bella thought, to check on her than Maria.

      ‘The nurse said that you were on the phone.’

      ‘It was a friend...’ Bella shrugged ‘...wanting to see how my mother was.’

      ‘It must be a day for catching up. Matteo called Dino earlier today...’

      ‘That brute,’ Bella said, grateful, ever grateful for the bruise Matteo had made on her cheek that night.

      Malvolio had been livid that his son and second man had gone and he had grilled Bella over and over about anything Matteo, Luka or Sophie might have told her.

      Sophie he cared nothing about, but the leaving of the other two he had taken very personally indeed.

      ‘Matteo asked after you,’ Malvolio said, and Bella shrugged, even though her heart was pounding. She knew that it was important that she did not leap, as she wanted to, at his name. ‘Dino didn’t tell him about your mother, he didn’t know if you might want to keep that private, so instead Dino said that you were enjoying working at the bar...’ Malvolio was still determined to find Matteo’s Achilles’ heel and it took everything Bella had not to react as he spoke on.

      ‘Dino also said how much he was enjoying you.’

      She stood silent for a second, willing herself not to react to that vile inference. She could recall Matteo saying that it was important he never reveal that he cared for her and wondered how he would have reacted to Dino’s words.

      Finally she managed to speak.

      ‘I need to get back to my mother.’

      ‘I hear that she’s not doing well at all. She’s hung on far longer than we all expected. How long has it been now?’ Malvolio asked, and Bella knew what he was implying—Bella had been gone from the bar for far, far too long.

      ‘Three months,’ she answered.

      ‘That’s a long time to go without work, Bella,’ Malvolio said. ‘I know you must be worried about funeral costs and things but you don’t need to worry, I’ll sort that out for you—your mother deserves a dignified send-off.’

      Maria’s funeral would be Bella’s first debt to him.

      There was the sudden call of a name and they both turned.

      ‘Bella!’

      The nurse who had been sorting out her mother’s IV called for her to come quickly and as she stepped into the room Bella understood why, for Maria was taking her last breaths.

      Bella cuddled her mother as she left the earth, thanking her for her love and letting her go with grace.

      And afterwards she sat by her, knowing in her heart that her mother would understand why she wouldn’t be at her funeral.

      ‘If I go back now,’ Bella said, ‘that will be it.’ She knew that much. Malvolio kept his girls too tired to think straight and if they were too tired to work, well, there was always a little something he might slip them to perk them up for that.

      ‘I love you so much,’ Bella told her mother, and she gave her one last kiss and took off the little gold and ruby ring her mother wore and slipped it onto her own finger. ‘I’ll do everything I can to keep it,’ she said, though she would sell it if she had to because apart from the clothes she stood up in she had nothing.

      The money Matteo had given her had run out—three months living in a chair by her mother’s bed, eating from the canteen and buying Maria little luxuries, had taken care of that.

      ‘Bella...’ The nurse came in, Bella assumed, to tell her that they were moving Maria now, but instead she had a message for her. ‘Your friend asked how much longer you might be.’

      ‘My

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