woman in the bed was asleep, dark lashes sweeping gaunt cheeks. Allegra stifled a gasp at the heart-wrenching sight of her—scars on each wrist and bruises and needle puncture marks scoring her arms in dozens of places. Her hair was dirty and tangled, her limbs scrawny, tendons sticking out like ropes. Rafael let out a shuddering breath. The woman’s eyes fluttered opened and then focused on Rafael.
‘You shouldn’t have come,’ she rasped out, her eyes burning like coals as she glared at him.
‘Of course I came.’ Rafael gazed at her for a moment, his expression closed and yet his eyes full of pain. ‘Why, Angelica?’
Angelica shook her head, her eyes closed again. ‘I don’t want to talk to you.’
‘Let me help you,’ Rafael said, his voice taking on a strident edge. ‘Please. There is a room waiting at the best clinic in Europe, in Switzerland. It’s luxurious, Angelica, and discreet. You’d want for nothing.’
Angelica shook her head again, without opening her eyes. Allegra’s heart started to splinter. She hated seeing Rafael like this, knowing how helpless, how hopeless, he must feel.
Rafael pressed his lips together, staring at his sister in a heart-breaking mix of grief and fury. ‘I’ve only wanted to help you, Angelica. That’s all I’ve ever wanted.’
Angelica opened her eyes, and Allegra stifled a gasp at the hatred and anger she saw in their depths. ‘Help me? When have you ever helped me?’ she demanded in a raw and ragged voice. Rafael flinched but didn’t reply. Didn’t defend himself. ‘Do you know what he did?’ Angelica demanded, turning to Allegra. She stared, speechless, unsure how to respond, how to feel. ‘Do you?’ Angelica’s voice rung out. Allegra licked her lips.
‘I... I don’t...’
‘He killed our father,’ Angelica spat. ‘He killed him. My brother only ever thought of himself. He didn’t...he couldn’t...’ She turned away, sobs tearing her chest.
Allegra had no idea what to say. She didn’t believe Angelica, the words of a vindictive and desperate drug addict, and yet...
Why wasn’t Rafael saying anything?
‘You can’t deny it, can you?’ Angelica said, her voice still coming in ragged gasps.
‘No,’ Rafael said after a moment. ‘I can’t.’
Shock rippled through Allegra. Rafael shot her a cold, hard glance. ‘Now you know,’ he said, but Allegra didn’t feel she knew anything.
‘Leave me,’ Angelica demanded in a low voice. She seemed drained, lifeless. ‘Leave me, I beg of you.’
Rafael gazed at his sister for a full minute while Allegra watched, her heart thudding in her chest. Then he turned and walked out of the room.
Allegra followed, her heart aching now, everything aching. ‘Rafael...’ she began when they’d entered a small waiting room, but he shook his head.
‘Don’t. I shouldn’t have brought you here.’
‘I asked to be brought here,’ Allegra answered. ‘I want to share your sorrows along with your joys. Please, Rafael...’
Rafael just shook his head again, pacing the small waiting room like a panther in a cage.
‘How long has she been like this?’ Allegra asked quietly.
Rafael didn’t still his stride. ‘Since she was fifteen. A year after my father died.’
‘How...how did he die?’
He lifted his tormented gaze to hers, his mouth twisting. ‘You heard her.’
‘I don’t believe her.’
‘Don’t you?’
‘No,’ Allegra said, but her voice wavered. She didn’t believe Angelica, not really, but she knew something had happened, something that tormented Rafael, that made him the way he was, dark and distant, and she was afraid to find out what it was.
‘Well, you should,’ Rafael said, and turned away.
‘Why don’t you tell me your version?’ Allegra asked quietly. ‘What really happened?’
‘What really happened?’ He stopped, raking his hands through his hair and then dropping them in one abrupt movement. ‘My father killed himself. I was the last to see him.’
Uncertainty mingled with sorrowful relief rushed through her. ‘Then you didn’t kill him...’
‘I drove him to his suicide. And then I wasn’t able to stop him from pulling the trigger.’
‘Oh, Rafael...’
‘And my mother and my sister blamed me. They blamed me, and they should have blamed me, because...because I couldn’t...’
‘But it wasn’t—’
‘You know what I was saying to him before he killed himself?’ Rafael didn’t wait for her to reply, not that she had any idea what to say. ‘I was complaining about having to leave my private school, because there was no more money. My father had lost everything, everything, and I was whinging about school.’ He shook his head slowly.
‘Rafael, you were a boy...’
‘A stupid, selfish boy. And it broke my father. He left the room and locked himself in his study...’ He stopped, shaking his head again. ‘But there’s no need to talk of it. Angelica won’t see me again. You might as well return to the villa. I never should have brought you in your condition.’
‘I’m not an invalid.’ Her heart was aching, aching for this man she loved. And yet Rafael’s expression was stony, and when she reached out a hand he jerked away from her.
‘I’ll arrange your flight.’
‘What...what about you?’
Rafael shook his head. ‘I won’t come with you. I have business to see to.’
Allegra stared at him helplessly, knowing that Rafael was taking another step away from her, and this one far worse than any before. Yet what could she do?
‘Please don’t do this, Rafael,’ she whispered, but he was already getting out his phone.
* * *
It was better this way. Rafael continued to tell himself that as he arranged Allegra’s flight and saw her onto it. She looked at him with a face full of hurt and desperation, but he steeled himself against it.
She might want to make explanations, excuses, but he couldn’t. And he wasn’t about to open either of them to more pain. What it meant for their future, he didn’t know. But now he knew he needed distance. Space.
He stayed in Naples for another two days, trying to reason with Angelica, but she wouldn’t even talk to him. He called Allegra, and was reassured she had returned safely to the villa.
‘When
