tried to recall the current exchange-rate. ‘Um…in euros,’ she said, wishing she had asked for more just to annoy him.
‘If you give me your details, I will make sure the first instalment is in there once we are married.’
Sabrina toyed with the strap of her handbag for a moment. ‘You said earlier you expected me to take your name,’ she said, pausing to glance at him again. ‘Is that really necessary in this day and age?’
‘Sabrina Marcolini,’ he drawled. ‘Now that has rather a nice ring to it, does it not?’
She pursed her lips. ‘I prefer Halliday. It was my mother’s maiden name.’
‘You don’t have a father?’
‘Not that I know of,’ she said, fiddling with her handbag strap again. ‘My mother never mentioned him. I think he might have been married or something. She seemed reluctant to give me any details. I found a photo once, but when I asked who it was she scrunched it up and I never saw it again.’
There was a momentary silence.
‘You said it was your mother’s name,’ he said. ‘Does that mean she has since married again?’
‘No, it means she is dead,’ Sabrina said, stripping her voice of the aching emotion she still felt. ‘She died when I was ten. The train she was travelling to work on was derailed. She was the last to be pulled out of the wreckage.’
‘I am very sorry,’ he said. ‘Neither Ric nor Laura ever mentioned it to me.’
‘Laura understood how hard it was to grow up without a mother,’ she said. ‘She lost hers when she was a little older than I was, but when her father married Ingrid only weeks later she was totally devastated. She felt she had lost both of her parents right then and there. Her father died just before she met Ric…but I suppose you know all this?’
He shifted the gears, a frown stitching his brow. ‘I did not really know Laura all that well,’ he said. ‘I only met her for the first time at the wedding, where, if you remember, I also met you. Ric and I went to elementary school together. We remained in close contact even when his family emigrated to Australia when he was fourteen.’
‘Did you ever visit him?’
‘Yes, I have been to Australia seven times now, and Ric came back to Italy on holidays occasionally,’ he said. ‘My brother was here in Sydney just a couple of months ago.’
‘Yes, I read about it in the paper,’ Sabrina said. ‘I saw the name and assumed it was your brother. He was here for a lecturing tour, wasn’t he?’
‘Yes, but also to sort things out with his estranged wife.’
Sabrina felt her brows lift up in intrigue. ‘Oh?’
He changed the gears again. ‘They were living apart for five years but they are back together now,’ he said. ‘They renewed their vows only a few weeks ago. They are expecting a child in a few months.’
‘Are you pleased about their reconciliation?’ she asked, watching his expression for a moment.
‘I am very happy for them both,’ he answered after a pause. ‘I might not be a family man, but I recognise when a couple belong together. There was a time however when I thought Antonio would have been better off moving on without Claire, but I am prepared to admit I was wrong.’
‘I don’t think it is wise to take sides in a marital dispute,’ Sabrina said, thinking of all the times Laura had let off steam about Ric’s hot-headed stubbornness, only to be madly in love with him the next moment.
As the silence stretched Sabrina couldn’t help feeling Mario’s brother’s situation explained a lot about his cynical attitude towards relationships. He had seen his brother go through a lengthy estrangement. There was no way he was going to give any woman in his life the same opportunity to put his life on hold. His relationships were on his terms and his terms only. Love didn’t come into it, nor did permanency, even when there was a child involved.
Mario needed her now to act as a substitute mother to Molly, but she was on borrowed time, and if she had any hope of coming out of this with her heart intact she had better keep reminding herself of it.
This is not for ever.
This is not for real.
She took a mental gulp and added: this is dangerous.
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