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When his sister looked up, it wasn’t the usual naughty expression on her face. She nodded, almost to herself and muttered, “Let’s hope you feel the same after you hear everything.”
Taking the cup Bruno offered, Adriano took several sips of the scalding coffee. His world tilted a little straighter but not all the way. He was beginning to think it would never be the same without his wife.
“Are you feeling sane enough to listen?” Bruno asked.
“I’m allowed a weekend’s privacy. Your job is not to tail me all over the world like a dog,” he said, letting his irritation at being caught in such a state slip into his words. “And why the hell are you dragging Fabi around? She shouldn’t have to see me in such a…state.”
“Since you’re behaving the same way Papa does, you mean,” his sister said, and then ducked her head.
“I couldn’t shake her off,” Bruno replied, utterly unfazed by Adriano’s attack. “She wanted to be here when I tell you.”
“Tell me what?” Adriano demanded.
“Fabi has something to say about the photos.”
The coffee cup shattered in Adriano’s hand, as if it were nothing but a kid’s play cup. Hot liquid scalded his hand on top of a shard digging into his palm. But all of that felt like nothing but a background hum to the rage he felt at his friend’s betrayal. He pushed at Bruno’s chest with his scalding hand, his control in broken pieces just like the ceramic. “I asked you to burn those photos. How dare you show them to her?”
“I demanded to see them.”
Adriano stared at the cut on his palm. “Dios mio, Fabi. I know you loathe the air she breathed, but you cross so many lines if you derive pleasure from this mess.”
Fabi flinched as if he had struck her. “I know how I behaved toward her was…horrible. I…” She took a deep breath. “I was the one who snooped in her belongings and figured out that she was making those trips to London. I was the one who tipped off Bruno and then he hired that PI. I started it all.”
“You snooped through her belongings…” Hot shame slithered through Adriano’s chest. How had he not protected his wife from this kind of behavior from his own family? Was that what had driven her to…
“That’s not all,” Bruno added as if he realized that Adriano was this close to throwing them both out of the suite by the scruff of their necks.
“Apology accepted, Fabi. Now get out.”
“No. I was insecure because of how much you seemed to…prefer her company to any of us. You even forgot my birthday this year.” Catching his gaze, she stuttered. “You know what Mama and… Papa have been like our whole lives. You’re everything to me, to Federico, even if he won’t say it. It felt like she was stealing you from us, Adriano. So, I followed Mama’s tune and was a bitch to her,si. And she never once called me on it until that day at dinner…” Fabi sniffled. “After she left, I bugged Bruno why, and he told me and…I couldn’t believe that you would believe some cheap photos. The reason Mama feels so threatened by Nyra is precisely because she seems to be made of the kind of integrity and loyalty that she has never understood. I can’t believe you thought that Nyra would…betray you like that. Anyway, I insisted on seeing the photos and…” Tears poured down her cheeks.
Adriano turned to Bruno.
“It’s not Nyra. In the photos,” Bruno said, rushing through his words, knowing Adriano was at the end of his tether. “Fabi’s the one who spotted the difference. The woman in them, she has a tattoo under her…breast. It’s in shadow but it’s there, especially when you zoom in on the soft copy. A tiny rose. As far as I know, Nyra doesn’t have a tattoo anywhere on her body.”
For just a second, Adriano had the insane urge to punch his best friend in his face for knowing that about his wife, for taking her name with such reverence. He’d always known that Bruno had a soft spot for Nyra, but this was a crossing of boundaries and he wouldn’t tolerate any man, even his best friend, noticing things about…
Then the blaring truth struck him with the force of a tsunami.
It wasn’t Nyra in the photos.She hadn’t cheated on him. She hadn’t broken their vows, she hadn’t…
The relief that flooded his entire being was short-lived, decimated by guilt that clawed its bloody nails across his insides. Sinking against the bench by the foot of the untouched bed, Adriano buried his face in his hands.
The pale tint to her tawny golden skin as she held his eyes, the streak of tears that he’d mocked her for, the hurt pinching her mouth…she’d refused to explain herself, but the truth had been written on her face.
And even knowing how to read it, even knowing her better than he’d ever known another woman in his life, he had failed.
I hope the image of me with that man haunts you for the rest of your life.
Her parting words skewered him afresh, for he now understood the ferocious thrust beneath.
“Who is the woman in the photos?” he said, the cobwebs clearing from his head. One little shift in perspective and the truth blinded him with its simplicity.
“Her twin, Nadia. I sent you her file. They were separated when they were fourteen. Once Fabi spotted the difference, I went back to the PI and located the woman. Nadia has a history of…” Bruno looked hesitant. “Drugs. I’m not sure if Nyra even knows that. She’s just been leaving her envelopes full of cash in places that Nadia asked her to. Even though Nadia refused to meet her. The PI mistook her for Nyra at the café and followed her. Their background…you should brace yourself. It’s going to be problematic. For you.”
I needed the money, Adriano, urgently, she had said, looking devastated.
But he hadn’t been in a listening mood. He’d already decided that she was guilty.