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‘Here we are.’ Romeo pulled over in a car park.

Wow. It was a restaurant right by the sea with huge windows giving uninterrupted views.

The waiter showed us to a table and once we’d ordered, I took a sip of the wine that Romeo had recommended.

‘You were talking about Biscotti and your mum before,’ I said. ‘Are you close to all of your family?’

‘Most of them. My mother especially. Although she has lived here for over thirty years, I still think she finds it difficult being away from her family and friends in England. It was easier when we were all living at home, but now with me always working at the hotel, my brother in London and my sister in Rome, she gets lonely. I know she misses us a lot.’

‘I can imagine,’ I said, tearing off a piece of bread then popping it in my mouth.

‘Do you have siblings?’

‘Yeah – a younger sister. She drives me up the wall, but I love her really,’ I said. ‘And how about your dad?’

Romeo’s face turned to stone.

‘We do not get along,’ he said bluntly.

‘Oh no, why?’ I blurted out, then realised I was being too nosy. ‘Sorry, it’s none of my business.’

‘It is okay. I do not like how he treats my mother. He is disrespectful. He has cheated on her many times. Last time she went to London, she came back to find two women in the house with him, so instead of divorcing him, she thinks the solution is never to leave him home alone again.’ Romeo shook his head.

‘That’s terrible.’

‘It is. She gave up her career in London to come here and focus on raising the family. He never wanted her to work, but I know that she did. Now that we are all grown, this is her chance to reclaim her life. I have told her so many times that she should divorce him and return to England, but she will not. She is very loyal.Tooloyal. He does not deserve her.’

‘I’m so sorry to hear that. If my dad ever cheated, Mum would chop his cock off.’

‘I would not blame her. It is a betrayal of the highest kind.’ His face tightened again.

‘Yep.’ My stomach clenched as I thought about the times it’d happened to me.

‘Mamma stays because I know that she will feel embarrassed to leave. From what I heard from her sister, many people told her that leaving to go to live in Italy with him was a mistake. And for so long I think she painted the picture of having a perfect life here, the handsome boyfriend, sunshine, sea… it all must have sounded so glamorous. So if she returned, I think she is afraid to look like a failure and have everyone tell her that they knew it would not work, so it is easier to stay.’

‘Yeah. I guess it’s harder to leave the older you get and if she’s been keeping up appearances for so long, it’s probably terrifying to tell everyone she’s been living a lie. But if her family and friends love her, they’d understand and welcome her back with open arms.’

‘Exactly.’

‘And if they haven’t been happy for a while and she’s wasting her life, it’s better to make the break now before she wastes any more of her life, right?’

‘This is what I have been telling her. She does not know this but I have set up a bank account for her, so that when she is ready to leave him and return to England she will have money for a fresh start.’

‘Wow.’ My eyes popped. ‘That’s so sweet of you.’

‘It is nothing compared to all that she has done for me and my siblings. I just want her to be happy and I know she will be happier if she is back in England. She did take us there for a while when we were younger, but my father sweet-talked her. He said if they got divorced it would bring shame and bad luck on the family, so she brought us back. In the end she decided it was easier to stay than leave.’

‘Were they ever in love?’

‘It is hard to say. From what I could tell, my parents were a terrible match. It was all based on lust. She was flattered that a model was interested in her and loved his accent. And he loved being able to say that he had a beautiful girl from London worshipping him. She boosted his ego and he liked that. That wasn’t the basis for a marriage.’

‘Your dad was a model?’

‘Sì. For many years. He met Mamma when he was modelling in London. According to my English aunt, he promised Mamma the world, so she left her teaching job and moved to Italy to be with him which was a mistake because he was always travelling. By the time she realised that he was a ladies’ man, she was already pregnant with me and so she committed to staying here to raise me. They got married but he never changed. I still remember the arguments.’ Romeo winced.

‘I’m sorry.’ I rested my hand on his and gave it a squeeze, trying to ignore the electricity shooting through me. Romeo was opening up to me, so now wasn’t the time to think about how good it felt.

‘And when his work started to dry up, he made me do modelling instead, so he could live the experience through me.’