Page 125 of The Seven Sisters

‘Pai, I understand that you feel guilty, but Mãe was determined that she must not worry you, given that you have so many problems at the office. She has played her part in this too.’

‘As if work matters compared to the health of my wife! She must truly believe that I am a monster for her to have hidden what she has from me! Why have you not said anything to me before, Izabela?’ he shouted, rounding on her angrily.

‘Because I promised Mãe I would not,’ Bel replied firmly. ‘She was adamant she didn’t wish you to know until you had to.’

‘Well, at least now I do,’ said Antonio, rallying a little. ‘We can find the best doctors, surgeons, whatever she needs to recover.’

‘As I said, Mãe has seen her doctor and I was there with her. He told me there was no hope. I’m sorry, Pai, but you must finally face the truth.’

Antonio stared at her as a mixture of expressions – from disbelief, to anger, to devastation – crossed his features.

‘You are telling me she is dying?’ he managed to whisper eventually.

‘Yes. I am so very sorry.’

Antonio slumped into a chair, put his head in his hands and began to weep noisily. ‘No, no . . . not my Carla,please, not my Carla.’

Bel stood up and went to comfort him. She put an arm around his hunched shoulders as they shook with emotion.

‘To think that she has carried this burden alone for all this time and didn’t trust me enough to tell me.’

‘Pai, I swear to you that even if she had, nothing could have been done,’ Bel reiterated. ‘It is Mãe’s wish that she is not put through any further treatment. She says she is at peace, has accepted it and I believe her. Please,’ Bel entreated, ‘for her sake, you must respect her wishes. You have finally seen for yourself how sick she is. Now all she needs is love and support from both of us.’

Antonio’s shoulders sagged suddenly as all his energy left him. Despite her horror that it had taken him so long to notice her mother’s deteriorating health, she felt a wave of sympathy for him.

He looked up at her, the pain evident in his eyes. ‘Whatever you or she may think, she is everything to me and I simply can’t imagine a life without her.’

Bel watched helplessly as he stood up, turned and left the room.

40

‘What’s wrong with you these days?’ slurred Gustavo as Bel emerged from the bathroom in her nightgown. ‘You hardly say a word over dinner any longer. And you rarely speak to me when we are alone.’ He eyed her as she climbed into bed next to him.

It had been a week since Antonio had appeared at the Casa and left devastated by the dreadful news. Bel had visited her mother the following day, and had found Antonio sitting in a chair at her bedside, holding her hand and weeping silently.

Carla had given her daughter a wan smile as she’d entered and indicated her husband. ‘I’ve told him to go to the office, that there’s nothing he can do for me that Gabriela can’t. But he refuses and continues to cluck around me like a mother hen.’

Bel had seen that, despite her words, Carla was comforted and gratified by Antonio’s presence. And from the dreadful way her mother had looked that afternoon, Bel knew it was just in time. When her father had finally been persuaded to leave them alone and go off to the office for a few hours, Carla had spoken quietly to Bel.

‘Now that he knows, I would like to tell you of what I wish to do in the time I have left . . .’

Since then, Bel had been plucking up the courage to tell Gustavo where her mother would like to spend her final days. For of course, Bel must accompany her, and she knew her absence wouldn’t please her husband.

She sat down slowly on the edge of the bed and looked at him, taking in his red eyes and the enlarged, drink-sodden pupils. ‘Gustavo,’ she began, ‘my mother is dying.’

‘What?’ He turned his head towards her. ‘This is the first that I’ve heard about it. How long have you known?’

‘A few weeks, but my mother insisted that I tell no one.’

‘Not even your husband?’

‘Not until she’d told her own, no.’

‘I see. The cancer is back, I presume?’

‘Yes.’

‘How long does she have left?’ he asked her.