The Marriage Act(98)

‘He came home and you got into an argument, you were fighting and you both fell,’ Jeffrey said. ‘Noah hit his head and stopped breathing.’

‘I hurt him?’ Luca asked, horrified. Jeffrey nodded. He watched as Luca’s eyes welled up as he racked his brains, trying to recall the events of the night. ‘No, that can’t be right. Why don’t I remember?’

‘We’d been drinking. But I’m going to help you.’

‘If it was an accident then you can tell the police what you saw.’

‘I can’t. I was downstairs when it happened. You said he was strangling you and you were trying to protect yourself. It’s going to be your word against a man with a fatal head wound. Let me take care of it. I’ll move Noah somewhere until we can decide what to do.’

‘Noah wouldn’t lay a finger on me,’ Luca wept. ‘He can’t be dead.’

‘I won’t let you throw your life away for someone who doesn’t deserve it. He wasn’t in love with you any more, Luca; he came into the house and told you he was going to divorce you because he’d found someone else.’

‘No, no, I’m sure that didn’t happen. We love each other, he’s my world.’

Jeffrey tried to ignore Luca’s declaration. ‘It’s when you began to argue . . . it became violent. Look at your neck, Luca. There are red marks from where he was trying to strangle you.

Luca shook his head and pressed his flesh, wincing at the spot where Jeffrey had had him gripped in a chokehold. Jeffrey had deliberately compressed the arteries delivering blood to his brain, which knocked him out in seconds. Luca had begun to stir again by the time Jeffrey had dragged him to the top of the stairs and Jeffrey had known that it was too much of a risk if he asphyxiated him too many times or for too long. So he’d swapped strangulation for an electroshock weapon he had last used on Harry before stabbing him with a screwdriver. It fired two sharp darts into Luca’s neck so that its current disrupted his muscle control. By holding the trigger for long enough, a disorientated Luca had slipped into unconsciousness again. Jeffrey had had little choice but to repeat the action each time Luca had begun to rouse. The final attack had come when Jeffrey had spotted Noah’s car pulling up on the drive.

Now, Jeffrey held Luca’s face in his hands and brought it so close to his own that he could feel the warmth emitted by Luca’s tears.

‘Your marriage wasn’t destined to survive,’ Jeffrey continued gently. ‘You couldn’t see how unhappy you were until I showed you how much better things could be without Noah. Earlier today you told me that you haven’t laughed like we have in ages. There’s no reason why that can’t continue, is there? Let me take care of you. Let me love you like Noah couldn’t. I’ll be your Babe and you can be my Ziggy.’

He had finally said it. Jeffrey had admitted he loved Luca. His heart jackhammered.

‘What did you say?’ Luca asked.

Jeffrey swallowed hard. ‘I asked you to let me love you. If you give us a chance, then something positive can come of this mess. We both want the same things out of life – a relationship, marriage, a family – Noah was rejecting all of that. You and me . . . there’s a connection there, I know you feel it like I do . . . together, you and I can have all of it and more.’

Luca shook his head. ‘No, no, we need to get Noah help.’

He went to move his arms, but Jeffrey held him back. Luca was too weak to make it a challenge.

‘Please let me go,’ he begged.

‘I can’t, not until you accept that I have your best interests at heart.’

‘I don’t love you, Jeffrey,’ Luca wept. ‘I love Noah.’

‘For now, maybe, but it won’t always be like that. You can grow to love me. We don’t even have to touch; we can be intimate in other ways. If you want others to join us, I don’t even have to take part, I can just watch. I’m used to it.’

‘No, no, you don’t understand . . . we only spent time together because we were lonely. I thought you knew that.’

Jeffrey shifted his body away from Luca’s. His words wounded as deeply as when he’d heard them from the mouths of others. Had he really got this so wrong, or was Luca confused?

‘Luca, you’re upset, you’re not thinking straight,’ he said in desperation.

Luca suddenly caught his reflection in a mirror and, for the first time, realized he was naked. He tried to pull the duvet from the bed to hide his modesty. ‘Why am I . . .?’ he began, but, as he looked up to Jeffrey, he registered Noah’s blood on the wall behind him.

Jeffrey’s hope began to deflate as Luca slotted the pieces of the puzzle together. And Jeffrey saw their future together slipping through his fingers.

‘You . . . you hurt Noah, didn’t you?’ Luca asked. ‘And me . . . I remember . . . you had your hands around my neck . . .’

Gradually, Luca began pushing himself up against the wardrobe. But he was still weak and kept sliding back down to the carpet.

Meanwhile, Jeffrey caught sight of an email icon flashing on his watch. Assuming it to be another message from Adrian, he was about to dismiss it until the sender’s name caught his eye. It was from the Match Your DNA domain name. And the three words in the subject title knocked him for six.

‘You’ve been Matched!’