The Silent Wife(95)

I dashed back to Lara’s and scooted into the lounge to see Nico take a swing at Massimo. There was something of the spaghetti arms about his punch, as though he hadn’t used his limbs for that particular movement before. But he still made contact with Massimo’s chin. Massimo staggered backwards, taking with him a tray of crystal glasses before gathering himself and charging at Nico.

Massimo was the heavier and more powerful of the two but Nico was more nimble on his feet. As I watched them take swipes at each other, a little Lladro ornament was decapitated, a Wedgwood bowl went flinging off the sideboard. I tried to get between them but it was like trying to separate a couple of snarling dogs.

‘Stop it!’ My voice sounded as though it was coming from a distant hill, where the wind had removed all power and just a feeble echo remained. I stepped forward. ‘Nico! Don’t do this. You’re better than that. Better than him.’

As though an alarm clock had suddenly penetrated a deep, red wine sleep, Nico stopped dead, his chest heaving. I glanced at Massimo, who, despite his split lip, was still managing to contort his face into a sneer, his fingers clenching and unclenching. Nothing like the charming man I’d believed he was. I stood in front of Nico and stared Massimo down.

‘What do you know about me, Maggie? What do you know about anything? Except how to gold-dig?’

Nico sent out a growl of anger to my left. I put out my hand to stop him moving towards Massimo. Of course I registered that blow, the slice into a wound that was always ready to split open. But I wasn’t the one who was going to feel bad. Oh no. Not at all. I could almost hear my inner steel oiling itself up for action.

The Beryl in me came out. ‘Here’s what I know. I don’t go through life getting what I want by hurting people. I also know it doesn’t matter what I say, how much I love Nico, your shrivelled little heart won’t ever be able to believe I’m with him for anything other than money because people like you don’t understand working together, looking out for each other. They only understand getting their own way.’ To my credit, I did pause for a second’s consideration before I let my killer point out into the world. ‘You might be right that I’m a bit thick. It’s taken me all this time to realise what you’re really like. But I met someone today who put me in the picture. And I didn’t want to believe her. I was hoping she just had an axe to grind, that her story wasn’t the truth.’

Massimo’s eyes pinged up like a cartoon dog’s. He was having to work harder at that sneer.

‘Yes, I bumped into Dawn today. You do know that your “other” son is a swimming champion? That the boy you abandoned because he was “defective”, as you put it, came first in the swimming championships Francesca has just been to?’

Nico put his hand on his hips. ‘What other son?’

The relief that only Massimo knew about Ben gave my anger a sharper edge. ‘Tell him, Massimo. Tell him how Dawn had to run away because she was afraid you would make her abort your own son because he had a heart problem.’

Nico was shaking his head, disbelief flooding his face. ‘What? I thought you said she didn’t want children.’

Massimo looked at the floor. Just for a second, I felt a sliver of sympathy for him. He’d behaved like an absolute arse but I couldn’t bring myself to believe he’d done it without a lot of heartache.

But that little pause was just to allow Massimo time to reload. When he looked up again, he’d narrowed his eyes as though he was flicking through a mental armoury of weapons he could use to wound me. ‘Don’t come that holier than thou shit, Maggie. At least I’m not a thief.’

I wasn’t quite sure how being a thief was worse than intimidating your wife so much that she had to flee and hide to save her baby. But today didn’t seem to be about rational arguments. He’d picked the wrong insult to throw at me.

‘I’m not a thief. I’ve never stolen a thing in my life. I couldn’t give a shit about money. Nico is always wanting to buy me this, that and the other, but I’ve seen what trying to keep up with everyone else does to people and believe me, I am happy as I am.’

‘What about the gold box you “lost”?’

I felt a rush of betrayal that Lara had told him. ‘I had to get rid of it. And you know why.’ I glanced at Nico, wishing I could save him from the truth.

‘Why? Come on, we’re all family here. Do share with us why you felt you had to take a box worth hundreds of pounds.’

‘How would you know how much it was worth?’

‘Francesca told me that you’d stolen a real gold box.’

I should have known Lara wouldn’t give Massimo any ammunition against me. ‘Fuck off, Massimo. You know how much it was worth because you’re the one who bought it for Caitlin.’

Nico looked as though he was standing in a room where everyone was fluent in a language he’d only just started to learn. I wanted to pause, to bring him up to speed, anything to stop him seeing the world as a place where the people he loved the most lied and kept secrets from him.

‘What proof have you got that I gave it to her?’

I couldn’t quite believe he’d admitted shagging his brother’s wife but wanted to split hairs over whether or not he’d given Caitlin a present.

‘Because of the inscription. That was you, wasn’t it? Why “P” though?’