The Silent Wife(97)

My heart sank. If I knew Massimo, he’d be cancelling the direct debit to the nursing home right now and there’d be nowhere to take my dad back to.





46





MAGGIE




I marched back down the hallway. Without Nico I wasn’t half as brave. The sound of Massimo crunching about on the broken glass in the lounge did nothing to reassure me. I forced away the thought of whether I’d still be able to scream if he put his hands round my throat.

Pushing open the door, I stepped just inside the room. As much as I’d have liked to have gone in all guns blazing, I worked on not sounding aggressive or accusatory, focusing instead on getting him out of the house. ‘Is there somewhere you could go for a few hours until we can get Robert home?’

Massimo smiled. Bloody smiled at me. After everything he’d thrown at me, never mind everyone else. Fruitcake.

He spoke in that funny purring way he adopted sometimes, like some Z-list TV celeb convincing a member of the public to jump out of a plane. ‘Sorry about all that. No need to be dramatic about it and start pushing me out of the door. It just got a little out of hand.’

Jesus. I hoped I was in Australia when it got fully out of hand.

‘I’m worried we won’t get Robert into the car if he sees you and gets agitated again.’

The smile vanished. Massimo ran his hand through his hair. ‘Quite the little Miss Fixit, aren’t you? And not to put too fine a point on it… what if I don’t want to leave my own house to suit my bitch of a wife and a nutjob of a father-in-law?’

‘Then we have a bit of a problem,’ I said, nearly giving into the urge to laugh hysterically and tag ‘Houston’ onto the end of the sentence. I still wouldn’t be the maddest person in the room.

He stood with his hands on his hips, eyes narrowed as though he was trying to decide where to thump me.

Any desire to laugh disappeared.

I pretended to kneel down behind an armchair to pick something up. Instead I ducked down and pulled my mobile out of my back pocket. I thanked God I still had a shitty pay-as-you-go mobile with no password. I stabbed at the buttons, clattering bits of broken china about with my other hand while it rang. ‘Anna? Would you mind coming over to Massimo’s as quickly as you can? There’s a bit of an emergency here and he’s got something he’d like to discuss with you.’

Massimo lunged around the chair to snatch my phone out of my hand, Anna’s voice was still ringing out a shrill ‘What emergency? Maggie? Maggie?’ as it smashed to the floor. Given that it only cost two quid, I wasn’t going to hang around to fight over it. I eyed the door, wondering whether I could beat Massimo to it. I could hear little whimpering noises in my throat, the sort Lupo made when he saw a rabbit running across the garden.

Massimo stepped towards me. ‘You think you’re so much smarter than me, don’t you?’

Even though my heart was racing, I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of seeing me scared. I lifted my chin. ‘No, I don’t. But what brains I do have, I try to use for good things, rather than to increase my arsehole ratings.’ I anchored my feet in case a blow was coming my way.

But Massimo just looked disgusted. ‘That sassy mouth of yours is going to cause trouble for you one day.’

I forced myself to look him right in the eye. ‘That nasty habit of bullying people and thinking you can get away with it isn’t going to do you a great favour either, mate.’

I’d forgotten to be frightened with the rush of adrenaline that came from a good old-fashioned slanging match. I wasn’t used to the whole nicey-nicey not saying what you really thought that the Farinellis favoured. On the estate, my friends and I were always ready with a sharp comeback for anyone who shouted off a balcony or stairwell.

It was almost a disappointment when Anna came rushing in, took one look at the room and screamed, ‘You’ve been burgled.’

I felt sorry for her, even though I didn’t want to be.

‘Massimo’s got something to tell you. I’ll just get Lara.’ I didn’t care about watching the favourite son fall off his sparkly podium. But Lara, she deserved to.





47





LARA




As Anna burst through the front door and charged down the hallway to the sitting room, I realised Massimo wasn’t going to be able to wave his magic wand and convince us all that we’d made a dreadful fuss about nothing. Life as we knew it was going to change.

What I didn’t know yet was whether it would be for the better.

Maggie shot into the kitchen, beckoning me. ‘Is Robert okay for a minute? I think you should hear what Massimo has to say. I can stay with your dad if you want. Or do you need me with you?’

Dad looked as though all the drama of the afternoon had taken its toll and he was dropping off to sleep. I took the mug of lukewarm tea from his grasp and wedged him into the armchair with a couple of cushions. ‘Will you come with me?’ I was a coward, but I already knew that.

‘Of course. Let’s leave the door open then we’ll be able to hear if Robert decides to go for a wander.’ She ran and put the chain on the front door and, yet again, I wondered how I’d existed before Maggie’s arrival, her bohemian aura a front for her highly resourceful nature.