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Was she losing her mind?
It certainly felt like it.
With her hands going to her hips, she groaned as she surveyed the chaos of her apartment. Every drawer had been pulled open, and every single bit of paperwork had been dragged from the filing cabinet. She’d crawled beneath both beds, searched beneath the cushions of the couch, even stood on a chair and scanned the top of her fridge out of utter desperation. But other than discovering where dust went to rest in peace, she’d come up empty-handed, just like she had a month earlier, and ever since, each and every time she tore the place apart. She was almost certain she’d popped Chiara’s passport into the filing cabinet with her other important documents. Her own was still there. It was very odd. How in the heck had she gone and lost Chiara’s? She knew she’d tucked it away for safekeeping, could still remember holding it in her hands six months earlier, when it had arrived in the post, but for the life of her she had no idea how it had crawled out of the filing-cabinet drawer and seemingly vanished into thin air. Surely Chiara was telling the truth, and hadn’t touched it? And why would she want to? Her darling girl had been so excited about her very first trip to Australia. Her ex-husband, Salvatore, on the other hand, had been none too happy about the idea. He may have turned out to be a crappy husband, and a half-arsed father, but surely he wouldn’t have stooped so low as to have broken in there and taken it.
The idea was ludicrous.
So she shook off the gnawing sensation.
Mostly.
With her past still nipping at her heels, Jess wasn’t sure what she’d expected when she’d hightailed it all the way over to the other side of the world, nor when she’d signed a prenup and married a man on a whim, but it certainly hadn’t been this. She’d made her vows and kept them, but as for her cheating ex, Salvatore hadn’t followed through. Not that it was all bad. She and Chiara had a roof over their heads, the unconditional love and support of her nonno, and a job she loved at a local museum. She also appreciated the extra hours at Nonno’s beloved restaurant, now managed by her cousin. For Chiara’s sake, she hoped and prayed she could somehow turn things around and find her way as a recently divorced single mother, but she knew that inevitably, in the long run, that meant telling the cold, hard truth. First, she needed a conclusive answer. Once she had it, the very thought of revealing her secret terrified her. She hadn’t told a living soul back in Australia. Not even Shanti. Her nonno was the only person alive who knew. Her nonna had taken it to her grave eight years earlier. What would everyone – especially Morgan – think of her once they found out she’d lied to them all this time?
Stepping out and onto her little balcony for a much-needed breath of fresh air, she briefly closed her eyes and inhaled the delicious scents of lemon, truffle and sweet pomodoro sauce wafting up from the line of trattorias below. Noisy chatter accompanied the mouth-watering aromas. She’d left the five-bedroom house she’d shared with her wandering-eyed husband a week after she’d found out he’d been having not one affair, but two, and home these days was a small two-bedroom flat in an apartment block overlooking the animated Piazza Santo Spirito. The square was a gathering place for tourists, bohemians and students alike, and was considered the artisan quarter of the Oltrarno district. It was also one of the cheaper areas to rent in, given it was in more of a local area, rather than one of the tourist hotspots in the historic centre. Hopefully, if she continued to save half her pay cheque each week, she’d have just enough to put a deposit down on a place of her own. Maybe somewhere in the Chianti hills, twenty minutes out of town. A little chalet in the Tuscan countryside, with winemakers and olive groves all around her; now that would be perfection.
Her mind changed scenes and her belly flip-flopped as she imagined arriving in the diverse landscape of Far North Queensland. As much as she loved Florence and the Chianti hills, she did miss the contrasting sides of Silverton Shores. With lush green towering mountains on one side, the far-reaching Pacific Ocean on the other, and rolling rustic countryside stretching towards the centre of Australia, the sleepy little township was like heaven on earth in its own unique ways. In fewer than seventy-two hours, she’d be breathing in very different scents to the ones below her – floral lychee and mango blossoms, sweet sugarcane, horses and cattle, and sun-baked Aussie earth. It had been a long time coming. Almost a decade. It broke her heart that Chiara wouldn’t be able to join her – there’d be no getting out of Italy without a passport. But as much as she didn’t want to leave Chiara behind, she had to go. Thank goodness for Nonno offering to look after her; there was no way she’d be leaving her darling girl with Salvatore for an entire fortnight. Half of her couldn’t wait to arrive on her brother’s doorstep, and the other half wanted to run and hide.
The ringing of her phone had her almost jumping out of her skin. Racing back inside to grab it from the coffee table, she took the international call just before it went to message bank. ‘Shanti!’
‘Jessie!’ Shanti’s joyful voice carried down the line, wrapping her up in a far-reaching hug. ‘How are you, my soon-to-be-official sister-in-law?’
Jess’s heart warmed. ‘I’m floating along, how about you, hon, how’s the wedding planning going?’
Shanti groaned then laughed. ‘Boy oh boy, I’ve almost throttled your darling brother a million times, but all in all, everything is finally coming together.’
‘Ha ha, I can only imagine Roberto and his lack of wedding planning skills.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘He’d be an absolute nightmare.’
‘Tell me about it.’ Shanti giggled. ‘He’s lucky I love him so much.’
‘Yes, he sure is.’ Jess thought back to Shanti and Roberto’s most recent trip to Florence, where she’d witnessed the loved-up pair for a month solid. ‘I’m so sorry I haven’t been able to get there sooner, so I can help you more.’
‘No, don’t you dare apologise. I totally understand how tough you’ve been having it lately.’ Shanti’s tone was full of compassion. ‘I wish I could be there withyou, helping you out of the mess Salvatore left you and Chiara in, the cheating lowlife bastard.’
‘Thanks, Shanti, but I’m okay.’ She wasn’t, but the truth wasn’t going to do anyone any good. ‘So, tell me, what theme did you end up deciding on for the reception hall?’ Anywhere other than her messy life was a good direction for the conversation to go in.
‘Oh, have I got a surprise for you,’ Shanti squealed excitedly. ‘We, or should I say I, ended up deciding on a real shindig of a hoedown kind of wedding.’
‘Yay you!’ Shindig and hoedown didn’t ring right for her fine-dining-loving brother, but she knew he’d do anything to make his bride happy. ‘And what does this theme entail, exactly?’
‘Well, if I have my way, the seats are going to be hay bales and the food is going to be a spit-roast buffet with all the trimmings.’ She sighed. ‘And I’ve agreed to meet Roberto halfway, so we can have posh stuff too, like fairy lights and classy table decorations.’
Jess sank onto the couch and smiled into the phone. ‘It sounds perfect, Shanti.’ She’d been a bride in another lifetime, so she totally understood her best friend’s excitement. And she was excited for them. She just wasn’t thrilled about going back to Silverton Shores, especially without Chiara. ‘I can’t wait to see you in your wedding dress.’
‘It’s having the final alterations tomorrow, and then I have to basically starve myself until the big day, so I don’t put any weight on.’ Shanti chuckled.
‘Yeah, right.’ Jess chuckled too. ‘Final last words from the queen of fast food and sugar highs.’
‘I know, right, I’m a sucker for burger and fries, or doughnuts, and don’t even get me started on my newest addiction of salted caramel popcorn, oh my god, I have to stop, I’m making myself hungry.’ There was a short pause as Jess laughed, and then Shanti sighed. ‘Are you sure you’re okay with leaving Chiara with your nonno, Jessie?’ Concern rang in her usually calm voice. ‘I’d understand if you had to change your mind about coming all this way without her.’
‘I do wish I could bring her with me, but her passport is nowhere to be found, and there’s no way I’m going to miss your and Roberto’s magical day.’ Her heart tripped but she caught it before it stole her breath. ‘Anyways, stop worrying about me and get back to organising the final details of your wedding to my very loveable, yet sometimes very exasperating, brother.’
‘Will do, and I’m counting down the sleeps until you get here.’
‘Me too,’ Jess replied.
‘Toodle-oo, bestie, see you real soon!’
‘Yes, you will, toodles, love you, hon.’
