Page 60 of The Fall Affair

“Oohh. Yes, that sounds great.”

I gestured to the wrought-iron bistro chairs and small round table on the balcony. “Sit. Enjoy your view. I’ll bring it.”

A few minutes later, I passed her a glass of our eight-year-old reserve. My favorite. I’d hidden a few bottles when my sister showed up, since she loved it, too.

“Thank you.” Allegra sipped. “You said you haven’t been here in a while. How many years has it been?”

“Probably five.”

Allegra’s eyes met mine. She was smart and had probably done the math, figuring out that I’d been married at the time. “Were you here on business or pleasure?”

I looked away. “Pleasure, but it turned out not to be very pleasurable.”

“Something bad happened?”

I stared out at the sea. “Izzy and I were supposed to come down to Positano—not here in this apartment, but to a nearby hotel—for a short holiday after she got back from one of her retreats. It was to be a surprise for her since she’d been gone and loved to travel. But when she returned, she told me she wanted a divorce, so I ended up coming here alone.”

“Oh my gosh. I’m sorry. I wouldn’t have asked you to come if I’d known it might stir up difficult memories.”

I smiled at her. “You didn’t ask. I offered.”

Allegra was quiet for a while. “What went wrong between you two, if you don’t mind me asking? You said you got married too young, but there must be more to it.” When I didn’t answer right away, she shook her head. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked that.”

“It’s fine. Izzy is just not a subject I speak about often anymore, so it doesn’t come without effort. But she was a part of my life, and I’ve made peace with how things ended between us.”

“You said when she asked you for a divorce, it felt like it came out of the blue. So that means you weren’t having any problems?”

I drank some of my wine and shook my head. “Izzy and I were always very different people. I grew up in the house my great-grandparents owned and had roots here. I valued coming home at night and sleeping in my bed, the comfort of family dinners, neighbors who knew our names and helped each other. Stability and tradition, the kinds of things that don’t change with the seasons.”

She nodded. “That’s easy to see right from the start with you.”

“Izzy grew up very differently. But we were a balance, so it seemed to work. She’d lived in six different states in America before she was even a teenager, so she was more adaptable than me. The best way I could describe her was restless. She craved change. When we were younger, that meant a new hobby every few months. As we got older, it meant entire careers. While I longed for stability, Izzy was always reaching for what came next. And somehow, for a time, that balance held us together. Until it didn’t.” I took a deep breath. “Her travels took her to bigger cities, and she decided she didn’t want to live in a small town anymore.”

“Did you ever consider moving to give her what she wanted?”

I nodded. “I would have moved around the world to be with her back then. But she wanted her freedom. It didn’t make sense to me because when we were together, we were happy. And I needed to make sense of it, which was why I initially convinced myself she was having an affair.”

“But she wasn’t?”

I shook my head. “I’m grateful I didn’t find any evidence she was. It made accepting that we were just different people much easier, and I was able to move on without holding on to a lot of anger and bringing my past into my future relationships.”

She smiled ruefully. “I definitely understand that. I already felt like I didn’t know how to let go of my distrust from my past relationships and my job, and now…finding out even my dad wasn’t loyal, it all feels too heavy to lift.”

“It will take time.”

Allegra looked into my eyes. “What happens if it takes so much time that something really great passes me by?”

I reached across the table and stroked her cheek. “If something is really that great, it will be there for you when you’re ready.”

Her eyes filled with tears, yet she smiled. “You promise?”

I nodded. “Ti prometto.” I promise you.

Chapter 19

Matteo

14 years ago