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Chapter Forty-Five
‘It sound like there is good promise,’ said Geli, as she started chopping some onions. Like Lorenzo, she always said she’d like to be corrected if she got an English phrase wrong, but I often felt rude doing that. I knew she meant to sayit soundedpromising, so it was fine. ‘But I still think you should have played Lorenzo the recording.’
‘I know you do, and believe me, I was tempted at the beginning of the conversation, when he started harping on about what an angel his mum is, but it all worked out in the end. Well, now there’s just the small hurdle of breaking the news to Marta, but apart from that…’ I sighed.
‘She should not be let free like this,’ she huffed.
‘I’m leaving it in the hands of fate. Karma will catch up with her. In a way, it already has. If she hadn’t done what she did, I wouldn’t have argued with her and left, and Lorenzo might not have wanted to leave town and have a fresh start so quickly. Now we’ll be moving away, Marta won’t get to see him or Leo as much, so that’s surely punishment enough?’
Geli raised her eyebrow. She clearly didn’t agree.
‘What time will you meet Lorenzo tonight?’
‘Around seven. That still okay?’
‘Sì. Then I will make dinner earlier.’
‘Do you need help? Leo should be asleep for a least another twenty minutes, so I don’t mind.’
‘It is okay.’ She stopped chopping. ‘I just need to poop out.’
‘No problem. I didn’t realise you needed topopout,’ I said, trying to correct her in the subtlest way possible. Whilst I was reluctant to tell her about her mistake before, I couldn’t let her go around telling people she waspoopingout. That had a totally different meaning. ‘Sure you don’t need me to do anything whilst you’re gone?’
‘Okay. Maybe you can chop the carrots and another onion? Is okay?’
‘Of course!’ I washed my hands and picked up the knife.
‘Grazie,’she said, racing out of the kitchen.
‘Pronta?’ asked Lorenzo. We were parked outside our house, about to go inside and tell Marta our news.
‘Yep. As ready as I’ll ever be…’
Lorenzo opened the front door and stepped inside.
Even though I now knew Marta spoke and understood English, I would let Lorenzo lead the conversation. Made sense anyway as she was his beloved mother and he was her golden child. God only knew how she’d handle it. Maybe I should go around the house first and remove all sharp objects…
‘Mamma?’ he called out for her. She replied to say she was in the kitchen. We started walking towards it.
Here goes nothing…
‘Mamma, I have got Sophia with me.’ He translated what he said, then switched back to English. He started speaking Italian again and I understood that he was telling her that I was coming back home with Leo. He wrapped his arm around my waist and gave me a squeeze. ‘I know that you and Sophia have had a disagreement’—that was an understatement—‘but Sophia is the woman that I love. She is also Leo’s mother and I need you to accept how she, howwedecide to raise our son…’
Too right!
So glad to know he had my back. I studied Marta’s face as he translated what he said. I almost wanted to scream,There’s really no need. She understands every word!But I kept quiet. She was stony-faced, as usual, and just stood there saying nothing.
‘We need time to learn how to be parents and of course, we will want your help, but at the moment we need this time alone… I have checked and your house, it is perfect. It is ready for you, I can help you to move back—whatever you want. You are my mamma and I love you very much, so of course I would want you to visit. For you to keep seeing Leo. But Sophia is important to me too and I need her to be comfortable, so it would help if you can apologise to her, please, Mamma, and for both of you try to and have better relationship…’
Oh, Jesus.
Could you imagine Marta apologising tome? There was more chance of hell freezing over. Although Marta stayed silent as Lorenzo translated, her face was getting redder by the second. This was bad. Not only had he told her that he wanted her to move out, he’d also asked her to suck up to me. That would be a lot for her to take in and if I knew Marta, any minute now she would probably explode like a pressure cooker. Anyway, if she did, I was ready for her…
I wondered if he was going to mention us moving away too. On the one hand, it’d probably be best to get it all out of the way in one go, but on the other, I wasn’t sure if she could take that big bombshell on top of everything else.
‘So? Mamma?’ said Lorenzo.
Take cover, people. Marta’s mouth is about to open…
