Bella (15 page)

Emilio said Marco didn
’
t have a sister only two brothers.

 
Anna put her head in her hand, she told me that
one of Marco's brothers was killed in a car crash; she showed me a picture of
him.

  
“
His name was Serge, he was a good boy, he was travelling
back from work late at night, a lorry went out of control, the driver was drunk
and my Serge was killed instantly.
”
She sobbed.
 

  
“
I am so sorry, you must be heartbroken.
”
I asked her sympathetically.

 
“
Yes I am. Also Antonio hasn't visited us since Serge's
funeral, he took it so bad.
 
But I am more
hurt that Marco is a bad boy.

  
“
Have you tried to contact Antonio?
”
 

  
“
We have, he don
’
t want to talk to us.
”

 
“
How did Marco take the news?" I asked her.

Anna laughed.

  
“
Marco care only about himself, my husband isn't a well man
she said, he has a bad heart, and all the pressure isn't good for him.
”

 “
Please let us see our granddaughter Violet?
”
She begged.

  
“
Of course I will.
 
Would you like to come to England? Is Emilio OK for
travelling?
” 

  
“
Yes he needs holiday, and will be good for him.
”

 
   
“
Well that
’
s settled when would
you like to come?
”

 
Anna decided Christmas would be a good time.

 
 
“
Ok! Don
’
t worry about
anything. I will arrange your travel and you don
’
t have to pay a penny.
”

 
“
Thank you, we are so grateful, you are a lovely woman.
”

I said my goodbyes and went back to the hotel. I
was really surprised to see Claudio sitting in the lobby..

  
“
Hi Claudio! What are you doing here? I thought you had to
work?
”
I asked.

  
“
My last meeting was postponed, so I thought I would come
and see you.
”

  
“
Have you been here long?
”
I asked.

  
“
No, about ten minutes, that
’
s all. Where have you been?
”

  
“
I went to see Marco
’
s parents again.
”

We had a drink in the bar and I invited him up
to my room. We sat on the bed and talked for what seemed hours. Claudio moved
closer and kissed me tenderly on the lips. I melted into his arms and kissed
him back. We lay there hugging each other and dozed off. We were woken up
suddenly

because we heard a disturbance outside the hotel
and we heard my name being mentioned. We went onto the balcony, I couldn
’
t believe my eyes. Marco and his wife were
arguing.
Does Marco know I am staying at this hotel
? I thought.
Or
is it just a coincidence
. We stood there and listened to the
conversation even though I couldn
’
t understand a word apart from my name.

“
Sono sicuro di poter ripulire il nostro conto
comune questa settimana. Il problema
è
la sua cassaforte. Io non conosco la combinazione per
aprirla. Bella non mi ha mai permesso d
’
avere l
’
accesso.
”

“
Non m
’
interessa! Devi cercare di tenerti buona Bella finche hai ottenuto l
’
accesso al soldi.
Capito
? Sasha shouted.

I turned to Claudio. He looked fuming and was
ready to go after Marco. I calmed him down and asked him what the conversation
was about.

 
“
Basically the whole conversation was about cleaning out
your joint bank account and keep you sweet until he could get access to the
money in your safe.
”
He said angrily.

I couldn't believe my ears. I wanted to shout
something to them both. But I kept quiet, knowing then what a horrible man I
had married, a liar and a cheat. I decided to play along with his horrible
lies. I looked at the clock it was nearly
midnight and
wondered if Simon was still up. I had to call him. Thankfully he answered the
phone. Claudio stood patiently by my side with his arm around me.

 I burst into tears and told him everything I
knew from start to finish. Simon was furious. 

  
“
I knew he wasn't right. but I didn't realise how bad he
was.
”

I told him that I had met his mother and father.

  
“
They are such nice people. Marco has treated them very
badly. He took money from them and never paid it back.
”

  
“
Don
’
t worry Bella, I will
take the next available flight. I will probably arrive sometime tomorrow
morning.
”
He said.

  
“
Thanks Simon. How are the kids?
”

  
“
They are fine. Tammy is taking great care of them, but we
have to sort this
bloody
mess out.
”

Claudio stayed with me for the rest of the night
because I didn
’
t want to be alone.

The next morning he received a call from a
friend of his, regarding information about Marco.

   
“
My friend says that
Marco is a big crook and has swindled a lot of people out of money.
”

 I told Claudio how he took money from his parents, and
never paid them back.

  
“
Have you been to the
bank recently Bella, to check whether any money has been taken out?
”
  He asked.

  
“
No I haven
’
t.
” 
I answered. We thought it was better to go directly to the
bank and check whether the money was still there. Luckily it was.

  
“
It's not like he has
put any money into our joint account, it
’
s actually all mine.
”
I said.

 After we left the bank Simon called.

   
“
Hi, just to let you
know I
’
ve just arrived at
the airport. My flight leaves in a couple of hours, so I will arrive at the
hotel sometime this evening.

 
Claudio took me out for the rest of the day to
take my mind off the situation. But I couldn't concentrate on anything. I just
couldn`t believe how stupid I had been.

Simon called me when he landed and told me he would take a
taxi straight to the hotel.

When he arrived I was so happy to see him. I introduced him
to Claudio and he thanked him for looking after me.

We decided that I was to go back to England, and when Marco
arrived I wasn
’
t to let him know
anything. I was to leave a note hanging out of the guest house accounts book
with the combination to the safe on it and wait for him to open the safe. As
soon as he made a move I was to call the police. That was the only way we
thought to trap a crook like him. I just didn't like the thought of putting his
parents through any more heartache.

Claudio took me and Simon to a lovely restaurant for some
dinner; we ate a lovely seafood risotto, drank a nice bottle of wine and
chatted about our lives.

   
“
I miss mother and
father so much.
 
Its times like
this I need my parents.
”
I said.

   
“
Bella you will always
have me no matter what.
”
He said
reassuringly.

   
“
We should fly back to
England soon; I miss the kids so much.
”

Simon decided we should stay for another two days, then fly
back.

Claudio went back to work, but said as soon as he had a few
more days off he would fly to England.

I decided to take Simon to meet Marco's parents; they
greeted him with open arms.

 
Emilio told us they had heard from Marco that
morning.

  
“
We couldn't believe
it.
”

I then told them how I
’
d heard a disturbance the night before outside
my hotel and it had been Marco and his wife shouting and mentioning my name.

  
“
What did he
say?" Emilio asked me.

  
“
He said that he was
going to take money from our hotel safe.
“
Anna looked upset.

  
“
Why he do this?
“
He is a bad boy!"

Anna told me he had asked them again for money.
 

   
“
You didn't give any
did you?
”
I said.

  
“
No we didn't, he won
’
t get another penny of us.
”

Simon noticed they had a guitar and asked if they minded
him playing it.  We sat and listened for a while, then Anna offered us some
freshly baked bread, with a lovely minestrone soup and for afters we ate
chocolate fudge cake. After we had eaten I told them before we left for England
we would take them out to eat in Tuscany to say thank you for all the lovely
food they had given us and the warm welcome.

I took Simon to a lovely ancient church  that Claudio had
pointed out, We then drove around the small narrow roads,
there
were little farmhouse's dotted around. Simon said that he
’
d never seen such beautiful scenery before. After
we went back to the hotel because I needed a nap; I was tired and felt
stressed.

Simon decided to share my room with me; we laid there
talking about our parents and everything that had happened.      

  
“
Simon I feel like we
haven
’
t had much luck lately.
Surely it must be our turn for some.
”

Simon put his arm around me and gave me a squeeze.

  
“
Bella, I wish I could
make everything right for you.
”

I kissed Simon on the cheek.

   I know you care very much Simon, but I should
have realised what Marco was like.
”

   We must have drifted off to sleep. I woke up
and looked at the clock; it was six in the morning. Obviously we must have been
shattered. I got up, had a quick shower and got dressed before Simon woke up.
When he was ready we went for a walk and stopped off for some breakfast. We had
a plate of cheese and salami with some bread, and drank freshly squeezed orange
juice for breakfast.

  Later that morning I decided to have my hair
done while Simon did a bit of sightseeing. After we met up and went to pick up
Marco
’
s parents.

Anna said Emilio wasn`t feeling very well.

  
“
It too much stress
for him.
”
  We walked around
Tuscany for a while, and then took them to a restaurant called

 Il Latino, a very rustic place, with lovely home cooked
food. I had Spaghetti Alla Corte D'Assise which is a really spicy
dish.
Simon had pizza al fungi and Emilio and Anna had cannelloni. We all had a big
portion of tiramisu for dessert.

I told Emilio and Anna about our parents, and our lives as
children. Simon told them I was his little shadow as a child.