Someone to Love (32 page)

Diego hugged her, sliding a hand along her head. I was blinded by jealousy, but refrained. “She's Gemma, Eva's sister,” he said.

“Eva? I don't understand. In fact, now I have to…”

Diego grasped my wrist and invited me to sit down. He was anxious. “No, you have to listen to me, now.”

He pulled out a photo from the pocket of his jeans and placed it in front of my eyes.

That woman looked incredibly like me. My blood froze in my veins.

“Who is she?” I asked, confused.

“This is Eva, my wife.”

I put my hand to my mouth. Diego was married and hadn't told me anything. I threw myself against him with all my strength, hitting him with my fists.

“How could you?” I whispered, weakly.

He let me go and sat back down. He rested his elbows on his knees and rubbed his hair in a tired and distracted gesture. “Eva is gone. She passed away two years ago.”

His words reached me and I was frozen, paralyzed. My head began to spin, and when he spoke again, I gasped.

“It's not easy to talk about this, but it's time.”

“I met Eva when I was twenty-four. I had passed an examination and I had recently moved to Milan. It was my first day in the Police Department. I bumped into her by accident in a corridor at Police Headquarters. She wore a dark blue uniform. I made her drop the papers she was carrying, so I bent down to help her pick them up. Her beauty was disarming.” He was immersed in a distant time, of fleeting memories. “We worked together and it wasn't a problem. We never fought, everything was perfect. I loved her so much…” Diego turned and put a hand behind his neck. “One evening we were both on patrol, I was patrolling an area south of the city while Eva was on duty with a colleague in the northernmost district. I received an emergency signal on the radio and arrived first at the scene. The car Eva was in had ended up against an electricity pole during a chase. It was unrecognizable, just a heap of twisted, smoking metal. She had survived the crash, but her condition was very serious.” Diego's voice began to tremble. “I was in the ambulance, by her side. She had lost a lot of blood. I didn't want to deceive myself, I understood the seriousness of the situation.” Diego began to fiddle with the bracelet on his wrist. “She held my hand and closed her eyes forever.”

I didn't know what to do. Fear gripped me, it unseated me and everything I believed in vanished.

“I didn't know… but I saw you and Gemma. I don't understand anything any more…”

It was all I managed to say.

Diego shook his head. “It's not your fault. Now you know something about me that no one else has ever known. I moved here to Turin to start a new life and to be close to Gemma.”

I tried to get up and to get close to him. I wanted to let him know that I was sorry, that all the ideas that I had about him were wrong. But I was troubled by my resemblance to Eva. I didn't want Diego to believe he had found her in me. I couldn't be her in any way, no one could ever be. “I look like her a lot, it's true. But I don't want you to feel attracted to me just because I remind you of her.” I muttered bitterly.

Diego took my hand. “Don't even think it. I can't deny that your appearance initially left me speechless…”

I thought about that day. “Yes, I remember something…”

“You look very much like Eva, but that's not why I want to be with you,” he said gently. “There's something clean and pure in you and it's inevitable to feel attracted to you. Only you were able to bring order to the chaos I have inside,” he continued.

“You disappeared without saying anything, where have you been? Do you have any idea of the pain you caused me?”

“I screwed up, I told you that it was a business trip just because I didn't feel quite ready to talk about my past. And when I saw you knew Gemma I collapsed.” A moment of silence. “I couldn't bear to tell you the truth, I was going to her hometown to take her flowers for her birthday.”

I hadn't understood anything. One thing was certain: Diego had rocked my life. “I don't know. Starting a relation with such a secret…” I whispered, while the first tears appeared in my eyes.

“Mia, I know what I want because I'm holding it in my hands now, and you know? You'd better tell me now, because I'm in love with you.”

I sighed, putting my head in the crook of his neck and breathing in his scent. “Thank you for coming back,” I said with a whisper.

“Thank you for welcoming me into your life.”

He buried his face in my hair and kissed my cheek. Patty and Alberto's looks pierced me. That whole charade would be over soon.

“Everyone is rooting for you at the police station, you'll see that everything will be fine after that video.” I looked down to prevent the tears betraying me, but Diego was faster, and he took my face in his hands. “Look,” he said in a firm voice. “Get out the combative Mia that I met at first, the Mia who I fell in love with the first time I saw her.”

I nodded to let him know that I would fight with all my strength. Gemma came up, hugged me tightly and in that gesture I felt the presence of a friend. Even though I had taken Eva's place, she didn't hold it against me. I would have liked to let her know how much happiness Diego had brought into my life.

“Now everything's clear. You are the answer, you are the person that Diego had to find here,” she whispered.

“I don't understand,” I said confused.

She held both my wrists. “It was all written. Diego had to come to you, bringing you into our lives.”

“Do you really think that?”

“I think Eva would be glad to know you are next to him.” I blinked with emotion, unable to thank her. The spell was broken when the time came to re-enter the courtroom.

I sank into the chair next to Federico, trying to free my mind and be ready to accept the verdict. I had promised myself not to cry and not to question the outcome, whatever it was.

Patty's lawyer, a slimy, arrogant man, went to the judge's chair and whispered something in her ear. Federico looked at me and his lips stretched into a wide smile. “It'll be okay,” he re-assured me, placing his hand on mine.

I looked down. “How can you be sure?” I asked, with a broken voice.

“Trust me,” he admitted. “They probably hadn't thought about the cameras and now they need to get out of it somehow.” A stern voice made me turn round.

“So this is the decision of your client?” asked the judge, placing a sheaf of papers and waving Federico over.

The three talked for a time that seemed endless.

When Federico sat down beside me, I couldn't help but see a satisfied smile and smug expression on his face. I sighed before the court spoke for the last time.

“We continue the criminal case against Mia Vitale, defense lawyer Federico Buono, accused of the crime in article 582 of the Criminal Code, for assaulting the person of Patricia Dibiasi, inside a supermarket, a personal injury that was curable within fifteen days.” There was a brief pause. “We declare that the victim has decided to defer the lawsuit and the defendant can choose whether to confirm the acceptance of the remission.”

“Yes, of course I accept.” I replied instantly. I put my hands on my head and began to sob like a child for the relief I felt. It really was all over. I was finally free from the nightmare that had haunted me for weeks.

Fiamma yanked me from her chair and pushed me towards a group of people in a circle, jumping for joy. “Mia! We did it!” she yelled, her face on fire.

“I can't believe it… it doesn't seem real…”

Diego interrupted my enthusiam, grabbing me firmly and pressing his lips against mine. An instinctive and passionate gesture. So perfect.

I clung with my nails to his bare arms that his t-shirt left uncovered and it was there, in front of many prying eyes, that he asked me, “Can I tell you something?”

I could feel his warm breath on my skin. “Anything you want,” I replied, in a trembling voice.

“Then, I'll whisper it to you…”

There followed the longest pause of my life.

And then he spoke, and those three words were enough to change the world. “Mia, I love you.”

We left the courthouse, hand in hand, ignoring the eyes upon us.

I went back to being a little girl and danced in the middle of the parking lot, opening my arms and spinning round on myself. I could hide the tears as they mingled with the rain that beaded my skin. Diego looked at me with a shy smile, awkward and charming. I wanted to say something, anything, but I couldn't and I began laughing. For my family, for my wedding, for my work, for my successes and for my failures.

I continued laughing until my view was blurred and my cheeks began to ache.

I laughed because I knew that I'd never experience another day like that. I laughed without stopping for a life that was still able to amaze me.

I was myself again.

Mia had come back to life.

I opened my eyes, protecting them from the light with the palm of my hand. I waited for my sight to adjust and then sat down. The bed next to me was empty.

“Where are you?” I murmured, turning sideways.

We were in Apulia, in one of the most beautiful places Diego knew. The trip had gone well, despite a plane delay, but now we were here and that was the only thing that mattered.

I looked around and got up to reach the window. I looked outside on the beach and there he was. The memory of a distant night touched my mind, and I shivered at that vision, I had already lived that scene. Diego was the man who had appeared in my dreams even before I'd ever met him and I had already visited the beautiful beach on which he stood many times.

I got ready in a hurry and went outside. His suggestive smile hit me and I blushed. After all this time, I still felt unexplored sensations.

“My beloved
wife
has woken up?” he whispered, reaching for me.

I flushed.
Wife
, what a beautiful sound.

He leaned down and kissed me. “You should cover yourself better. Aren't you cold with just this jacket?”

I shook my head. “No, I'm fine, thanks,” I replied, exchanging his kiss. I would have been able to go on forever if he had continued.

“Yuck” cried a voice behind me. “I'll never do that!” Lukas, approaching with a ball in hand, muttered.

We laughed, exchanging a knowing look.

Diego stole the ball and handed it to me, then, with a sudden movement, he picked him up and turned him upside down. The child shouted, trying to shake him off, but his uncle paid no attention to his complaints. Then he let him go and Lukas ran away.

“You're not getting away!” said Diego, with an amused twinkle in his eye, while Lukas was trying to escape. “If I only think I could have lost him…” sighed Gemma, standing by my side. “Life without him? I couldn't bear it…”

I touched her shoulder with my fingertips. “You're a strong and smart woman. I don't know how many times I wished I had a mother like you.”

“How are things with her now? Diego told me that your relationship has changed.”

I rubbed my arms. “It seems strange, but yes, it happened. Maybe we really needed a strong jolt to change things. Although we're much closer, she'll always be the same bitter woman. She still criticizes me all the time.” I said, with a rueful smile.

“Some characters are hard to change, but it's never too late. Maybe your mother has understood it. In the end, she loves you very much,” she said, glancing toward the sea. “At your wedding she kept jumping from side to side taking pictures and bragging about the daughter you've become. If she didn't love you, she wouldn't be so proud of you.”

I nodded excitedly. “I can't deny that. I still have to get used to the idea. Moreover, she's become very caring towards me and is spoiling Diego, too much, with her Friday dinners.”

Gemma let out a laugh. “He's not fussy, you know that he can't say no to food.”

We got married five months ago, but the memory was still so clear that it seemed as if only a day had passed.

We had decided to get married in the old church where, years before, my beloved grandparents had exchanged their vows. There was a beautiful archway, covered in ivy, that framed the entrance to the foyer. My mother and Lucy weren't particularly impressed with the idea, they would have preferred a grander marriage, but it wasn't what we had wanted.

Private and intimate with only a few guests. It was a beautiful ceremony, with all the people we loved the most.

I could still hear the music of the Wedding March and the overwhelming emotion I had felt when I saw him at the entrance. In an instant, everything became clear. I was going to be his wife. Diego's proposal had arrived in one of those moments when all the pieces fit in the right place, without forcing them.

It was like a spark, the most overwhelming moment of my entire life. I had left behind me all my dark moments and made way for new ones, full of light and love.

The hospital had welcomed my new application and were able to organize fixed appointments with other children, even in their private rooms. When the weather allowed it, the activities took place outdoors, but nevertheless, we equipped a larger area indoors to carry out activities with the animals in case of bad weather.

Martina was discharged and her new heart had found a body where it could continue to beat. That little girl reminded me every day that what life takes away with one hand, it gives back with the other.

Accompanied by her inseparable grandfather, she often came to visit me at the clinic and, although she wouldn't admit it, I knew she was more interested in Casper than me. She adored him.

Spending hours with those children had become an addiction, I couldn't help it. I stored the right amount of energy through their smiles, and every stolen laugh was an invaluable success. My happiness fed on small gestures, random meetings and unexpected news.