Honeymoon For One (14 page)

She had loved Nico since they were teenagers but
he didn’t feel the same way about her. It wasn’t that she was after his money,
for she was rich enough in her own right, but she wanted what most other
eligible young women in Verona wanted: Nico.

For years Silvia had insisted on it and for years
Nico had ignored it. But now that Alessa had turned five, she was starting to
ask where her father was.

And although Nico’s father had never pressed for a
definite resolution of the matter, Nico knew his father believed the rumors,
for he had no reason not to. The time had now come, that Nico had had enough
and wanted to prove that he was not Alessa’s father. He didn’t want Alessa to
start believing her mother’s rumors. Nico saw that the child was starting to
warm towards him, genuinely believing that he was her father. It was more for
Alessa than anything else, that Nico felt the time had now come to resolve this
matter for one and for all.

“Are you sure your parents did not want to know
about this Silvia?” asked Mr. Cazale carefully.  He sincerely wished that
the results of the blood test would show once and for all that Nico was the
father of the child. He was getting on in years and seeing his wife go so
quickly before him made him feel more unsettled about his own life. He knew
life was fleeting and he didn’t know whether he would wake up to see another
day.  He couldn’t see Nico settling down anytime soon. So if Alessa was
his grandchild at least she was here.

Once again, he slowly asked Silvia, “This is a big
decision here Silvia. Are you sure you don’t want your parents to be here? I
can get my driver to fetch them. There is no need to rush.” He was kind and
gentle with her. He didn’t understand why Nico was so hostile towards Silvia,
more now than ever.

 “Papa just get the thing over and done with,
please.” Nico paced the room, his hands clenched so tightly that the bony knuckles
protruded clearly.

In contrast, Silvia lounged around on the warm,
leather sofa with one leg crossed over the other and an arm resting lazily on
the armrest.

“Are you ready darling?” she said, watching Nico
with cool calculating eyes, “You should relax. There’s no need to worry about
anything.”

“We’ll see,” replied Nico savagely. He had been so
sure that he wasn’t the father, so sure that in the five years past he had
never put any more thought into Silvia’s constant whines and accusations. He
had been glad that his mother hadn’t heard any of these. If there was one
saving grace about Silvia it was that she had never caused any undue stress to
his ill mother.

“You seem so sure Nico. We’ll find out now won’t
we?” she challenged him, daring him to meet her eyes but he kept his gaze
firmly on the floor.

The test had been carried out a few days ago at
the private clinic when Nico had met Silvia and Alessa early in the morning.
With both of them being from such prominent families it was something that both
families wanted kept out of the public eye.

Now that the moment was finally here, Nico felt
unsure for the first time ever, and started having doubts. Beads of sweat began
to seep out on his forehead. He undid the buttons of his shirt and loosened his
tie. Then he took off his jacket and he could feel Silvia’s hungry, ice-blue
eyes on him.  He glanced at her, knowing she was staring at him, at his
muscular body and thinking that any minute now, she would have some sort of
legal claim over him.

The large grandfather clock in his father’s study
struck four and the three of them waited patiently.

This was agony for Nico. He stood with his arms
folded across his chest. The sudden knock at the door broke the painful monotony
of silence in the room.

It was the family doctor, the only man that Mr.
Cazale trusted enough to deal with such a delicate matter. Like Mr. Cazale, he
was an elderly man and the two of them had known each other since college.

“We have the result, Edmondo,” he said, in a firm
voice and handed the letter over to Mr. Cazale Senior.

“Thank you Geraldino. Go ahead, you open it,” said
Nico’s father. He pushed the letter back into the Doctor’s hands.

They stared at the Doctor’s face in order to glean
a clue as to the outcome. Silvia slowly sat upright in the armchair then leant forward,
placing her elbows on her knees. Nico had uncrossed his arms and took a step
towards the Doctor. Only Mr. Cazale Senior stayed calm and sat just as he had
in his armchair.

Knowing that everyone’s eyes were on him the doctor
started, in a faltering voice.

“The results of the test prove without a shadow of
a doubt,” he looked over at Nico firmly, “that Nico Cazale is not the father of
Alessa Azzarone.”  He handed the letter over to Nico who sprang forward
with joy, struggling to contain the enormous surge of relief he felt rising up
in his chest. He took the letter gratefully and read it once, then read it a
second time before walking over to Silvia victoriously.

“Here you go Silvia. All the proof you need.” He
handed her the letter but she had relaxed back on the sofa, legs still crossed
with her arm resting back on the armrest. Nico could tell from the tight frown
on her face that she was not at all happy but the elation in his own heart
exploded and drowned out the heaviness he had felt since he had walked into
this office.

The Doctor took his leave and soon it was just the
three of them left in the study.

Seeing that Silvia refused to take the letter,
Nico handed it to his father.

“Don’t you want to know who the father is then?”
she asked, not caring that Mr. Cazale Senior was sitting across from her
reading the letter. The old man took off his glasses and looked across at her,
with a sympathetic look on his face.

“You knew it wasn’t Nico, Silvia?” he asked with
mild surprise. But Silvia ignored him. And when Nico still didn’t reply, she
asked again, this time her tone more menacing. “Don’t you want to know Nico?”
she repeated.

Nico turned around to face her. “No, I couldn’t
care less. I only care that you look after Alessa. She is a beautiful, innocent
little girl who deserves to be loved. I do love her; whether she is my child or
not. It’s her that I care for and love Silvia, not you.”

With five years of constantly being told that he
was the father, there had been moments when Nico had stopped to wonder if
perhaps there might have been a mistake. Five years of not knowing had made him
sometimes wonder if the endearing little child was his. And five years of
wondering had given him and Alessa a little bond, as tiny as it was, that had
blossomed into a fulsome love for the child, as if she was his.

Silvia got up stiffly and grabbed her bag.
“Goodbye Mr. Cazale,” she said as she swept out of the room.

The older man sank back into his chair in the
silence that followed.

“Are you disappointed Papa?” Nico asked tenderly.
He saw his father take off his reading glasses and he saw only tiredness and
sadness in his eyes. He had an uncomfortable feeling that this might not have
been the result his father had hoped for.

“I have lived to see many things Nico,” his father
said wearily, “but up until now, I didn’t think I would see such a display of
cold cunning as I have seen with Silvia. I was disappointed. But frankly,
seeing that she already knew, I’m relieved.”

“Relieved?”

“Relieved for you Nico. The last thing I would
have wanted is for you to be stuck with a woman such as her.”

“So you finally found out what I’ve known 
for many years?” asked Nico. It was a huge relief to know that at long last,
his father was on his side, as far as Silvia was concerned.

“I’ve had the love of a good woman, a great woman
for more than fifty years of my life. I’ve been lucky, more than that, I’ve
been blessed. Naturally I want the same for you, as any parent would. All
parents want the best for their children. I know you and your mother paid a
price waiting for me in Montagnano but I wanted to provide a great life for you
both. I had to work hard to get that.”

Nico pressed his fingers against the edges of his
eyelids. They were heavy but his heart was light. The immense feeling of relief
overwhelmed him and now his father was sitting with him, and they were talking,
not as men fighting to prove themselves, but as equals, Nico felt. 
Although he didn’t say it in as many words, Nico could see that his father was
no longer angry with him.

“I’m sorry that I put you through all of this
Papa,” said Nico.

“No Nico. I’m sorry I put you through the test
Nico. It was a part of my deal although I never told you.”

“What are you talking about Papa?” asked Nico
nervously.

“When I gave you two years to prove yourself, I
wanted to know if you had a passion for the business as I do. But I also wanted
you to take responsibility and to own up to your responsibilities no matter
what. I gave you two years to prove yourself and I know you’ve been working
hard, working flat out trying to pull things together with the hotel, always
testing new things. I know the time pressure was resting heavily on you.”

“That’s fine Papa, but what has that got to do
with the paternity test?” There was confusion on Nico’s face.

“I gave you two years to prove to me that you had
a passion for the hotel business and to show me that you had had changed from
the lothario you used to be. But as important as your business knowledge and
ambition, I wanted also to see that you were responsible and willing to own up
to your responsibilities no matter how heavy they were. I know we never
discussed it much, but, as I mentioned before, there had always been these rumors,
about who was Alessa’s father. By taking the blood test, which could have gone
either way, you showed me that you were ready to accept the responsibility. And
that Nico, is what I have been waiting to see.”

“Why didn’t you make it a condition of your test?”
he asked.

“Because I can’t ask you to become responsible. I
needed to see that it was something you were ready for. And you have shown me
now that you are. Your reputation before, when your mother was alive, was that
of a playboy. I couldn’t hand over my hotel empire to a playboy.”

“I stopped being a playboy years ago Papa. Mama’s
death made me grow up,” said Nico quietly. “I’ve always known Alessa wasn’t
mine. Always. Though I admit, for a few minutes there I was worried, life has a
way of throwing curve balls at you when you least expect it.”

“Why so sure Nico?” asked the old man curiously,
sliding his glasses back onto his face and examining Nico’s face with interest.

“I was always careful. You always told me to be
careful. Very careful. Silvia knew I was careful, knew I took precautions. I
think over the years, she forgot that and became so determined to wanting to
believe that the child could be mine somehow. She was desperate for it to be
so.”

The old man shook his head. “She is desperate.
That much I can see now, all too clearly.” He folded the letter and handed it
over to Nico. “But tell me Nico, why go through the farce of agreeing to the
blood test at all, if you knew for sure?”

Nico
looked at his father with a steadfast gaze. “Would you have believed me
otherwise?”

The silence hung in the air like a cobweb. Only
the sound of the grandfather clock striking five broke the spell.

“I see that I’ve been very harsh on you Nico. I’m
sorry. But I can see now that you’ve changed. You had started to change, once
your mother passed away. Sometimes it takes these hard lessons in life to make
us stop and accept our responsibilities.”

Not
wanting to let his father take the burden of the guilt Nico added, “It wasn’t
just that Papa. I wanted Silvia to know for sure once and for all. I don’t want
to have those rumors hanging around my head, following me with my every move.
Her father was very anxious for us to get together.”

“I know. I know. The Azzarones are a very rich
family but theirs is all inherited from many generations of their family.
Silvia’s father didn’t work hard, not like I did. He didn’t have to suffer the
hardship, the regret of sending his wife and only child away while he built up
his business.”

Nico nodded his head in agreement. His father had
indeed worked very hard during the early years. And only now, now that his
father was telling him, did it occur to Nico that his father had loved and
missed him very much while he was growing up, living in the village with his
grandmother and mother.

Now, finally, Nico understood the old man’s
relentless need for Nico to prove himself. Now, he finally saw why his father
kept the meetings with all the other people interested in his empire. He wanted
to see what Nico could do, and Nico had needed to prove himself and that had
meant showing he had the guts to take on responsibility, with Alessa, had it
come to that.

“You have turned out to be the son and the man
your mother and I wanted. You’ve shown me that you have compassion, empathy and
responsibility. You’ve always known that Alessa wasn’t yours and yet you always
treated that child with love and understanding whenever you saw her. And now I
see you tolerated her mother when it must have been so hard for you knowing
that she was making all these accusations and everyone else must thought you
were nothing but a spoilt rich brat.”