‘No…I mean yes…it’s where I belong,’ Keira said, inwardly sighing as she thought about the next few weeks living as Patrizio’s wife under the watchful eye of his housekeeper.
Keira’s mother phoned just as she was leaving the house to go shopping for an outfit. Marietta brought the phone to her and left her in privacy in the lounge overlooking th
e muddy brown water of the Yarra River.
‘Is it true, Keira?’ Robyn asked. ‘Are you really reunited with Patrizio?’
‘Yes, it’s true,’ she said, for some reason not feeling so guilty about lying to her mother. ‘The divorce is off.’
She heard her mother’s long drawn out sigh of relief. ‘Thank God you’ve come to your senses at last. I had a feeling once you and Patrizio came face to face you would both realise what you were throwing away. You injured his pride in the most despic—’
‘Mum, please.’ Keira cut her off quickly. ‘Lecturing me about the past is not going to help us now. We’re making a fresh start and we’d appreciate it if you would cooperate by not mentioning what happened ever again. I made a mistake. It could easily have been the other way around, you know.’
‘But it wasn’t,’ her mother said. ‘Patrizio meant his wedding vows when he made them. I have never seen a man more in love with a woman than he was with you. It grieves me to think of how you have hurt him after all he’s done for us.’
Keira’s hand tightened around the phone. ‘What do you mean, “after all he’s done for us”? What are you talking about?’
‘I…nothing,’ Robyn said. ‘I just meant he’s been very nice about it all, not involving your father and me and James in his bitterness towards you. He has always remained pleasant and friendly towards us.’
‘When have you seen him?’ Keira asked, suspicion starting to crawl all over her skin like an insect. ‘Have you been in regular contact with him over the past two months?’
‘We saw no reason not to see him occasionally,’ Robyn answered. ‘Of course we didn’t tell you about it, knowing it would only cause another one of your childish scenes.’
Keira wasn’t sure how to deal with this revelation. She had not for a moment realised that Patrizio had kept in such close contact with her family. She knew he had always been fond of Jamie, and he had always been polite towards her parents, but when their divorce was weeks away from being finalised it seemed odd that he would have encouraged such a connection, even if it had only been occasional.
‘I hope this time around you are going to be a good wife to him, Keira,’ her mother said, filling the small silence. ‘And I also hope you are not going to see Garth again. His mother told me he’s seeing a nice girl who is visiting from Canada. She hasn’t met her yet but I would hate to think—’
‘Mum, I haven’t seen Garth for weeks,’ she said. ‘I’m happy for him if he’s found someone. He deserves to be happy.’
Her mother gave another heartfelt sigh of relief. ‘Well, then,’ she said, ‘I’d better go. I have to attend a pre-selection function with your father this evening. I must say your reconciliation with Patrizio came at a very good time. Your father’s chance of re-election to the Senate for another term will be boosted by the news of his family life being back on track.’
Keira felt like rolling her eyes. Appearances were everything to her parents; their whole lives revolved around doing the right thing at the right time, speaking to the right people, wearing the right clothes, eating at the right restaurants, reading the right books and newspapers, even listening to the right television and radio stations. She hated it all. It all seemed so shallow and false. She would much rather speak to some of the homeless people she walked past on her way to art school every day. At least their smiles when she bought them a sandwich or a coffee were genuine.
The boutique Keira chose was not a particularly up-market one but it had a magnolia-white satin dress that appealed to her instantly. It skimmed her curves in all the right places, the cutaway back showing off the pale skin of her spine almost to her buttocks. The front was equally daring, the plunging neckline requiring tape to keep her breasts from spilling out. Patrizio had wanted sexy and glamorous and he was going to get it, she thought as she waited for the cashier to wrap it in tissue paper.
Next was a trip to the cosmetic section of one of the larger department stores, where an attendant expertly applied a natural-looking foundation to Keira’s face, before highlighting the unusual blue of her eyes with smoky eye-shadow and eyeliner.
Her hair was soon dealt with at a plush salon in the Southgate section of the Southbank complex that ran along the Yarra River.
An hour later Keira couldn’t believe how different she looked. Her curly dark hair was scooped on top of her head, one loose tendril falling over her right eye, giving her a come-and-get-me look.
Even the cab driver kept looking at her in the rear-view mirror. ‘Going somewhere special this evening?’ he asked.
‘Yes, to a function with my husband.’
‘Lucky man,’ he said and, glancing at her again, commented, ‘You look kind of familiar. Weren’t you in the paper this morning?’
‘Er…yes,’ she said, smiling stiffly. She hadn’t intended to look at the article but, while she had been waiting for her hairdresser to finish with another client, she had flicked through the paper lying on the counter next to her. It hadn’t been too bad a photo all things considered. She looked like a woman very much in love with her husband and Patrizio had looked as devastatingly handsome as usual, his adoring smile giving no clue to the animosity he felt for her.
‘You’re Patrizio Trelini’s wife, aren’t you?’ the cab driver said. ‘My brother-in-law works in the building industry. Trelini Luxury Homes, right?’
‘Yes…’
‘He’s close to being a billionaire now, huh?’ he went on. ‘Gotta admire him, starting out with virtually nothing and building up an empire like that. That’s what this country needs, more men like that. Not afraid of a bit of hard work.’
‘Yes…’
‘So you’re back together again, huh?’ he said, his eyes holding hers a little too long.