The ridiculous part was that the one person in whom she would have confided, Ariana had asked not to attend.
She missed him.
Even with his selfish guidelines as to what a relationship with him might entail, sheneededhim tonight.
‘Ariana!’
Her name was being shouted by lots of people now.
Maybe she had grown up some, because instead of confronting Nicki and causing a scene at her brother’s wedding, she did the right thing.
Ariana put down the phone, topped up her lipstick...
...and danced.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
ARIANAWASN’TAVOIDINGsorting out her life.
If that had been the case, then she would have said yes to Gian’s offer to be his mistress. She would have left her chaotic family and Janus friend and headed for Florence to be wined and dined and made love to over and over.
Instead, she faced the mountain that at first had looked far too high to climb. Yet, bit by bit, she found the tools to tackle it, some of which had been given to her by Gian.
The doorman received a stern warning that from now on Ariana’s whereabouts were to remain private and heaven help him if an unannounced guest arrived at her door. She declined nights out with Paulo,to be seen, for she had felt Gian’s exasperation and knew he was right.
It wasn’t just Gian’s suggestions she followed, though. She also took Dante’s perpetual advice and finally turned off her phone.
Apart from Eloa’s hen night, where red lips were certainly required, most were spent sitting on her apartment floor, eating ice cream and finally sorting out her photos into albums.
Ariana chose to withdraw from the endless vacuous socialising and learned to rely on her own company, arranging her past into a more honest shape as she prepared for a new future. Finally, she was ready for a couple of nights in Luctano, where she spoke at length with Roberto and got to know her father, a little too late, but a whole lot more.
‘He loved you,’ Roberto said.
‘I know.’
She did.
On the Thursday before she headed for home, ready now to visit his grave, Ariana spread an armful of gorgeous hand-picked daffodils, which meant truth, rebirth and new beginnings, and a little sprig of violets, for peace in the afterlife, and told him about Stefano and Eloa’s wedding, which was just two days away.
‘I am his weddingpadrihnos, or wedding bridesmaid,’ Ariana told her father. ‘It basically means I am Stefano’s best man.’ She knew that would make him smile, wherever he was now. ‘And Nicki is coming over tomorrow and I shall be telling her she is not welcome at the wedding and I don’t want to see her any more.’ Ariana swallowed. ‘I still haven’t told Dante about the photo.’
It wasn’t her brother’s wrath that worried her, more that he would, of course, tell Gian. She couldn’t bear the thought of him rolling his eyes, for he had warned her about Nicki more than once.
There was something else too, something she hadn’t told anyone yet, not even herself, but she admitted it out loud now. ‘I am in love with Gian, Papà.’
She wouldn’t be the first in her family to act in her own interests and keep it secret, were she to become his mistress, but despite how she felt about Gian, she could not reconcile herself to it. Not now she was finally becoming someone she could be proud of.
‘You’re not ready!’ Nicki frowned, when she saw Ariana dressed in a pale grey dress and flat sandals and with her hair wild and her eyes all puffy and swollen.
‘Actually, I am ready,’ Ariana corrected. She had been up all night, completing the finishing touches to gifts for her loved ones, and she had worked through the day, only stopping to refuel with coffee, thinking about what must be done. ‘Come in, Nicki.’
It was up there with the hardest things she had ever done, because Ariana had truly thought of Nicki as a forever friend. Confronted with the evidence of what she had done, Nicki attacked her friend, and Ariana didn’t have the energy to muster a defence against the tirade of abuse she was subjected to. Instead she listened and then said, ‘I think you should leave now.’
‘But we have the wedding tomorrow,’ Nicki flailed. ‘It’ll look odd if I’m not there and we have our trip to Paris—’
‘Ihave a wedding tomorrow,’ Ariana interrupted. ‘You’re no longer welcome at Romano family events.’
It hurt and it hurt and it hurt, and once Nicki had gone, she cried for a while. But Ariana wanted this chapter of her life firmly closed, which meant that she had to tell Dante and Mia that it had been her friend who had invaded their privacy and outed them to the press.