Page 54 of Midnight Revelations

It was true, but not the reason I was sitting here.

“I know how you feel,” he replied in a low, husky tone. “When there’s a family gathering, I wish Isabella was here with me. She was the beating heart of our family and she always knew what to say to make things right.”

As the youngest, I couldn’t really remember Mama. The funeral stuck in my mind because so many people were crying and everyone was wearing black. I hid in the kitchen with Madison since it scared me.

“Sometimes,” I confessed. “I have trouble remembering Mama.”

His smile reflected the same sadness that was in his eyes. “Isabella captured the light and allowed it to shine on all of us. She possessed a goodness that is rarely seen nowadays. Each of you contain a part of her. When you are together, it’s almost as if she’s in the room with us.”

“Oh, Papa, that’s so sad. You could have found love again.”

“No.” He fervently shook his head. “A love like that only ever strikes once, and when it does, your heart is useless to anyone else. I took my vows before God, until death parted us, but one day death with reunite us again.”

It was the saddest yet most romantic sentiment I had ever heard. Their love didn’t span a lifetime, it spanned two lifetimes. Papa was patiently biding his time until he died and found Mama again.

“Enough about me.” He patted me on the leg. “What about Ivan? Have you decided to give him a second chance?”

I returned to staring out the window. “I’m not sure,” I replied.

“I don’t want my girls to find men like me. You could end up raising a child by yourself, and although I would never trade any of those bedtime hugs, I wished every night that your mama was beside me when I got them.”

“Mama wasn’t taken from you by bad men,” I said. “She was taken from you by cancer.”

“I know, Lucrezia. But the only reason I’m still alive today is because men like Xavier and his friends take the bullets for me.”

He didn’t want to say Ash’s name, but his meaning was clear. He’d obviously seen the way I looked at Ash. Papa knew me better than anyone else.

“You can’t pick who you love,” I said. “Someone told me a story at a party a few years ago. They said that you and Mama eloped.”

Papa’s lips tipped up in a small smile. “She had been promised to someone else by her father, but I knew from the first moment that I saw her that she was the only woman for me.”

“But you’re asking us to accept what Mama couldn’t?” I merely sat and watched him.

“No daughter of mine is marrying a Blackwood.” He glared at me. “I’ve heard the rumours about what happens behind closed doors. Ash may think he’s escaped their curse, but I doubt Matteus would ever let any of his sons escape their legacy.”

There was no point arguing with him when he was in this mood, so I slowly got up. “Goodnight, Papa.” I dropped a kiss to the top of his head. “We have a lot to do tomorrow.”

Inside my room, I stood at the window, lost in my thoughts. How had I been so sure of everything this morning and it now lay in tatters? I needed to hear a friendly voice and retrieved my mobile to phone Sofia.

“Hey, little sis. What’s up?”

“Not much. Just arrived in London with Papa and wanted to chat with my sister. How are you?”

“Shit, Lucy, I’ve made such a mess of things. I made a pass at Mario and he turned me down. I thought he was tired the night I paraded in front of him in my underwear.”

I sat down on the side of the bed. “What? I thought you were so sure that you were both into each other.”

At least I wasn’t the only one with relationship problems.

“We were always flirting, Lucy. When we were out with the other students, Mario was always touching me. Shit!”

“Maybe he’s just afraid of Papa?”

“I don’t think so, Lucy. He won’t even look at me now.”

I knew the feeling, considering I had a door slammed in my face twice. “The three of us need to get away for a while together on holiday. Catarina could do with a little sister time as well.”

“I’ll text Madison later and ask her to organise something for us,” Sofia said. “I really need a change of scenery. Somewhere warm where they serve cocktails every day and we can watch the sun go down at night.”

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