Chapter Twenty-Four

Dani spent the rest of the day and evening on the computer, preparing for her upcoming meeting with Santo and the Croatian. She knew enough about the various aspects of running a hotel that she could talk for hours if necessary; all she had to do was plug in some specifics related to what she’d already learned about Stella d’Italia and the Paradisi hotel chain to make it all sound legitimate. Whatever it took, she was going to pull this off; otherwise the threats to those she loved would never stop.

Gabe stayed close by while she worked. He brought her snacks and drinks, and when she started to droop, he made sure she took a nap—without him. “Otherwise I’d never let you sleep,” he’d confessed, smiling and giving her a quick kiss.

Early in the evening he’d gone to pick up some pasta at a trattoria down the hill. During dinner, Dani brought up something that had been bothering her all day: Dante’s extreme reaction to the video.

“I want to talk to him privately about it,” she said. “I thought maybe I could drive over there a little later.” Expecting a barrage of negativity, she was surprised by Gabe’s response.

“Fine. How about I drop you off? I’ve got an errand to run anyway, and I can pick you up whenever you like. Just consider me your personal taxi service.” Once again he gave her his impossible-to-resist smile and once again she wondered how she had gotten so lucky.

They arrived back at Dante’s condominium on the Riva San

Lorenzo around eight p.m. Dani reassured Gabe she’d call him and only him to get a ride back, and he waited for Dante to buzz her into the lobby before driving off.

She took the elevator up to the top floor of the building and knocked on the door of Dante’s unit. He opened the door and Dani was floored to see Agnese standing behind him. It was obvious to anyone paying attention that Dani had interrupted something intimate between them.

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” she said, feeling herself blushing. “If I’d known—”

“It’s all right,” Dante said, opening the door wider to let her in. “In fact, Agnese and I are glad you dropped by. We have some news.” He closed the door and stepped back to put his arm around Dani’s friend. “This incredible woman has agreed to marry me.”

Dani took one look at the unabashed joy on both Agnese and Dante’s faces, and squealed in delight. She flung her arms around both of them. “I knew it!” she cried. “I am so, so happy for you!” They all laughed and Dante broke away to get some drinks to celebrate.

“It’s only Prosecco,” he said, coming back with flutes of the sparkling wine. “We’ll toast with something more formal at the wedding.”

“We haven’t had a chance to talk to Mama yet,” Agnese cautioned. “So please don’t say anything until we’re able to butter her up a bit.”

“You’ve got your work cut out for you,” Dani quipped.

Agnese looked lovingly at Dante. “I think I’ve found the strength to handle it.”

They talked of lighthearted matters until a break in the conversation led Dante to ask, “Why did you come tonight, Dani?”

Dani bit her lip. How could she bring up Dante’s outburst and spoil this happy occasion? “Uh, oh, well…just to say hi?”

Dante shook his head. He looked at Agnese, who seemed to be giving him permission for something. “I don’t believe that,” he said. “I think maybe you were wondering about my behavior when you showed us the video this morning. I know it was a bit intense.”

“You’re right. I’ve been thinking about it all afternoon. And wondering.”

Agnese put her hand on Dante’s. “He told me what happened and that he told you it wasn’t his story to tell. The fact is, it’s my story. You see…” Agnese paused, as if gathering strength. “I became your Uncle Santo’s mistress when I was sixteen. It was not something I wanted, and it lasted a few years before I was able to break away, but the important thing is, I was able to break the tie and, well, here I am.” She smiled at Dante, who leaned in and kissed her.

Dani stared at Agnese in shock. Her uncle had had sex with Agnese? “Couldn’t you have called the police?” she asked, outraged.

“It wasn’t like that,” Agnese explained, a tinge of sadness to her voice. “It was…complicated. My mother was involved. It had to do with money for my aunt’s care, and…” She seemed to be shaking off the memories. “Besides, I found out later that the age of consent in our country is only fourteen. They raise it to sixteen if someone in a position of authority is involved. So you see, it wouldn’t have mattered even if I had had the courage to speak up.”

Dani fumed inside. What sorts of perverse acts wouldn’t her uncle do? She was filled with disgust that someone so close to her had been a victim, and that someone whose blood she shared would be the perpetrator. She reached out to touch her friend. “I don’t know what to say,” she offered. “I am so ashamed. I wish I could have done something.”

“Please, don’t feel bad,” Agnese said, taking Dani’s hand and squeezing it gently. “You weren’t even there. You had just moved to the United States.”

Without warning, Dani’s stomach began to roil with the familiar mixture of pain and terror she’d experienced before. She wondered if Agnese knew why she had left Italy twelve years earlier. She had certainly never mentioned the reason in the few letters they’d exchanged. If Agnese could talk openly about her past nightmare, Dani could too. “Do you know why I left La Tana when I was fifteen?” she asked.

Agnese shook her head. “No one ever told me. I missed you so much, and I thought at one point that you had left because of something I did.”

“No!” Dani said. “Never think that. The truth is, at that huge party, do you remember the one at La Tana? You and I got separated, and I drank too much. But my drink might also have been spiked by someone. At least I think it was. Anyway, a man cornered me on the second floor and tried to rape me. They tell me Uncle Santo stepped in to prevent it.”

“What do you mean ‘they tell you’?” Dante asked.

“It’s crazy, and has caused me no end of problems ever since,” Dani confessed. “I think something really did happen to me, but everyone, from Santo on down, says I wasn’t raped. He chased the guy off, let me rest in his office, and I fell asleep. Then Nonno Ciro had his stroke and Santo had to leave. When I woke up I told them someone raped me, but Santo said he’d intervened in time. Nonna Stella had Ciro’s doctor examine me and he found nothing wrong.” Dani smiled ruefully. “Let me tell you, it’s hard not to think you’re crazy when you feel things no one else says is real.”

Agnese looked at Dani with a thoughtful expression. “So do you believe now that nothing happened to you?”

Unexpectedly, Dani’s eyes welled up. “I know something happened to me,” she said. “I just don’t know what.”

“I remember something Santo said to my mother not long after you moved away. I think they were negotiating the terms of…of my time with him. They didn’t know I could hear them. I heard him say, “She is an adequate substitute for now.” I never knew what that meant. Who was I a substitute for? His wife? Or someone else?” She looked at Dani expectantly.

The idea of Santo as her attacker hit Dani with the force of a train trying but failing to apply its brakes in time to avoid hitting a car stranded across the tracks. Despite all efforts to forestall the impact, the horror simply could not be stopped.

For a moment she was struck speechless as she processed what Agnese had said. Had her friend truly been a proxy for Dani? Had Santo and not the nameless man been the one to rape her?

No, she remembered the man’s breath and his voice and his hands. It had not been her uncle. But after…? If Santo had raped her, why had the doctor said she was fine? And why had her loved ones, every last one of them, assured her she’d escaped a sexual predator? Worst of all, why couldn’t she remember?

Because it was easier that way, a little voice said. Easier to take Santo’s word because his word had always been final. Easier to accept the doctor’s report—a doctor employed by her uncle. Easier to blame an unknown man and accept the happy ending of a thwarted attack. Easier to push the unimaginable truth to the recesses of her mind.

Just easier.

After a few moments Dani’s emotions settled back down where they belonged. The train having pushed the offending idea off the track, continued on its way. She reverted to the strange comfort of knowing something had happened, but not knowing quite what.

But for the first time ever, she felt a twinge of cowardice because the very real possibility of Santo’s wickedness hadn’t disappeared. It remained a twisted, ugly wreckage that she couldn’t merely wonder about any longer.

Dr. Rudolfo Spada and his family lived in a quiet residential neighborhood in the center of Verona, near the university. It was just up the street from a popular trattoria that Gabe had heard about. He found the apartment easily and only hoped his interview with the physician would go as well.

He wondered if Dr. Spada would remember him; Gabe had only been a boy the last time he’d seen the doctor, and even then it was for just a few minutes. Gabe’s mother, Eliana, never could stand to have Gabe nearby when discussing her illness. He wanted to thank the man for helping his mother to the extent he could.

But Gabe’s mission went beyond a simple expression of gratitude. Dr. Spada had been there the night of Ciro’s death and the night of Dani’s so-called “near rape.” The doctor had examined Dani using a rape kit. Those procedures were thorough and invasive, and were designed to uncover the smallest piece of evidence that might link a perp with a victim.

The kits were also notorious for ending up on a shelf, at least in the States. The number of backlogged analyses was staggering and in Gabe’s opinion, grounds for criminal negligence in and of itself. The good news, if there was any to be had, was that they could stay on a shelf for a hell of a long time and still reveal evidence years later. Something in Gabe’s gut told him there was a reason Santo had been so adamant that Dani was fine, and why he’d apparently gotten angry at the need for an exam. Yet the results had somehow come out clean.

Or had they?

Gabe rang the bell, determined to find out.

“How do you feel?” Gabe asked Dani later that night. She had called as she’d promised, and Gabe had picked her up at Dante’s. After a light dinner at a downtown pizzeria, they’d returned to their suite and were now curled up together on the couch. Dani seemed subdued but relatively happy, considering all they’d been through. She shared the news about Dante and Agnese, which he could tell brought her a quiet joy, and she said she felt good about the next day’s meeting.

“I feel like I’ve studied as hard as I can for my final exam, and I’m as ready as I’m going to be,” she said.

Not wanting to spoil her mood, he didn’t tell her what he’d learned from the doctor that afternoon. There was time enough for that. Right now he simply wanted her to feel as relaxed as possible before her ordeal the next morning.

“Knowing you feel confident makes me happy,” he said. “Now how, I wonder, can I make you feel even better than that?” He wiggled his eyebrows at her.

“I don’t know,” she said, her voice deepening just a little. She turned so that she was cradled in his arms. “What were you thinking?”

“Just this,” he murmured, lowering his lips to hers.

Gabe made love to Dani as if it were their last time together. Not because he felt some sort of premonition about what would happen. He was going to be in the room with her and he was confident he could protect her.

It was more to show her how much he had grown to love her in just the short time they’d been together here in Verona.

He didn’t waste time talking. Instead he communicated with her on a more primitive, physical level. Gone was the uptight young lady who had spurned him for so many months, out of fear, he’d found out. In her place was a loving, sensuous woman who seemed, at least for the night, to share her most vulnerable self with him. The trust she willingly placed in him made Gabe feel humble…and invincible. And he knew at last what true love was all about.