The Italian's Final Redemption - Jackie Ashenden Page 0,53

can’t be complicit when both our parents used us, and we can’t change what happened.’

His expression had become hard, like stone, but his eyes glittered, sharp as volcanic glass. ‘No, I can’t. Which is why the only thing of importance is what I do now. And that is taking down the people like my mother. Those families who have caused so much harm to so many people. Justice is the only way forward.’

And he was burning with it, that was clear.

Foreboding fluttered deep inside her, but she ignored it. She understood all too well where he was coming from and she could see how heavily guilt weighed on him. Gabriella hadn’t blamed him, but he blamed himself, and that surely had to be an impossible burden.

You know about those too.

Oh, yes, she did. She’d carried the weight of her mother’s death for a long time, after all. But this life he’d set out for himself, this crusade, had to be a lonely one. She knew better than anyone how difficult it must be, to be constantly on your guard, to never feel safe. Never to be able to trust anyone.

Her heart ached for him and there was nothing she could do. No words to make the burden he bore for the deaths of those people lighter, no way to ease it. All she could do was offer him understanding, because she carried those same burdens.

He’d told her that she wasn’t to blame and that she was worth saving, but the feeling in her heart was still the same, the doubt and the fear.

He felt those things too.

Maybe, though, there was some help she could offer him...

She shifted in his lap. ‘Wait here. I’ll be a couple of minutes.’ Before he could stop her or ask what she was doing, she’d slipped off him, going quickly into the house and to her bedroom. Her laptop was still sitting in her bag on the armchair near the bed, so she got it out and went back to the terrace.

Vincenzo had risen to his feet, that dark menace gathering around him again, staring at her fiercely. But she ignored him. She opened up the laptop and typed in her password, then opened up the files she’d encrypted only a week ago.

Then she held out the laptop to him. ‘Here. All the information you need about my father is in this file. It’s yours, Vincenzo.’

He didn’t look at it or make any move to take it. ‘You were going to give me that at the end of the week. That was the deal.’

‘I know. But justice is important to you, and I don’t want to cower in fear any more. I want to do something. I want to help.’

‘But why now? Why not before?’

‘Because I understand better now why you’re doing it and where you’re coming from. And I don’t want to keep that information from you. More people could get hurt the longer I hold on to it, and I don’t want that either.’ She lifted her chin, held that fierce stare. ‘Take what’s on that laptop. Use it to put him behind bars for the rest of his life, because that’s what he deserves. At the very least for my mother’s sake. And at the end of this weekend I won’t protest. I’ll go quietly to the authorities.’

Still he didn’t take the laptop.

‘If I have the information now, what’s to stop me from handing you over immediately?’

He wouldn’t, though. She knew in her bones that he wouldn’t.

‘You won’t.’ She dared him to contradict her. ‘You gave me your word and I think that’s important to you too.’

Once again he said nothing, that look on his face like a judge debating a sentence. ‘You’re really prepared to give yourself up? Just like that?’

That he didn’t deny it caused her heart to miss a beat, just once. But she ignored it, because what else could she do? After all the things he’d told her about himself and his motivations? His reasons for what he was doing? He was taking responsibility for his actions and trying to make amends, and she couldn’t fault that. She couldn’t pretend that she didn’t have amends to make either because, although logically she knew she wasn’t responsible for her mother’s death, the guilt remained. And maybe answering for the crimes she’d committed afterwards would help ease it.

‘You’ve devoted your life to justice, Vincenzo. You took responsibility for yourself and the wrongs your mother did, and you’re making up for