34
Nella
Tom’s mouth thinned. His entire body stilled.
‘Did you kill him because he found out the truth?’ Her heart thumped sickeningly, bile burning at the pit of her throat. She was going to throw up ... she was going to ...
‘The answer’s simple, Nella.’ His voice was as smooth and velvet as their grandfather’s wine as he took a step towards her.
She shuffled back, her calf colliding with the bin. Something sharp sliced through her skin. Nowhere to run. He’d grab her before she made it back into the office.
‘If I’m our father, all you need to ask is this: would our father have killed Clarkson?’
Her answer ran cold through her bloodstream, crystallising her organs in brittle, caustic frost. ‘Did you know, Tom?’ Her voice was not her own. ‘Did you know the truth about the wine, all this time?’
He was right. Shewasnaïve. She was blind. This whole thing had been a set-up.
‘Where is the evidence, Nella? Where is the photo you found? You know what Dad would do, so you know what we have to do.’
‘I’m not destroying evidence, Tom!’
Did you do it? Did you kill Clarkson? Are you a murderer? Is the only family I have left a lie as well?
‘You will do what I tell you to do. You’re the lawyer, I’m the client. Your family’s lives are at stake. Everything is going to end if this comes out. The difference between you and me, Nella, has nothing to do with what we thought about our father, the difference is that I will do whatever it takes to save my family, whereas you will just do whatever it takes to save yourself. And let’s face it, you can’t even do that right – so you call Jett or Grey to save you instead.’
Did you kill him? Why won’t you answer?
‘Nella.’ Tom’s voice was rasping like he was running out of air, his face twisted like the gnarled tree roots by the river where they used to play together for hours. ‘Please.’ His desperation reached for her like a cold, dead hand. His fingers dug into her shoulders. Painfully. Tears welled in his eyes. ‘Please don’t let it end like this.’
Tom was broken. She hadn’t seen him cry since he was that little kid tripping over the Moreton Bay fig trees. He didn’t cry at Giovanni’s funeral. He hadn’t even cried when Raphael held a gun to his head and he thought he was about to die.
But of coursethiswas what would break Tomaso Barbarani. The wine business was all he’d ever cared about. And it was not a stretch to suggest he’d kill to keep this secret.
‘I can’t.’ Nella’s voice matched his. ‘I’ve dedicated my whole life to the law, to the truth. It’s who I am, Tom. I can’t do it. I can’t destroy it.’
‘Then you are destroying us!’ His mouth was a gaping wound, a vacuum, sucking her into his pit of misery. He shook her, but she didn’t fight. She was locked. Stuck.
Because some part of her knew she deserved it.
‘We’re already destroyed,’ she bit out, her own tears streaming fiercely now. ‘Look at us. Look at what we’ve done to everyone who ever stayed long enough. To Greyson, Jett.’ Her voice faltered on his name. She drew a breath. ‘Look atme. I poison everything around me, I push everyone away. Look at Luca – how the fuck is he going to raise a child, Tom? How is he going to be a decent father when the only example he’s had is Giovanni and the two of us? That kid’s better off never knowing any of us. That would be the kindest thing to do.’
Something crashed behind them and they spun around in time to watch Luca stumble into the bakery’s bins, the metal lid clattering to the ground. The sound was deafening in the mortifying silence.
‘Luca ...’ Nella managed to push Tom away, thoughts of his hands tying the rope around Clarkson’s neck evaporating as she took in her little brother’s pale face and hazy eyes. ‘Luca, I didn’t mean ...’
‘Oh, don’tapologiseto me,’ Luca said, his words slurred and soaked with the viciousness of bourbon. ‘What a speech! You always were the best with words – Dad would be proud of you, Nel! I haven’t quite heard it put like that since he’s been gone. You will be relieved to know though, the paternity test came back and I’mnotthe father.’ He laughed and fell back against the brick wall, lighting a cigarette with surprising dexterity.
The lump in Nella’s throat swelled.
Dad would be proud of you.Luca had chosen the sharpest knife in his arsenal to cut her with. And it was true.
She moved towards him, but the cold ice in his eyes froze the last warm, human parts of her over.
‘I thought you were in the car,’ Tom said, his voice gruff, tears gone. Even him, blind to most lines, knew one had been crossed.
‘You forgot to put the child lock on my booster seat.’ Luca flicked his cigarette into the pile of rubbish. ‘I only defied your orders,dearestbrother, because the police are currently arresting our sister’s employee – that guy who found Clarkson, the one with the pop-star ponytail. Thought you’d want to know.’
At Luca’s words, Tom pushed past Nella and ran back up the stairs to her office.
