Our Kind of Love by Victoria Purman Page B

too. For all intents and purposes, Paolo and Sonia Morelli, once again, had three single children. Not a grandchild in sight in any of their futures.
    ‘No, I’m not pregnant.’
    ‘Oh.’ Sonia’s shoulders slumped and she dropped her eyes. She distractedly began fiddling with her cutlery. ‘It’s just that, you’re not getting any younger and you’ve been married so many years now and I thought that—’
    ‘Ma.’ Anna knew it had come out angry and she instantly regretted it. Wishing it wouldn’t make it true.
    ‘I was just saying that—’
    Anna held her breath. ‘Please, let me say something. There’s something really important I have to tell you.’
    ‘Have you got cancer?’ Her mother asked in a shocked whisper, one hand clamped to her chest as if to stop her heart from leaping out of it.
    ‘What?’
    ‘Ma,’ Grace said, ‘She hasn’t got cancer.’ Then she looked at her sister. ‘Have you?’
    ‘For God’s sake. Stop everyone.’ If it wasn’t so ridiculous, Anna would have laughed herself into a giggling silence. At least now divorce might appear to be a softer blow than cancer.
    ‘I’m not pregnant. I’m not sick. I don’t have cancer.’
    ‘What is it then?’ her mother asked.
    Anna tried to speak but the words stopped. This it is , she thought. This moment could be the end of everything . But she had to do it, had to tell them now.
    ‘What I have is a husband who wants a divorce.’
    The only sound in the room was a muttered prayer from her mother. Anna found the strength from deep down inside to look at each of them in turn. Luca’s mouth, full of stir-fry, gaped open in shock and his eyes darted to his father. Tears welled in Grace’s eyes and she was wiping them away with the sleeve of her shirt. Their mother had turned white and was crossing herself. Nonna kept chewing but regarded her granddaughter with narrowed eyes. Anna felt the weight of her revelation like a cardiac arrest; the pounding of her heart in her temples and behind her eyes, in her fingertips and behind her breasts.
    Then there were gasps from around the table, so loud that Anna was surprised there was any oxygen left in the room. At least that’s how it felt to her because she could barely breathe.
    They all spoke at once.
    ‘He what?’ said Luca.
    ‘When did this happen?’ said Paolo.
    ‘I wondered why he wasn’t here tonight,’ said Sonia.
    ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ said Grace.
    Anna endured the onslaught with a tightness in her jaw and nausea swirling in her stomach. Five faces stared at her, the faces of the people she loved most in the world. She knew that telling them would break their hearts as it had done her own.
    ‘Anna,’ Nonna’s raspy voice held everyone’s attention. ‘A divorce?’ A supporting hand was on each of her shoulders. Her parents.
    Anna lifted her wine glass and announced, with a quivering voice. ‘Yes. He says I’m not the kind of wife he wants and …’ She decided to tell them almost everything. ‘And he’s already been out there with plenty of other women trying to find a new one.’
    There. She’d said it. It was done. The heartbreaking truth was out there and Anna felt the burden lift, as if a tumour had been excised from her skin.
    ‘No!’ Grace shouted.
    ‘The bastard!’ Luca growled.
    ‘I never liked him,’ Sonia murmured.
    ‘How could he do that to my daughter?’ Paolo said.
    There wasn’t a dry eye around the table. It was real. There was to be no more keeping secrets from her family. Except one that involved a one-night stand and quite possible the best sex of her life.
    She could finally breathe.
    Looking around her, seeing the concern and love in their eyes, Anna wondered why she’d been so scared. Her fear had more to do with her than it did them. Up until now, she’d been the perfect first child, the daughter who sailed through school, blitzed university, married the perfect man and had the perfect job. Now she carried the scar of