“Yeah, you should have, dickhead,” Ace taunted me walking into my office with a grimace twisting his mouth.
“I don’t need you giving me shit right now, Ace, so please fuck off.”
“Oh, don’t worry, mate, I am leaving as soon as I say my piece,” Ace scoffed, giving me a full-on greasy glare.
“Who the fuck are you, Luca? I get you once had a responsibility to your family when your dad died, but when are you going to give up the martyr title and let your sisters and mum stand on their own?”
“Please don’t hold back, Ace, speak your mind by all means,” I muttered sarcastically.
“Will do, and here are some more home truths, mate. You fucked up and there is no one to blame other than yourself. Your mother hates every single one of your friends, always has. Me, Rog, Rick and Boofa, and every girlfriend you have ever had. Except for Naomi because she chose her, not you.”
“Us guys could handle the snide remarks, the filthy looks, and bitchiness because our skin is thick, and we knew better because we grew up with you. But Meadow did nothing but try to fit in, and she put herself out there only to have your mother snub her nose at her. Spring told me some of the shit Irena spewed at Meadow when you weren’t around, and quite frankly, I was and still am appalled.”
I hung my head, so that Ace wouldn’t see my shame. Meadow had tried to tell me about one particular occasion when Mum visited her at work to make fun of her second-hand business but did I listen or believe her? Nope, I started an argument with her, accusing her of misinterpreting what my mother said.
“You have no idea what Meadow had to put up with when you had your back turned, Kayla and your mother led the lynch mob, and Meadow didn’t stand a chance without your support. You forgot her and let her be a target. I don’t know what you think of it, mate, but it makes me fucking sick to admit you allowed such a thing.”
“She is my mother, and I promised Dad!” I yelled. “She fell to pieces when he died. You were there too, Ace, you saw.”
“I saw a woman realise she could manipulate her own son with the memory of his hero. That is what I saw, Luca. Your father was a great man, and it was because of him anyone could tolerate the women in your family.”
“Mum fainted Ace, a stroke the doctors think all because of what Meadow said about Dad.” The words were no sooner out of my mouth before Ace had my shirt in his fists, his angry face close to mine.
“Bullshit! I was on the other side of the deck, mate, and I saw your mother’s evil smirk just before she pretended to faint. The fact that she fucked up and hit her head was a bonus, in my view, fucking karma for the evil shit she pulled to break you and Meadow up.”
“She wouldn’t do that; she just wouldn’t,” I stammered, but already my mind was heading in that very direction. My mother was manipulative, her and Kayla more than Phoebe, Sandy or Holly. But to do something so sinister was incomprehensible; it was inconceivable for me to believe it of my own flesh and blood.
“She did and I believe everything Meadow said. Tell me, Luca, have you confirmed with the doctor your mother had a stroke? Or has she made up some crap that only you would believe? How long did it take for Naomi to be invited back to family dinners?”
Ace pushed me back releasing me from his hold. His face said it all, he was disgusted with me, and he had every right to be.
Naomi came back that very night, sitting next to me at the table, consoling me and trying to insert herself back into my life. It hadn’t worked; there was only one woman for me, one woman I wanted.
Every night I fell into bed exhausted from overworking myself so that I could fall into a dreamless sleep. Anything so I wouldn’t see Meadow in my dreams, nothing worked, though; no amount of physical labour or endless paperwork stopped my mind drifting to Meadow.
Nothing in my house felt like home anymore. Trish and Lennie had come by the day after Meadow left me to pick up her things. The colourful couch cushions and the plastic potted plants Meadow found adorable. Her smell was gone, fading away days ago, leaving me just like she did. Alone.
“Ace, mate, please. She is pregnant with my baby, and she can’t do it alone. I mean, she can because Meadow is the strongest woman I have ever met, but I don’t want her to raise our baby without me.” I had to stop myself from thinking about the baby Meadow carried, if I went there, then I would crumble in a heap, and I needed to find Meadow and get her back.
“I can’t and won’t betray Spring’s trust, Luca, by telling you that. But I will say on Friday Spring has an important person going into the shop in the morning, sometime before lunch.”
My heart skipped a beat, reading into what Ace just told me. My mind spun a hundred miles an hour, coming up with a plan to see Meadow and beg for her to take me back.
“Don’t make me regret telling you, Luca, and don’t fuck up again.” Ace turned around to walk out but stopped and looked over his shoulder at me. My best friend since birth looked at me like I was a stranger and that fucking hurt.
“Meadow was right when she said your dad would be ashamed of the way your mum has behaved, same with you. I know I fucking am.”
Ace stormed out of the office, leaving me alone with my shame. I had some major bridges to mend with my best mate and my other mates, and I will, come hell or high water, I will make everything right.
First, though, I needed to make a phone call.
I sat on hold for nineteen minutes to find out from the medical centre receptionist that Mum had me listed as her next of kin, and had her written permission to access her medical records. Immediately, I asked to speak with her doctor and was put back on hold. The annoying music was getting to me, and I was seriously contemplating getting in my car and going to see him in person when the line clicked from the music to Dr Garvie’s deep baritone.
“Luca! How are you, boy?”
“Not a boy anymore,” I chuckled, answering him in the same way I did every time he called me that.
“To an eighty-two year old you are a boy,” he laughed. “Now, what can I do for you? I saw your mum yesterday and she has healed very nicely.”
“Yeah, about that Doc, Mum mentioned that you suspected a stroke caused by severe stress. Is it possible that the confrontation with Meadow brought it on or was it—”
“Um, Luca, your mother did not suffer a stroke.”
“Pardon? She told me that you said it was a real possibility brought on by her argument with Meadow.”
“Meadow?”
“Ah, my girlfriend. Mum doesn’t like her.” I sidestepped my relationship woes' actual status because, in my mind, Meadow was mine and this breakup was just a break. Until …
“Well, that makes sense,” Doc Garvie sighed. “Irena was adamant that I not tell you about my findings, she wanted to wait until you were in a better place.”
“Findings? What findings exactly?”
“Luca, I performed a battery of tests on Irena. I found nothing that could have caused her to faint. Her heart is perfect, bloody pressure on arrival was at normal levels, she is as healthy as a horse, boy. Irena was the one that suggested that maybe a stroke caused her accident, and as I said to her at the time, absolutely no chance.”
I mumbled a thank you and hung up the phone. Numbly I stared at the paper laying on the desk, the contracts that still required my signature, a half-finished quote for a demolition job, then at the framed photo of my parents. It had been taken on my eighteenth birthday, a year before his death. It was my favourite photo of them, that day we celebrated my coming of age. My father looked so young for his age, and at the time, so did Mum.
She lied to me. She actually lied to me. Why?
There was only one way to find out. Snatching up my keys, I gathered my phone and briefcase, leaving the contracts and other paperwork on the desk. My concentration was shit for anything else other than finding out why Mum faked a stroke and figuring out how to get Meadow to come home. To me.
***
Entering my mother’s house,
the first thing I heard was the opera music coming from the kitchen. Mum liked to cook to Pavarotti; she said it reminded her of Dad and their time in Italy before they moved to Australia.
Passing through the dining room, I walked to the kitchen to find Mum swaying to the music, her hands immersed in a massive ball of dough, kneading it with the vigour of a woman half her age.
The hope that Doc G had it all wrong slipped away as I stood and truly looked at my mother unnoticed by her yet. No way was she ill, no way the weak and frail woman she had portrayed herself as the last three weeks was she the same person in front of me.
Reaching over to the wall control board, I turned down the volume button to the stereo system.
“Who turned that down—Oh, Luca,” Mum startled, seeing me unexpectedly home early. Her face paled as she looked at me, and finally, I saw the guilt as it set in.
Fuck!
“How could you, Mum?”
“How could I what, my son?” Going back to kneading, I recognised the stiffness of her back. Stalking over to her, I slammed a fist down on the flour-covered bench.
“Enough games! I spoke to Doc Garvie today, and I know what you did. What I want to know is why?”
“I did what I did for the good of the family. Your father would not want you to be with such a woman. She is beneath you Luca, Naomi is not.”
“Meadow is perfect for me. Who are you to decide who I fall in love with?”
“I am your mother, Luca, and no one knows you better than I. In time you will fall in love with Naomi, marry and give me grandchildren. Dark-haired, perfectly behaved children a grandmother can be proud of all of the time. That … uncouth person is not the appropriate choice for you.”
Rage boiled inside me, anger directed at my mother. I never thought it possible to love someone and hate them all at the same time.
“That person has a name—”
“Meadow!” Mum shouted at me. “I would be a laughing stock to have a daughter-in-law with such a ridiculous name. She has no formal education, no sense of decorum, and her parents are deplorable. I demand you forget about her, Luca, and come to your senses; Naomi is grooming herself to be the perfect wife to a man of your standing.”
I gaped at the woman who gave me life, not believing the nonsense coming out of her mouth.
“You never gave her a chance!”
“I don’t want to have her part of our family. She isn’t in our class, and I won’t hear her name in this house ever again. Is that clear, Luca?”
The large framed hand-painted portrait of my father suddenly caught my attention. Every room in the house had one. Mum insisted that we see him here wherever we went to not forget the man who worked so hard for his family. If only Mum remembered that.
“Meadow is my life, she is the most important part of me, and if you can’t accept that, then I have no other option but to leave.” Standing there quietly, I said the words that I never thought would ever come out of my mouth.
Mum’s narrowed her eyes at me, her lips thinned, and for the first time, I saw what Ace and Meadow knew was hiding beneath the surface.
“You will not choose her over your family, Luca Massimo, I will not allow it.”
“I really don’t care what you think, Mum, as you have no say in what I do or who I chose to love. I can’t believe it has taken me this long to see how you really are. I can’t believe I took your side time after time. Meadow got it right, Ace and the guys too, but I didn’t see it.” Shaking my head, I silently called myself all kinds of gullible.
“Ace is not worthy of the position he holds at the company, and I do not like that person,” Mum sniffed, working hard to conjure up some crocodile tears. But her efforts were wasted on me, it was too late. Finally I was onto her.
“Tell me, did Kayla know, was she aware from the start of your plan to break Meadow and me up? And Sandy, Holly and Phoebe?”
“They just want what is best for the family, Luca.”
“They want what is best for themselves! And so do you.”
“Do not raise your voice to me! I am your mother and I deserve respect.”
Meadow was right. Mum was never going to accept us, and no amount of time could see to that. Looking at my father’s picture, I felt the weight of what I had to do.
“I’m done. I’m going to go find Meadow and beg her to forgive me, and then we are going to spend our lives together. Meadow, me and our baby.”
Hearing her surprised hiss, I ignored it and headed to the back door. I needed to get out of this house as quickly as possible, and I didn’t want to go back through the main part of the house.
“Baby? Luca, are you going to be a father?”
“Yes,” I confirmed, not looking at her.
“I am going to be a grandmama?” she asked with awe.
Steeling myself, I stood ramrod straight, my back still to my mother.
“No. You aren’t.”
Then I continued to walk to the door, opened it and let myself out. Maybe for the last time.
“Meadow, you aren’t listening to me,” Michael complained as he drove me to my shop. This would be the first time I’d left Michael’s house in three weeks, and I was not excited about it. All I wanted to do was dash back to the one-bedroom bungalow in the backyard and climb back into the bed, pull the blankets over my head and dream of Luca. That routine had served me well for twenty-one days, and I saw no reason for it to stop just because Spring was having trouble at the shop.
She could close the doors for all I cared, and I told her as much, but my sister used dirty tactics against me. Calling Michael, Prue’s brother, in to force me out of the house.
When I walked away from Luca, leaving my heart shattered at his feet, I had no idea where to go. I knew I couldn’t go back to my place, being the first place he would look, my parents’ house too. Spring and Prue were out also, then I walked out into the parking lot and saw Prue waiting for me in her brother’s car. Being her stepbrother, Michael was not someone I had talked to Luca about, so I jumped into the backseat and left with them.
Michael and his partner Jeff settled me in their bungalow and for three weeks had doted on me. They also worried a lot. They took turns sleeping on the sofa in the small one-bedroom dwelling. Normally, they rented it out for extra income, but being the sweet and kind guys they are, they readily agreed to let me stay as long as I needed to.
So far, I had no plans to leave. Nothing in the tiny space reminded me of Luca, and there was not a hint of his scent other than the shirt I wore to bed and basically all day. When Spring and Trish went to my house to grab clothes and supplies for me, Trish took it upon herself to add one of Luca’s shirts from the laundry basket. It hadn’t been washed, so his smell of sweat and cologne became my constant companion other than my misery and, of course, my bundle of Luca growing inside.
My hands moved to my stomach, as they always did when my baby and his father entered my thoughts.
“Meadow, sweetheart, are you alright?” Jeff asked, reaching around from the front seat to place a hand on my knee. I liked Jeff, he and Michael were the perfect couple, and the topper on the cake … both sets of parents got along together and liked their son’s choice of partner.
Smiling sadly at Jeff, I patted his hand. “Yeah sweetie, I’m fine. Just a little nervous about being out, that’s all,” I admitted truthfully.
“I know, darling girl,” Michael said from the driver’s seat, looking at me in the rear-view mirror, “after you see Springy, then we’ll head to the doctor for your appointment. You will be back in bed before you know it.”
“Good,” I breathed, hating my cowardice. This was not me, but then again, I had a decent excuse for hiding out. Spring and Ace told me how crazy Luca had become looking for me. Ace telling me how Luca went toe to toe with Lennie when Dad refused to tell Luca of my whereabouts. I hated that too, bringing my family into my mess, putting them in the thick of it while I hid out, mourning the loss of the best man I had ever met and l
oved.
Luca’s best friend also told me of the hold Irena had on Luca, running him ragged with her so-called illness. Demanding he be with her most of the day, ferrying her to friends, medical appointments, shopping trips, and using her imaginary stroke as her weapon to keep him close.
I left him to make things easier on him, but from what Ace said, Luca’s life was more hectic than ever before. Irena making him feel guilty and more responsible. Me disappearing must be adding to his problems, especially after I dropped the bombshell about the baby, then left.
“We are happy you are finally seeing a doctor, Meadow. We don’t even know how far along you are in the pregnancy,” Jeff chatted, turning back to look out of the windscreen.
Yes I do, I thought to myself, knowing that the baby was conceived not long after my accident. I had no idea, or more to the point, was ignorant to the fact that antibiotics and the pill didn’t mix. It never entered my mind or Luca’s to use condoms until I finished the course of medicine. In our defence, we never thought of anything but each other during those times, common sense not exactly prevailing.
I miss you so much, Spunk. You fucked up, but I get why.
And I did, after seeing his mother in action, the evil, sly looks she gave me, I couldn’t blame Luca for doing everything in his power to keep his mum happy. A mad Irena was not a nice person, but then I guessed that even a happy Irena would be just as torturous. She wasn’t getting within spitting distance of my baby, of that, I knew for sure. Yes, I had to go back and talk to Luca eventually, sort out how we are going to tackle the custody issues and whatnot. In no way did I plan to keep Luca from his own child, but I was certainly going to ask for some written and legal stipulations that Mrs Donatella could have nothing to do with my baby, his sisters either.
“Okay, here we are, sweetie,” Jeff announced, like the ray of bloody sunshine he was. Nothing seemed to get him angry, to raise his voice unless he was excited and he didn’t swear. Ever! At least Michael had a potty mouth.
“Joy,” I grumbled, releasing my belt and waited for one of the men to open my door for me. For some idiotic reason, they engaged the childproof lock mechanism when I got in the car, most likely scared I would make a run for it.
Dramatic, Mushy, Complicated Love Page 17
