The Sweet Life (22 page)

Breathing hard, Janey reached the other side of the Viale Pretoriano and scanned her surroundings. Through a gap in the ancient city walls, ahead of her stretched the gloomily lit Viale dell’Università. She was standing at the top end of an upside-down T-intersection, torn about which way to go.

Should she head back along this side of the Viale Pretoriano in a northerly direction in the hope that it somehow connected up with the Via Nomentana – the main road that would take her back towards Celia’s? Or should she continue along the Viale dell’Università and try to find someone to help her get her bearings? On this side of the Viale Pretoriano there was barely any footpath to speak of beneath the shadow of the old Roman fortifications that ran alongside it, and the rushing traffic showed no sign of thinning out any time soon.

Janey hesitated for a moment – but her mind was made up for her when she noticed someone approaching down the Viale Pretoriano. Wearing a white porcelain mask that covered the entire face.

She turned on her heel and started walking quickly in the other direction when another figure, wearing a full gilt-and-white harlequin mask, stepped calmly out of the traffic further down the street and began moving towards her. It felt unreal. Like she’d walked into a scene from an Italian
Terminator
movie. She was hemmed in on both sides, and her tormentors were moving closer.

Fellini hadn’t given up and gone home – he’d brought reinforcements!

In wordless terror, Janey spun back around and sprinted up the tree-lined Viale dell’Università, which was absolutely deserted. Streetlamps were lit every hundred metres or so, but it was still very dark beneath the cover of the trees, and devoid of life. As she ran – her lungs burning, her backpack banging painfully into her spine – Janey registered that the buildings she passed looked official, like low-rise government office blocks. But few windows were lit and the car parks beneath them were largely empty. Between the harsh rattle of her breathing and her own footfalls, she thought she could hear the unhurried footsteps of her two pursuers echoing behind her. In desperation, she sprinted right at a crossroads and looked around for somewhere to hide. But the door of the first building she tried was locked, and she gave a tiny scream and kept running.

It felt like she’d been running forever when she skidded to a halt in some kind of public square, complete with flagpoles displaying the Italian tri-colour. A street sign told her she was standing in the Piazzale Aldo Moro. A number of darkened roads and streets fanned out from the square in different directions, and she was frantically deciding which one to take when more masked figures appeared silently at the boundaries of the square. There were five in all, including the two that had pursued her from the Viale Pretoriano.

Janey thought her heart would explode with fear! They were closing in on her from all sides, and she had nowhere left to run.

The sound of a car door opening somewhere behind her made her spin around. She focused her shattered gaze on a grey cement block building with blank mirrored windows. A dark car was parked in front of the building and from beneath one of the building’s blunt, rectangular arches
Luca appeared
.

For a moment, Janey stopped breathing.

When she remembered to breathe again, she found herself trapped between the masked youths and Luca’s tall and familiar form.

What Brandon had told her had all been true!

All of Janey’s terror and rage were in her voice as she screamed at Luca. ‘How could you
do
this to me?’

Fellini

Luca held Janey’s wild-eyed gaze with his own. ‘Cara mia!’ he called out. ‘Run to me!’

Janey flinched. ‘Why would I do that?’ she spat. ‘After all you’ve put me through? Do you get off on playing s-sick jokes on girls who like you or something?’

‘You are wise not to trust him, Jane,’ shouted a male voice in heavily accented English behind her.

Janey turned. It was one of the watchers, the one in the gold mask that she’d first spotted near that pharmacy.

‘He is the mastermind,’ the speaker added. ‘He has set you up from the beginning. All of it is due to Luca Sarti.’

In a flash, Luca’s face registered such a look of fury and loathing that Janey instinctively took another step back, away from him and towards the masked people grouped behind her.

‘Bugiardo!’ Luca roared. ‘Liar!’

Uncertainty made Janey’s step falter.

In a gentler tone, Luca urged Janey, ‘Call Brandon, everything will be clear!’

Janey stared at Luca in confusion for a split second, then grabbed her mobile out of her backpack. Before the watchers behind her registered what she was doing, she’d dialled Brandon’s number.

Almost immediately, ‘What Goes Around . . . Comes Around’ cut through the still night air.

Janey spun around.

‘You idiot!’ said someone, as another of Janey’s masked tormentors started laughing.

‘You cowards,’ said Luca in a ringing voice, ‘remove your masks. You are undone by one of your own! Adesso.
Immediately
.’

One by one, Janey’s pursuers removed their masks, laughing defiantly, and Janey felt her entire world tilt dangerously for one split second.

For there was
Freddy
, twirling her mask on one finger as though the malevolent looking creation of gold-and-white porcelain was the latest must-have accessory! And the tall figure in the golden mask had been – who else? – that creep Paolo, while the others revealed themselves to be Luz, Minka and . . .
Brandon
.

Janey couldn’t bring herself to look at Brandon. She couldn’t believe Freddy and her friends had been behind the cruel hoax the entire time.

Fellini wasn’t one person – ‘he’ was five!

‘
Why
, Freddy?’ Janey gasped. ‘What have I ever
done
to you? And Brandon?’

Brandon – the only one who wasn’t laughing or smirking – stared at his feet.

Freddy snorted. ‘How do you know Luca’s not behind it all?’ She drifted closer to where Janey stood. ‘It’s
his
word against
ours
. Blood’s thicker than water, remember? He’s practically a stranger. He could have put us up to this for his own amusement. You know I’ve had a crush on him for ages. I’d do anything for Luca, wouldn’t I, caro?’ she added, blowing a kiss in his direction. ‘And my friends would do anything for
me
. Can’t you take a joke?’

Paolo snickered, while Luz didn’t bother to hide her look of snobby disdain.

‘Fermati!’ Luca snarled. He turned to Janey and urged, ‘Do not believe her, bella mia. She is making trouble.’

Paolo gave an ugly laugh, his expression unapologetic. ‘It’s what Federica does best! Half the reason she’s so fun to be with.’

Minka glanced away in embarrassment, while Brandon just looked sick.

Janey’s head was spinning trying to make sense of all the arguments and counter arguments trading back and forth around her. Was Luca the ringleader of the whole thing, or Freddy?
Who
did she believe? She didn’t know either of them well enough to tell.

‘That’s enough!’ issued a new voice out of the darkness as a car door opened nearby. Everyone froze as Celia appeared from the shadows.

Two spots of high colour appeared on Freddy’s cheekbones as her look of amusement died.

‘I can’t tell you how sorry I am,’ Celia said to Janey, ‘that I believed a single word this
spoilt psychopath
of mine ever told me about you! I don’t know how to make it up to you, but it starts
tonight
.’

‘It doesn’t matter,’ Janey replied distractedly, still trying to process Freddy’s and Brandon’s duplicity.

‘And you!’ Celia barked in her daughter’s direction. ‘Get in the car, you disgraceful baggage. And the rest of you,’ she took in Freddy’s friends with a sweeping glare, ‘push off home. I’m going to get on the phone to your parents as soon as this is over and I’m making sure they ground each of you for at least the rest of the summer break.’

The histrionics began almost as soon as Luca drove out of the Piazzale Aldo Moro with Janey in the front passenger seat and Celia and Freddy in the back.

‘Apologise
now
,’ Celia bellowed.

Freddy shook her head mutinously and burst into tears.

Luca and Janey exchanged wry glances.

‘What’s gotten
into
you lately?’ Celia continued more gently over her daughter’s bowed head. ‘I’d expect you to treat
me
like I’ve got some sort of leprous disease, but not Janey. Why would you treat her like this? You’ve always wanted a sibling and then Janey shows up – the next best thing in the circumstances – and what do you do? Try and run her out of our lives!
I don’t understand you.
’

‘I thought you’d be pleased,’ Freddy sobbed. ‘Then you’d get to keep
all
the money! And it’s not like we need another girl in the family when you don’t know what to do with the one you’ve
got
.’

Janey resisted the urge to turn around. It was between Freddy and Celia, she told herself, though her ears were practically on stalks.

‘Whatever do you mean, all the money?’ asked Celia incredulously.

‘The Gordon money!’ Freddy hiccupped. ‘If you found her but we didn’t get along, remember, because you decided she was
of bad character
– like that stupid will said – we’d get to keep it
all
and wouldn’t have to share it.’

Celia shook her head. ‘You set all this up so that I’d believe Janey was some kind of ditzy tramp?’

Freddy glared tearfully at her mother.

In the front of the car, Janey frowned, while Luca’s straight dark brows shot up. Both maintained their silence, listening intently.

‘You mean you knew about the details of the Gordon will?’ Celia cried. ‘
How
?’

‘You don’t password our home computer,’ Freddy responded sullenly. ‘I read all the letters you exchanged with the lawyers for the Gordons’ estate. Every single one. I’ve known about that stupid will for ages.
If
you located Lydia Gordon or her child
and
decided that they weren’t of bad character, the lawyers would be obliged to distribute half the money to
them
.’

‘And you decided to prove Janey’s character was of the very worst kind!’ Celia sounded flabbergasted. ‘I’ve never wanted all the money, Freddy! I’d much rather have Janey in our lives than keep it all. It’s rightfully hers anyway. She
needs
it. We
don’t
. I can’t believe this was all about the Gordon bequest.’

Janey swallowed through the sudden lump in her throat, remembering how they’d struggled to find the money to pay for her mum’s medical expenses. ‘The money’s pretty useless to me now,’ she muttered. ‘Freddy can
have
it.’

Freddy ignored her. ‘But then we’d be almost as well off as Luz and Brandon are!’ she addressed Celia pleadingly. ‘And she’s a
dork
anyway. She’d never fit in with my crowd. I mean,
look
at her. I gave a her a head-to-toe makeover and she still doesn’t know how to dress.’

Freddy really was a piece of work! Janey thought in disbelief. Make
under
, more like! She was so totally in the wrong, and could still come out with stuff like that!