Chapter 13

KATHERINE

I swallowed the lump in my throat. Oh, what did we do wrong? Slowly, I turned to Giorgio, and I noted the look of confusion on his face. It was evident that he was as shocked as I was. We both didn’t understand what was going on.

In the little time that I had turned to Giorgio, his father had crossed the space that separated us. He pulled me closer to him, and hugged me hard. I didn’t know when I expelled the breath I had been holding. What type of joke was this?

He pulled me back. “Oh, my goodness! Your face had been priceless,” he said as he lunched into a cackle.

I shook my head. So, it had been a joke? Damn! The fact that I didn’t realise this at first made it hilarious. I had lost had a heart attack thinking that he had figured out the truth about our deception. That wouldn’t have been funny one bit.

I turned towards Giorgio, and he shrugged.

“Dad, that was not funny,” he said with a sigh.

His father laughed in response. It was evident that the man believed that it was