Ginie went to see her parents to ask their advice. There was a kind of luxury in confiding in them. It felt like a return to childhood, to being looked after. The burdens of being an adult were too great. She wanted to surrender responsibility for herself and be told what to do.

She gave them an edited version of events, simply stating that Paulo had turned away from her because she hadn’t fallen pregnant, omitting the fact that she was infertile. They listened without interrupting, visibly shaken.

‘It hurts my heart to hear this, mia cara,’ Riccardo said when she had finished.

Rosa waved his words away.

‘You must maintain a façade of being married. It’s not unusual.’ She had a string of rosary beads in her hands and she was running them through her fingers as they talked.

Ginie sat bolt upright. ‘How can I live like that? It’s unbearable.’

Rosa frowned at her, gripping the beads tightly. ‘You must bear it. There are plenty of people in this situation who manage perfectly well. Live your own life, discreetly. Marriage is a holy sacrament. Don’t violate it and bring shame on us all.’

Ginie looked at Riccardo for help. He shrugged and sighed. It was the first time she noticed that something inside him had changed. He was getting old and his desire for a quiet life had become paramount. She left her parents’ house soon afterwards, feeling more let down and trapped than ever. Weeks dragged by. She was sick with misery, hating living a lie, resenting having to endure the worst of both her worlds. Fortunately, it had knocked the desire to gamble right out of her.

In her lowest moments, she wished that Paulo would be killed in action. As a driver, he wasn’t engaged in significant conflict, but casualties were not uncommon. She imagined a visit from some sympathetic, uncomfortable soldier, telling her that Paulo had come under mortar fire and that he was lying dead in a ditch, or some foreign morgue. He drove too fast – perhaps he would crash his car. She pictured the twisted metal and shattered glass strewn across the road, Paulo’s mangled body being loaded onto a stretcher.

Paulo’s death was the only thing that could release her from this marriage quickly, cleanly and painlessly. She brought herself up short, ashamed. What kind of person was she turning into? It felt as if her heart was going to calcify from the bitterness it bore. In the end, she just packed a suitcase and left. Anything was better than the constant pain and pretence. Her parents gave her a meagre allowance; scarcely enough to cover her living expenses. Riccardo wanted to be more generous, but Rosa overrode him, bent on punishing her. Ginie endured a bitter tirade from her mother, hands clamped to her hips.