She jumped out of bed, dashing to her closet to find something suitable to wear. She couldn’t have her husband find out where she’d been, so she would have to get their driver to take her somewhere else and then discreetly go the rest of the way on foot.
When she was finally dressed, with her hair carefully pinned back from her face, she went downstairs and had the maid call her a driver, under the illusion that she wanted to go into town to shop for her husband. It would mean she’d have to dash to get him a gift or two while she was there, but at least it wouldn’t raise any suspicions among his staff.
You can do this, Valentina.
And do this she would. It was one thing for her to be trapped in a loveless marriage, but it would be something else entirely to bring a child into it.
By midmorning, Valentina was sitting in the reception area at the offices of her father’s lawyer, trying to look as if she belonged there but at the same time finding it almost impossible not to keep watching the door. She was terrified that somehow her husband might find out and come looking for her, that he would march through the door and drag her back home by the hair.
‘Valentina?’
The man she was hoping to meet stepped into the waiting area, taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes as if he couldn’t believe who was sitting there.
‘I’m sorry to call unannounced, but?—’
‘No need to apologise, come this way,’ he said, indicating that she should follow him. ‘Maria, please move my next appointment and cancel my lunch meeting.’
‘I don’t want to cause?—’
‘Valentina, it’s my pleasure to see you. Your father was one of my best clients for more than a decade, so let me assure you that seeing you today is not an inconvenience.’
He held open the door to his office for her and Valentina sat down, folding her hands in her lap.
‘It is my understanding that my mother no longer uses you for my family’s business affairs,’ she said. ‘After what happened with my father’s will.’
The lawyer sat down across from her, his elbows braced on the solid wood desk. ‘Unfortunately that is correct.’
‘Lorenzo—if I may call you by your first name as my father did?’
‘Of course you may.’
‘Lorenzo, my father trusted you implicitly, and that’s why I called on you today,’ Valentina said. ‘My father was an astute businessman, but he was also a very compassionate man who believed deeply in looking after those he loved. From the reading of his last will and testament, you will be aware that he not onlyintended for his estate to be left to me, but he also left generous sums and even gifts to many of those in his employ.’
He nodded, taking off his glasses and rubbing at his temple. ‘Valentina, everything you say is true. In fact, I was there to draft his wishes and turn it into the document that became his will, so I know how passionately he felt about these things.’
‘And yet despite that, I am seated before you, forced into a marriage I did not consent to, with no control over my father’s estate or businesses, and in the knowledge that none of his wishes have been followed.’
‘You’re here to ask for my help?’ Lorenzo asked.
She took a deep breath. ‘I’m here to ask if you’ll represent me. I would very much like for you to be my lawyer.’
If he was surprised, he didn’t show it. ‘I’m honoured that you’d even think to ask me.’
‘Before you accept, though, I must tell you that I have no money from which to pay you right now, so I cannot offer you the kind of retainer that my father did, but what I will do is promise to pay you handsomely as soon as I secure my rightful inheritance.’
The lawyer sat back as a smile spread across his face.
‘I have no doubt that you’re as honourable as your father, Valentina, so the matter of payment isn’t a problem. Basilio was a very special man.’
‘But?’
‘But I want to understand what you’re asking of me,’ he said. ‘Challenging your mother in this way will divide your family and ruin any chance you might have at a reconciliation.’
‘Let me make one thing clear,’ Valentina said, a steely reserve settling over her that she’d never experienced before. ‘As far as I’m concerned, I no longer have any family. My mother betrayed my father, and I will never forgive her for what she did to me, so maintaining a relationship with them isn’t my concern.’
He nodded and reached for his pen, which he held poised above the notepad on his desk.
‘Tell me what you would like me to do, Valentina, and I’ll find a way to help you.’
