‘Daddy, why are some parts missing?’ she asked as she began to move around the stands. ‘Can we find them?’
Kim had to smile. She’d been such a curious child, too. She’d walk around Central Park with her nanny looking for things to play with.
Though, unlike Lily, Kim’s father was never there for her to ask why things were the way they were. Gloria would never set foot in the park either. She was far too sophisticated and important for something so mundane as walking among trees along with the great unwashed.
What Kim was doing now with her husband and child, her family had never done together. So instead of worrying about work, she should really try to live in the moment and cherish this.
Lily grabbed Gabriel’s hand and began to run around the ancient piazza, peeking behind the statues one by one. ‘Come find them, come find them.’
‘Why don’t we?’ Kim teased Gabriel.
He looked at her, faintly shocked that she’d agreed to play hide ’n’ seek.
The afternoon flew by and it was fun; more fun than Kim had had in months.
She understood why Gabriel enjoyed being with Lily so much. Playing with her made Kim’s heart feel lighter.She stood back now and watched him chase Lily around the amphitheatre, up and down the steps and along row after row, puffing as he went. Her blonde pigtails bounced on top of her head as she squealed with glee and waved her doll around frantically as she tried to escape him.
It was wonderful to see and Kim realised with a pang that she was missing out – had missed out on so much of Lily’s childhood so far.
That needed to change.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket. She’d switched off the ringer and hidden it in the bottom of her bag in the hope of trying to forget her worries and concentrating on her family for once.
She knew there’d be emails from the office and possibly calls too, but they could wait.
But this call wasn’t from the office. It was from Antonio.
‘I’ve been trying to call you all day. Where are you?’
Her brow wrinkled at the urgency in his voice. ‘I’m inPompeii with Gabriel and Lily. Why?’
‘I know that’s important, but there’s something going on you need to know about. I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but we’ve hit a major snag. More than a snag, actually. This could actually put the launch in jeopardy.’
Oh God, what now?
Kim’s heart began to race. Or was it that Antonio had caught wind of the plagiarism claim and the bad publicity it could generate? Still, it wasn’t like him to back down from anything without a fight.
‘What kind of trouble?’ she asked, holding her breath. ‘What kind of problem?’
‘The licences for Villa Dolce Vita. They’ve been revoked.’
Kim’s eyes widened, not expecting this at all.
‘What do you mean they’ve been revoked? It took us over a year to get those permissions. Which licences?’
‘All of them, actually. Change of business amendments. Accommodation and health and safety permits. Everything.’
Her knees buckled, but she did her best to stay on her feet. ‘Say that again?’
‘All of them, Kim. Everything. The authorities are giving some bullshit excuse but I don’t understand any of it. Those permissions were granted. Everything was signed off. How could they be revoked now? It doesn’t make sense, yes? So I made some calls but still I got the runaround.’
It had taken months upon months, maybe even a year of bureaucratic red tape – never easy in Italy at the best of times – to get everything in order so that the villa could reopen and trade as a licenced hotel and wellness retreat.
Kim had been losing sleep, even hair, over getting those across the line before they could even think about green-lighting the renovations. She and Antonio had attended meeting after meeting and sweet-talked official after official to try and get things signed off. And now he was saying they’d just been revoked, wiped clean?
It was a disaster.
‘I don’t know what’s going on, Antonio. We did everything we were asked. Every form signed, fees paid, calls taken, and meetings had. We did it all. You were there, too, and I know we left no stone unturned.’ She shook her head in disbelief. ‘It sounds like someone’s out to sabotage us.’
