‘With everything that’s been going on, I just haven’t had an opportunity – or the time to find one,’ she replied quickly. ‘Once the dust on this is settled I will turn my attentions to the personal. I promise.’
‘I hope you do, or there may be much worse on the horizon than the failure of this venture,’ Antonio cautioned.
Kim took his words to heart. In all of the years since she’d met him, her mentor’s advice had never failed to be accurate.
‘I will,’ she repeated sincerely.
‘Ms Weston? Mr Gerber?’ a female voice called. ‘Everyone is ready.’
Kim and Antonio got to their feet immediately.She looked at him for one fleeting moment before shifting her bag onto her shoulder, lifting her chin, and walking into the meeting that could potentially make or break her.
The Italian officials’ faces gave nothing away as they both entered the meeting room. They greeted Kim and Antonio cordially, before sitting down across from them at the table. Kim noticed the paperwork spread out over it and wished she could reach across and grab the offering documents that had landed them in such strife. But she needed to be patient. There was no rushing Italian bureaucracy – this she knew from experience.
However, Antonio was keen to waste no time. He spoke in rapid Italian, asking the officials to straight out explain the nature of the problem.
‘Ms Weston and I are completely confused as to why the permissions for Villa Dolce Vita have been revoked. We did everything you asked all throughout the process, complied with any necessary adjustments and amendments where required. As far as we were concerned, everything was agreed and authorised. What has changed?’
‘We did also,’ one of the officials replied. ‘But then we received the updated application.’
Kim looked at the older man, mystified. ‘What updated application?’ she asked.
‘An application for amendments to the licences,’ he said, picking up one of the documents on the table. ‘As such, any changes automatically rescind the previous grant and put the entire project back into the planning process.’
‘But we didn’t request any amendments …’ Kim insisted, looking at Antonio, who seemed equally puzzled.
‘Show me the new application,’ her partner requested, and the official duly handed him the document. Kim watched as he read through it quickly and slowly shook his head.
‘Yes, this is very definitely a mistake. An oversight from someone in the company – an office clerk, perhaps,’ he assured them. ‘Please ignore this request,’ he said. ‘There are no amendments planned to the project. This is most definitely. A clerical error, a misunderstanding.’
Kim let out an inward sigh of relief.
A misunderstanding … Thank goodness.
The two officials looked at each other.
‘Please,’ she insisted, her heart rushing into her mouth once again. Surely these guys couldn’t insist on holding them to a mistake. These things happened all the time. ‘Everything remains as it stands. The project is complete and due to open for business within days. We would not anddonot require any material changes at this point.’
She noticed one of the officials give the other an almost imperceptible nod and her pulse began to race in anticipation of what they would say.
‘OK, yes. We appreciate that mistakes happen, though in order to reinstate the previous approvals we would need an assurance in writing—’
‘Absolutely I’ll arrange to do that right away,’ she promised them, letting out the breath she didn’t realise she’d been holding.
It was just a mistake. Thank God, thank God …
She had no idea who in the office would request amendments to the licences at this late stage, though she guessed it must be as Antonio suggested, a clerical error of some kind. She’d find out – eventually. The important thing was that they were out of the woods.
As Antonio echoed her assurances to follow up in writing, and exchanged further pleasantries with the officials, Kim noticed him squirrel away the offending documents into his briefcase and made a mental note to examine them herself afterwards.
But she couldn’t deny her elation and sheer relief that it had in fact all been settled. After weeks of being taken for a ride every which way, finally she’d got some satisfaction.
Thank goodness.
Afterwards, when Antonio dropped her off at the Excelsior and she made her way out to where Lily and Gabriel waited for her by the pool, she resisted the urge to skip through the lobby.
Everything was once againgo.
All Kim needed now was to try and figure out who was behind the plagiarism threat and make it go away.
