LITMIR.BIZ

       CHAPTER ONE

      AFTERWARDS ELLIE ALWAYS remembered the day when things really started to happen, when the sky glowed, the universe trembled to its foundations and nothing was ever the same again.

      It began gloomily, a cold February morning with the traffic in a jam, delaying her as she drove to work. Drumming her fingers against the steering wheel, she drew in sharp breaths of exasperation.

      The world would call her a successful woman, a highly qualified lawyer employed by one of London’s most notable legal practices. To be late for work should have been beneath her. But it was happening.

      When she finally arrived, Rita, her young secretary, greeted her with agitation.

      ‘The boss has been asking about you every minute.’

      The boss was Alex Dallon, founder and head of Dallon Ltd. He was an efficient, demanding man, and it was no small achievement that Ellie had earned his favour.

      ‘Is he annoyed because I’m late?’ Ellie asked.

      ‘A bit. Signor Fellani called to say he was coming in this morning and Mr Dallon doesn’t have time to see him.’

      ‘I wasn’t aware that Signor Fellani had an appointment.’

      ‘No, but you know him. He just announces he’s coming.’

      ‘And we all have to jump to it,’ Ellie groaned.

      ‘I wouldn’t mind jumping for him,’ Rita declared longingly. ‘He’s gorgeous!’

      ‘That’s not the point,’ Ellie told her, severely but kindly. ‘Looks aren’t everything.’

      ‘His are,’ Rita sighed.

      ‘No man’s are,’ Ellie said firmly.

      Rita’s response was a cynical look that Ellie understood. She knew exactly how she appeared to her secretary. Rita was a pretty, vivacious young woman with an eager interest in finding ‘the one’. Ellie was a successful, efficient woman in her late thirties, with no husband or lover. Rita would clearly see that as a fate to avoid. To her, a man as attractive as Leonizio Fellani was not merely a client, but a dream to sigh over.

      Ellie could understand how naïve Rita could fall for him. He was a man nobody could overlook, in his early thirties, with black hair and dark eyes that drew instant attention. He had a tall, athletic build and moved with a masculine grace that drew many eyes towards him. His face, she conceded, was handsome, although too often marred by tension.

      Just once she had seen him smile, and there had been a glimpse of the kinder man he might have been. But it was over in a moment as the unyielding side of his nature took over again.

      She herself ignored male attractions. There had been moments in her past when she had weakened, which was how she thought of it. But things hadn’t worked out and she’d gathered her defences again.

      Her appearance disappointed her. Her face was pleasant but not strikingly pretty. She possessed only one outstanding feature. Her hair. If she wore it long it could appear lush and wildly wavy. But she chose to scrape it back, tying the length into a bun at the back.

      Businesslike, she often thought, regarding herself sadly in the mirror. Nobody is going to sigh over those looks.

      She tended to judge herself severely. Many women would have envied her slender figure, but she considered herself too thin and overly angular. It was her nature to be realistic about her own lack of conventional attractions. Unlike Rita, she would never sigh over a handsome man like Signor Fellani.

      He was an important client, wealthy, Italian, strong-minded. Curiosity had inspired Ellie to look up his name and she’d discovered that Leonizio meant ‘lion-like’. It suited his commanding ways, she reckoned.

      He had made a fortune manufacturing shoes. His luxurious, elegant products sold all over the world, especially in the UK. Just across the road from Ellie’s office was a large store that sold them in great numbers.

      His base was in Rome, but he employed this London firm to handle the divorce from his English wife. Alex Dallon liked Ellie to deal with this client often because her grandmother had been Italian and she had a basic knowledge of the language. Not that she ever needed to use it. Signor Fellani’s command of English was like everything else about him: precise and efficient.

      ‘Has there been any more mail from his wife’s lawyers?’ Ellie asked. ‘The last I heard was that she was refusing to budge about custody of their baby.’

      ‘But since she’s left him and the child hasn’t been born yet, she’s bound to get custody,’ Rita pointed out.

      ‘I’m not looking forward to telling him that. Anything significant in the mail?’

      ‘Not that I’ve seen so far, but I haven’t opened them all yet. I’ll check.’

      She vanished and Ellie went to her desk. Taking out the Fellani file, she glanced quickly through the papers, reminding herself of the details.

      Three years earlier, Signor Fellani had made a whirlwind marriage with Harriet Barker, an Englishwoman he’d met while she was on holiday in his native city, Rome. But after the initial excitement died the marriage had suffered. When Harriet finally discovered that she was pregnant she had left him, coming back to England.

      He’d followed her, insisting that she return to him, and, when she refused, he’d demanded joint custody of the unborn child. This she also refused.

      Harriet must be a woman of great courage, Ellie thought. Leonizio was an autocrat, a man who demanded obedience and knew how to get it. In their few meetings he had treated her with cool courtesy, but she had always sensed an underlying steeliness. To the wife who was defying him he might be terrifying, but perhaps that was why she was so determined to escape him.

      Rita appeared in the doorway, holding out a letter.

      ‘He’s going to create merry hell when he reads this,’ she said.

      Ellie read it with mounting dismay. It was from Harriet’s lawyers.

      Your client must understand that he has no rights over this child, because it is not his. His wife left him because she had found another partner and become pregnant. Now a DNA test has proved that the child she is carrying is not her husband’s.

      She is anxious to conclude the divorce as soon as possible so that she can marry the child’s father before the birth.

      Please persuade Signor Fellani to see sense.

      A copy of the paperwork for the DNA test was enclosed. There was no doubt that the baby had been fathered by the other man.

      ‘Oh, heavens!’ she sighed. ‘What a dreadful thing to have to tell him.’

      ‘Especially today,’ Rita said.

      ‘Why, what’s different about today?’

      ‘It’s Valentine’s Day. The day for lovers, when they celebrate the joy of their love.’

      ‘Oh, no!’ Ellie groaned. ‘I’d forgotten the date. You’re right. But he’s Italian. Perhaps they don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day in Italy. I hope not because that would really rub it in.’

      A noise from outside made her glance through the window. She saw a taxi draw up, and Signor Fellani get out. She went to wait for him in her office, longing for this soon to be over.

      A few moments later he appeared at her door, his face

Скачать книгу