was standing in front of Rome’s supreme court and saying breathlessly, ‘This is the trial of the decade—if not the century. Lorenzo DePiero has finally been judged and condemned for his brutality and corruption, but no one could have foreseen the extent to which his own children and his wife suffered. His landmark sentencing will almost certainly guarantee that he lives out the rest of his days in jail.’
The press were still stunned to have discovered that the privileged life they’d assumed the DePiero heiresses to have lived had all been a lie.
Behind the reporter there was a flurry of activity as people streamed out of the majestic building. First was Rocco De Marco, the illegitimate son of Lorenzo DePiero, with his petite red-haired wife Gracie. Quickly on their heels were Siena Xenakis and her husband Andreas.
But the press waited with hushed reverence for the person they wanted to see most: Serena Fonseca. She had taken the stand for four long days in a row and had listed a litany of charges against her father. Not least of which had been the manslaughter of his wife, their mother, witnessed by her when she was just five years old.
If anyone had been in doubt about the reliability of a witness who had been only five at the time, the further evidence of her father’s systematic bullying and collusion with a corrupt doctor to get her hooked on medication had killed those doubts.
Her composed beauty had been all the more poignant for the fact that she hadn’t let her very advanced pregnancy stop her from taking on such an arduous task: facing down her father every day. But then, everyone agreed that the constant presence by her side of her husband, Luca Fonseca, had undoubtedly given her strength.
They finally emerged now—a striking couple. Luca Fonseca had an arm curved protectively around his wife and the press captured their visible smiles of relief.
Lawyers for the respective parties gave statements as the family got into their various vehicles and were whisked away with a police escort to a secret location, where they were all due to celebrate and unwind after the previous taxing months.
Luca looked at Serena in the back of the Land Rover, their hands entwined. He lifted them up and pressed a kiss to her knuckles. ‘Okay?’
Serena smiled. She felt as if a weight had finally been lifted off her shoulders for the first time in her life. She nodded. ‘Tired...but happy it’s finally done and over.’
Luca pressed a long, lingering kiss to her mouth, but when he pulled back, Serena frowned and looked down. Immediately concerned, Luca said, ‘What is it?’
Serena looked at him, a dawning expression of shock and wonder on her face. ‘My waters have just broken...all over the back seat.’
The driver’s eyes widened in the rearview mirror and he discreetly took out a mobile phone to make a call.
Serena giggled at the comic look of shock and pure fear on Luca’s face. He’d been on high alert for weeks now, overreacting to every twinge Serena felt. And then it hit her—along with a very definite cramping of pain.
Her hand tightened on his. ‘Oh, my God, we’re in labour.’
Luca went into overdrive, instructing the driver to go to the nearest hospital.
Their police escort was already peeling away from the rest of the convoy and the driver reassured him in Italian, ‘I’m on it—we’ll be there in ten minutes.’
Luca sat back, heart pumping with adrenalin, a huge ball of love and emotion making his chest full. He drank in his beloved wife, her beautiful face, and those eyes that never failed to suck him in and make him feel as if he were drowning.
‘I love you,’ he whispered huskily, the words flowing easily from his heart.
‘I love you too.’
Serena smiled, but it was wobbly. He could see the emotion in her eyes mirrored his own. He spread his hand over her distended belly, hard with their child who was now starting the journey to meet them.
His wife, his family...his life. He was enriched beyond anything he might have believed possible.
And eight hours later, when he held his newborn baby daughter in his arms, her tiny face scrunched up and more beautiful than anything he’d ever seen in his life—after his wife—Luca knew that trusting in love was the most amazing revelation of all.
* * * * *
Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Boss?
Nina Harrington
Scott Elstrom looked out across the sea ice and squinted as the Alaskan sun rose over the horizon and made the light covering of snow suddenly turn brilliantly white.
It was so beautiful that for a moment he forgave the brutal biting wind that came with crossing the frozen sea. There was no cover for himself or his team of nine sled dogs and he could feel his cheeks burning with frostbite under the mask covering his face.
Reaching up with gloved hands, Scott turned off his head torch to save the batteries and, stepping off the sled, he ran a hundred paces on the thick plate of ice to get some warmth into his body and then jumped back onto the sled, much to the amusement of the dogs. The lead dog, Dallas, actually looked back and seemed to grin at him.
The dogs loved this weather: bright sunshine and a clear trail ahead across the sound to the base camp on the other side of the bay.
The fact that they had only crossed this stretch of sea ice once before didn’t matter. They were happy just to be out and doing what they did best. Running.
He had been out with his dogs for thirteen days, taking mapping and geo readings at each of the twenty stations the ecological survey company had established. Sometimes that meant staying in a small town along the way but often the station was a simple wooden house or shack where he would be alone with his dogs, checking their feet and feeding them. He loved this way of life and the gentle routine that they had settled into.
Out here in the silence he felt a kinship with all of the explorers who had used Elstrom maps in the past to find a route to new worlds as well as to hunt and fish.
Now that routine was shattered. The message from his sister, Freya, had been short and to the point.
Their father was in hospital. He had suffered another stroke and, although it was a small one and the doctors said that he should make a good recovery, his father wanted to talk to him. Urgently. Come home, Scott. We need you here.
Scott rolled his shoulders and fought back a sense of guilt at his resentment at having to go back to what passed for civilization a week earlier than he had planned.
They needed him. Well, that was new!
It had been two years since his father had handed over the management of their family business to his stepbrother, Travis. And look how well that decision had turned out! Now Travis was long gone and his father had been fighting for months to save what was left of Elstrom Mapping.
For
