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 stern and purposeful.
‘I’m sorry to spring this meeting on you without warning,’ he said, ‘but something has happened that changes everything.’
Did that mean he already knew?
‘I went to see Harriet yesterday evening,’ he continued. ‘I believed we could talk things over properly; find a way to make a future together for the sake of our child. But she wasn’t there. She’s gone, and not left an address. Why? Why pick this moment to run away from me?’
So he didn’t know, Ellie realised, her heart sinking. The next few minutes were going to be terrible.
‘She obviously doesn’t feel able to talk,’ she said. ‘Perhaps you should just accept that it’s over.’
‘Over between her and me, but not between me and my child,’ he retorted swiftly.
She hesitated, dismayed at the disaster that was heading their way. Sensing her unease, he spoke more quietly.
‘You probably think I’m being unreasonable about this; pursuing a woman who doesn’t want me. Why don’t I just let her go? But it’s not that simple. I can let her go, but not the baby. There’s a connection there that nothing can break, and if she thinks she’s going to make me a stranger to my own child, she’s wrong. I’ll never let that happen.’
Ellie wanted to cry out, to make him stop at all costs. Never before had this hard man revealed his feelings so frankly, and her heart ached at the thought of how she was about to hurt him.
‘I need you to find her,’ he said. ‘Her lawyers won’t tell me where she is but you can get it out of them.’
‘I’m afraid it wouldn’t help,’ she said heavily.
‘Of course it would help. They tell you, you tell me, and I go to see her and make her stop this nonsense.’
‘No!’ Ellie clenched her fists. ‘It isn’t nonsense. I’m sorry, I hate to tell you this, but I have to.’
‘Tell me what?’
She took a deep breath and forced herself to say, ‘The baby isn’t yours.’
Silence. She wondered if he’d actually heard her.
‘What did you say?’ he asked at last.
‘She’s carrying another man’s child. I only found out myself just now. It’s all in this letter.’
She handed him the letter from his wife’s lawyer, and tried to read his expression as he read it. But his face was blank. At last he gave a snort.
‘So this is her latest trick. Does she think to fool me?’
‘It’s not a trick. She had a DNA test done and that proves it.’
‘A DNA test? But
