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But it wasn’t as if she could go to Italy. She had only just started her new job at the local library and couldn’t take a holiday barely a month into it. And even if shecouldhave, Ivy would never leave at such a critical time for the library. She’d been volunteering there for nearly a year now and they were finally about to raise enough money for the community’s much-needed afterschool club. Government cuts to local councils had pushed them so far down the waiting list that Ivy and the other staff had been forced to take matters into their own hands. They’d had bake sales, they’d painted faces. They’d done everything they could to raise enough money and with their efforts matched by local businesses they weresoclose.
‘The man is insane,’ Antonio said of the judge, before turning back to Simon. ‘I need you to find out exactly what these court assessments will involve.’
Simon nodded, looking increasingly more concerned. Ivy had met quite a few people like Judge Carmondy over the years, people who had been pushed a little too far for a little too long and who had finally decided to dig their heels in. And a part of her was sympathetic with his stance. She’d always felt uncomfortable having promised love and fidelity in exchange for money, even if they were both consenting adults under no illusions. But perhaps they shouldn’t be able to cheat the system and get away with it.
Yet despite that, even now she would make the same choice again. In a heartbeat. Just the thought of her brother and the changes he’d been able to make to his life was enough for her to know that she wouldn’t alter a single thing.
She felt Antonio’s hawkish gaze on her.
‘You’ve been well?’ he asked perfunctorily, as if some ingrained sense of decorum prompted his question rather than genuine curiosity.
And, for a moment, all she could do was blink. Didn’t he remember? Could he have forgotten that easily? Of course he had, Ivy realised, burying the hurt deep down to unpack later in private.
‘Yes, thank you,’ she said, hoping that he’d missed the brief hesitation before she answered. The millisecond’s pause as she constructed an answer suitable to what he expected of her. ‘And you?’
‘Sì,’ he replied, saying nothing of the grandfather she knew had passed four months ago, nor the million-dollar deal he was currently brokering between the Americans and the Chinese, a deal making waves around the world. Things she knew because, on not so rare occasions, she caught sight of headlines about her husband in name only. It was almost hard not to.
The large clock on the wall behind him clicked closer towards eleven and she bit back a curse. She was going to be late.
She opened her mouth to speak just as Antonio did.
‘Do you have a passport?’
Taken aback, she replied without thinking. ‘Yes.’
‘Good. We’re returning to Italy this afternoon,’ he informed her imperiously.
Whether he’d become more presumptuous or she’d become more headstrong, Ivy couldn’t tell, but she very much disliked this new side of his character.
‘You are welcome to return to Italy, but I cannot.’
‘Of course you can,’ Antonio dismissed, pulling out his mobile phone and tapping on the screen.
‘I can’t,’ Ivy stressed, trying—and most definitely failing—to ignore the way his jaw muscle flexed and his eyes glittered with warning.
‘I don’t remember you being this obstinate,’ he observed.
‘I wasn’t,’ she said, unsure whether to be proud of herself or horrified for answering back.
‘It doesn’t suit you,’ he volleyed.
‘And arrogance doesn’t suit you,’ she returned.
A gasp turned into a choke over Antonio’s shoulder. His lawyer, looking almost as shocked as Ivy felt.
She turned to leave, half expecting to feel his hand around her wrist, the same way he had once done when she’d dismissed his proposal as a joke.
‘This is important,’ he said, his words stopping her departure instead.
She swallowed her impatience at his easy dismissal of her priorities and turned back to him. ‘I am sure it feels that way to you, but there’s not much I can do and it seems you both have this in hand.’
Antonio looked at her, appalled. ‘Is that a joke?’
‘Well, no. Not intentionally,’ she said with a tilt of her head.
He ran a hand through his hair in frustration, before returning that burning gaze to hers. ‘What would it take?’ he asked, the words forced out through a jaw so tight it looked painful.
Ivy stared at him in confusion. ‘What do you mean?’