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He shrugged. ‘We’re all trying to find answers, cara.’
She hated that he used that soft endearment. It was dangerous and misleading. Hypnotic in a way that swayed her into overlooking the sharp eyes still brimming with suspicion. ‘Well, I’m sorry, but I don’t have any,’ she remarked, bitter memory cutting sharply through her. ‘I got the summons and I turned up at court and grasped enough to understand that I was being accused of harassing and stalking you.’ Past hurt seared her insides but she refused to let it affect her. She needed to hold it together just enough to finish this and be gone. ‘The lawyer I hired confirmed it too. You were clearly stated as the plaintiff. So this is all on you. It’s your business to find out.’
‘But you do know something, don’t you?’ Rocco said it again softly, his eyes boring into her.
‘I’m not going to keep speculating. I’ve told you everything I know.’
‘But not everything you suspect,’ he pressed.
She kept her mouth mutinously shut.
His gaze remained on her face, probing beneath her skin for another minute before he faced his lawyers. ‘Someone impersonated me and pulled this off without any of you knowing. I’m beginning to wonder why I keep you on retainer if this is the level of service I receive.’
Half a dozen lawyers shuffled their papers and twitched in their seats. Eventually the senior partner spoke. ‘While we don’t wish to speculate, Mr Vitelli, we all agree that it could only have been someone close to you, someone who was sure they could carry this out without suspicion.’ A few glances settled on her.
Mia stiffened, ready to launch another defence but Rocco beat her to it. ‘Someone close to me?’ he echoed, his face taut.
The lawyer shifted in his seat before nodding. ‘Your investigators have been in touch with your IT department. It seems there’s evidence of deleted emails and possible tampering with your server. We think that the only person who could have done that may have been your assistant.’
Rocco’s jaw clenched. ‘My assistant has been with me since the very beginning. I trust him with my life. It’s not him. Look for a different culprit.’
Gianpaolo, Rocco’s assistant, had come straight from university into his role. Even Mia knew he would cut off his own arm before he betrayed Rocco. Just as she knew Rocco’s implicit trust in his assistant, where he’d had none for her, bruised deep.
Silence descended on the table, only disturbed when Gianni rose from his seat, reaching for the pen in front of Rocco. He’d been well-behaved thus far but Mia knew restlessness was about to set in with a vengeance. ‘Are we done here? I need to tend to my son.’
‘Pardon me, Miss Gallagher, I have one question. It may be a little bit indelicate, but it needs to be asked. Did you make any enemies while you were working at Vitelli Construction?’
She barely stopped herself from glancing at Rocco, the man who’d made himself public and private enemy number one the moment she’d attended an meeting with his competitor, then compounded her sins by informing him she wasn’t ready to start a family on his schedule. She bit her tongue, a part of her unwilling to antagonise the situation and a part of her wanting to state blatantly that he was the only nemesis she could think of.
But then he wasn’t the only one, was he?
Alessandro Vitelli had made it his life’s mission to make hers miserable the moment she’d set foot in Vitelli Construction. Could she say it now? It had been established that she had been duped. Wasn’t that enough?
‘If you know who it is, Mia, spit it out,’ Rocco said tightly, his face taut as he stared at her.
She inhaled slowly, her instinct screaming at her to keep the information to herself. But at the same time she wanted the truth of her suspicions explored. Deep down she knew she couldn’t rest until she discovered who had done this to her. ‘The only person I can think of is your cousin Alessandro.’
The first expression of shock was Rocco’s sharp intake of breath. Then the Italian contingent exchanged glances before their faces tightened.
&n
bsp; Mia held herself tight. ‘What? You asked me a question and I’m sorry if you don’t like the answer.’
‘You happened to pick the only person who wouldn’t be able to corroborate your statement. A little curious, don’t you think?’ Rocco replied. If he had been tense a moment ago, he was downright rigid now.
‘What are you talking about? Why wouldn’t he?’
Brackets formed around his lips as he tightened them, staring at her for another tense moment before he rasped, ‘You know exactly what I mean. You accuse a dead man incapable of telling his part of whatever story you’re concocting.’
A cold rush of dread unravelled through her. Partly because she was receiving evidence that Rocco didn’t truly believe her. The other was at the news he’d just delivered. ‘Alessandro is dead?’ she whispered.
Again his lips flattened. ‘His car crash was sensationalised by the papers.’ His tone of voice suggested that she should know.
‘I don’t keep abreast of news headlines. Especially foreign ones. I’m too busy looking after my son.’
‘The TV and newspapers carried the story for days. It would have been impossible to miss.’
‘Well, I’m telling you it is possible because I missed it. The question remains do you believe me or do you think I’m making this up as well?’
