Giovanni settled in one of the chairs and spread his papers in front of him.
Sebastian and Noemi sat down with only a glance at each other. Leo took a few seconds then dragged out one of the heavy chairs too.
Giovanni waited until everyone was settled then gave them all a nod.
‘We all know why we are here.’ He nodded again in particular to Leo. ‘I was your parents’ lawyer for the last thirty years, and I loved them, and miss them, and everything I do today is in accordance with their wishes.’
There was an edge of anxiety in Giovanni’s voice that Leo picked up on. He cast his eyes over his brother and sister again as he shifted in his seat.
Giovanni started reading from the paper in front of him. ‘This is the last will and testament of Salvo and Nicole Cattaneo. Salvo and Nicole were the sole owners of Cattaneo Jewels, currently valued at around seventy billion euros.’
Leo blinked. He knew the jewellery line was famous and international, but he hadn’t realised his parents’ fortune rivalled even his own.
Giovanni kept talking, ‘It was the wish of Salvo and Nicole that in the event of their death, the business should remain with the family.’ Giovanni pressed his lips together for a second, looking decidedly nervous. ‘As such, the controlling stake in Cattaneo Jewels will pass to Leo Baxter, their eldest biological child.’
‘What?’ Sebastian’s chair landed on the floor as he stood up and thumped his hands on the table.
Noemi’s mouth opened, then closed again.
Giovanni cleared his throat, refusing to fix on Sebastian’s red face.
‘No,’ said Leo, shaking his head. ‘I have no interest in the family business. I don’t even know anything about jewels.’ He stood up too. All he wanted was to get out of there.
‘I’ve trained for this my whole life,’ raged Sebastian. ‘Who is he to inherit the business over me?’
‘Your brother,’ snapped Giovanni. For the briefest second Leo realised why Salvo and Nicole had worked with this lawyer for thirty years.
Giovanni held up his hands. ‘Sit down, both of you.’
Leo met his brother’s angry gaze. He got it. He did. And he had absolutely no interest in this business, but his brother’s reaction annoyed him. It didn’t matter that he partially understood it. He couldn’t hide his flare of anger. Sebastian had got to spend a lifetime with his parents—Leo hadn’t even got to meet them.
Giovanni gave a shake of his head and Leo settled back into his chair, staring pointedly at Sebastian until he did the same.
Giovanni continued slowly. ‘There are conditions attached.’
‘What conditions?’ Leo couldn’t help it. He’d been in business too long to get caught out.
‘Leo must hold the controlling stake in the business for a minimum of six months. The shares can’t be sold, or transferred, to any alternative controlling company or family member.’
‘What happens if he does?’ Noemi’s voice was shaky.
Giovanni looked at all three of them. ‘Any attempt to violate the terms of the will mean that the company shall cease trading and will be liquidated with its assets distributed amongst the other existing four hundred shareholders.’
‘What?’ Sebastian’s voice sounded wheezy. His eyes were wide.
Leo sat frozen in his chair. He was a businessman. He had a head for business. He knew exactly what this was.
‘This is blackmail,’ he said coldly.
‘No,’ said Noemi quietly.
‘Manipulation, then.’
She turned to face him and gave a slow nod. ‘You could be right.’
‘But why?’ Leo leaned across the table towards Giovanni. ‘Why on earth would—’ he couldn’t even bring himself to say the words ‘parents’—‘Salvo and Nicole do this?’
Giovanni sighed and leaned back in his chair.
‘Did this just happen?’ interjected Sebastian angrily. ‘Did they just do this because they found Leo?’
Leo drummed his fingers on the table. He couldn’t get his head around this at all. ‘Were they sick?’
Giovanni started.
Leo’s brain was struggling to make any sense of this at all. He asked again, ‘Were they sick?’ He shook his head. ‘This doesn’t make any sense. I don’t imagine for a second that they could have predicted the accident they were in, so the only other thing I can think of was that they were sick. They were trying to find a way that we...’ he paused for a second at that word ‘...would all have to work together. Nothing else makes sense.’
Sebastian looked pale. His eyes found Noemi. ‘We would have known. They would have told us.’
She gave a bewildered shrug. ‘They didn’t tell us about Leo until a month ago. And only then because I found his letter.’
Giovanni cleared his throat. ‘Their will has always said this.’
‘What?’ This time it was three voices in unison.
Giovanni gave a slow shake of his head. ‘They always believed they would find Leo. Initially, the will just named him as “the eldest biological child”. They never stopped searching. Even if they died before they found him, they still wanted him to know he was always part of the family, and to give him the opportunity to know the family business.’ Giovanni took a deep breath. ‘They believed in family. You know that.’ He shook his head. ‘They changed the will to include his name as soon as they found him. But the truth is he was always included. In their eyes, he was always part of the family—whether they knew his new name or not.’
Noemi blinked and looked between Leo and Sebastian. ‘This isn’t about the business,’ she said quietly.
Leo could tell Sebastian was still angry. There was a tiny tic in his jaw. But he met his sister’s gaze and gave her the slightest nod. ‘I know that.’ It was the most conciliatory thing he’d said since Leo had got there.
Leo felt blindsided and he hated that. Every business meeting, every potential deal, he always went in prepared. He would know the background, the finances, the personalities and their quirks before he even set foot in the room.
But here? For the first time since he’d been a child he felt totally out of his depth.
It felt as if the room was closing in around him, suffocating him with the heat from the fire, the love from the pictures on the wall, and that horrible feeling of emptiness inside.
Sebastian’s voice was tight. ‘Mamma and Papà spent their lives growing this family business. It’s gone from a few tiny shops in Italy to a billion-euro company with worldwide acclaim. You might know business, Leo, but you don’t know this business. And I’m damned if I’m going to let their pride and joy fall apart around you for the next six months because you don’t know what you’re doing.’
He’d had enough. Leo had reached breaking point. He pulled back every emotion that he’d been struggling to keep in check. Business. Sebastian was talking business to him and no one was better at business than him.
‘I might not know anything about the jewellery business, Sebastian, but one business is the same as another. Don’t make any mistake, I don’t want to do this, and I’m not interested in doing this. I don’t need your mamma and papà’s business, and I certainly don’t need their money. I could walk away right now quite happily, but where would that leave you?’
He let the words hang in the air. Noemi’s face was pale as she stood up and reached out and took Leo’s hand, stumbling. Leo caught her elbow but Sebastian was at her side in an instant. ‘Are you okay?’ He slid his arm around her waist, helping to prop her up. It was like she was caught between two brothers.
She gave a shake of her head as she steadied herself for a few seconds, one hand still holding Leo’s. ‘Just a bit dizzy.’ She pressed her other hand against her stomach as she took some slow breaths and the colour in her cheeks started to return.
When she lifted her chin, her eyes were filled wit
h tears. ‘Don’t do this. Don’t be like this.’ Her head went from one brother to the other. ‘I hate this too. But Mamma and Papà want us to work together. They want us to be a family.’ She turned to face Giovanni. ‘You’ve read the will, but I think we should have a little time to consider what it all means.’ She let go of Leo’s hand and reached for his shoulders, turning him to face her. ‘Leo, I want to know you. I want to know my brother. I’ve already missed out on so much of your life, I don’t want to miss out on any more. I’m not asking you to be my best friend. But family is important to me—now, more than ever.’ She squeezed his shoulders. ‘Why don’t you both take a bit of time? This is a lot, I know that—for all of us. We all need to think—to process—and...’ she glanced at Sebastian again ‘...probably to cool off. How about we agree to meet again later?’
Her eyes were pleading as she looked between the two men. Giovanni nodded. ‘Sounds reasonable. Nothing will happen quickly in terms of the will. It will take around six to eight weeks for things to be legally tied up back in Italy, and I can string things out as long as you all need.’
‘Fine.’ Sebastian’s answer was short.
‘We can meet again around Christmastime?’ Noemi said, her voice breaking with distress. ‘Back here?’ She pressed her lips together. ‘It’s what Mamma and Papà always wanted.’
There was an edge to her words. A hint of desperation. It brought it home to him again. She’d just lost her parents. They all had.
He moved from her grasp and collected his coat. The swell of emotion in the room too much for him. He gave the briefest of nods. ‘I’ll get back to you both,’ he said as he walked swiftly towards the glass doors and out into the dark night.
* * *
He hadn’t even bothered to fasten his coat again and the Swiss Alpine air bit around him. He could barely register the cold, his body was so flushed with heat.
New York. That’s where Leo wanted to be right now. That was where he called home. He’d left Indiana and his adoptive parents behind a long time ago.
As he tramped along the snow-covered path he quickly realised he had no idea where he was going. The car from the airport had dropped his luggage at the luxury chalet booked by his PA. Trouble was, he didn’t know where that was. He pulled out his phone to search on a map. Around him people were crowding out of bars and hotels. It only took a few glances to realise that the Mont Coeur ski resort was filled with the rich, the very rich and the very, very rich.
He knew how ironic that thought was. He was in that category—as was his newfound family. But Leo didn’t usually willingly mix in these circles. He’d always been picky about who he surrounded himself with, preferring people with their feet firmly on the ground to those who worried about climbing the social ladder.
He could go into a bar—find somewhere to have a drink. But he wasn’t really in the mood for a drink. Distraction maybe—but not a drink.
He checked out the map on his phone and headed down another street, this one a little quieter and leading away from the main thoroughfare.
He probably should have hired a car or tried to find a taxi, as he realised the road towards his luxury chalet was mainly uphill. But the truth was he didn’t really mind. It gave him a little time to think about what had just happened.
Several things burned in his mind. Giovanni had said the will had always included him. That made him feel...odd. His adoptive parents had always maintained that his real parents couldn’t wait to be rid of him. The harsh words had felt as if they’d burned their way into his soul, wounding him in a way he’d never spoken about. He’d spent years resenting both his real and his adoptive parents, feeling as if he wasn’t really wanted anywhere. Finding out now that was all untrue was more unsettling than he could have ever imagined.
He let out a long, slow breath, sending warm air out into the icy night, clouding around him.
Leo reached the end of the street and looked up from the map on his phone. His chalet should be off to the right, but to his left he saw Mont Coeur’s practice slopes. Even though it was nine o’clock at night, there were still a few people getting in that last run.
They were illuminated with bright white lights, reflecting off the glossy snow, smoothed down hard by the constant traffic on the slopes. In most other ski resorts, the slopes were high above the actual towns. Mont Coeur was different. It was built halfway up the mountain, almost right in the middle of the slopes, which made them much more accessible.
He stopped for a minute, leaning on a fence as he watched a single figure head down towards him. Dressed completely in black, the figure zig-zagged down the practically empty slope at an alarming rate of speed. Skiing was something he’d loved to do over the years and he could appreciate the skill and expertise. He frowned. Wasn’t the figure coming down just a little too fast?
There was a loud bang to his right. His head flicked to the side, just in time to see a car with a black cloud of smoke coming from under its bonnet.
He flicked back to the skier. Oh, no.
They’d turned to check out the noise too, and now it was too late. In the blink of an eye he realised they hadn’t slowed their descent enough. That split-second distraction had been too much.
They desperately tried to slow, but it was too little, too late and they hurtled into the tyres at the bottom of the practice slope with a sickening crash.
Leo didn’t think twice. He leapt over the fence and scrambled over the thick tyres. There was hardly anyone around, and it was clear he was the closest.
The figure was lying crumpled on the ground, skis askew and one of their legs in an awkward position. Leo slipped and slid on the snow. ‘Are you okay? Can I do something to help you?’
He knelt down next to the figure in black. Now he was closer he could see it was a woman. The black salopettes and padded ski jacket couldn’t hide the slim curves underneath. She still hadn’t responded. He touched her arm, ‘Hi, I’m Leo. Can I help you?’
There was a groan underneath him. The twisted leg moved and she gave a yelp. ‘Foitrottl!’
He smiled. He may not have understood the language—was it Swiss? German?—but he understood the sentiment. Not quite as ladylike as he might have imagined. ‘Well, at least I know you’re conscious,’ he said.
Her arms shot upwards and she snapped the fastener on her ski helmet and pushed her ski goggles upwards, revealing a mass of ice blonde hair.
‘What on earth was that noise?’ she said, switching to English. She was mad. She was more than mad.
Leo couldn’t help but smile again. As well as the avalanche of blonde hair, this lady had the clearest blue eyes he’d ever seen. She pretty much looked like some kind of ice princess but he could already guess how she would take that kind of comparison.
‘It sounded like a combination of a car backfiring and an engine blowing up. Either way, it was loud.’
She was digging her elbows into the snow and struggling to push herself up.
‘Can I give you hand?’ He stood up and reached out towards her.
For a second he thought she might refuse, but after the briefest pause she pulled one hand from her glove and grasped his fingers tightly.
He tugged—maybe a little more firmly than he needed to—and pulled her straight up into him. His other arm caught around her waist just as her weight hit her feet and she yelped again as her leg buckled beneath her.
He tightened his grip and pulled her against his hip. ‘Do you think something’s broken? Do you want me to call an ambulance for you?’
She was breathing hard and fast but her skin was pale. ‘Just give me a second,’ she gasped.
So he did. And even though it was freezing after a few seconds he was struck by the heat emanating from her slight frame. She was taller than most women he met, but still at least six inches shorter than him. He stood silently, watching a little colour appear in her pale
cheeks and her breathing eventually starting to slow. She was holding her left foot off the ground and tentatively put it back down, wincing almost immediately.
‘Want me to carry you?’
Her frown was fierce but she didn’t bite his head off. Instead she leaned a little into him. ‘Nope, definitely not. Sorry to be a pest, but I’ve got a bit of an old injury. Would you mind just helping me limp back to the ski hut? There’s a buggy I can use there to get back to my chalet.’
‘Can you stand for a second?’ She nodded and he bent to retrieve her skis and poles before sliding his arm back around her waist and taking some of her weight. ‘Okay, then. What were you doing, practising so late? Most people are in the town by now.’
She gripped onto his arm with her other hand as she limped alongside him, being careful not to put too much weight on her foot.
Leo couldn’t help but ask again. ‘You’re sure that’s not broken?’
She shook her head. ‘I’m sure. Believe me. I’ve broken a few bones in my time.’
It was just the way she said it. He couldn’t help himself. ‘What—yours or other people’s?’
She threw back her head and laughed, then obviously put too much weight on her bad foot. ‘Ouch.’
Leo actions were instinctual. He dropped the skis, bent down and swept her up into his arms.
‘What are you doing?’ Her eyes were wide. She glanced around but it was late, the slopes were quiet, and there wasn’t really anyone else watching.
‘I’m carrying you,’ he said simply. He strode towards the large ski hut. ‘No point hurting yourself when you don’t need to. I’ll come back for those in a second,’ he said, noticing as she craned over his shoulder to look for her abandoned equipment. He looked down at her curiously. He could tell she was just about to object again. ‘So, have you broken a lot of bones? What are you—a ski instructor?’
There was a flash of something on her face as they approached the ski hut. She sighed. ‘Yes, I guess I am.’
He moved around the side of the building. Just like she’d said, there was a large SUV with snow tyres. ‘Want me to drive?’ he asked as he set her gently down next to the passenger door.
Cinderella's New York Christmas Page 2
