‘She acted like the accident hadn’t happened. She got very upset when … er … Thomas lectured me about how I’d killed Olly and ruined my life.’
‘She wasn’t upset enough to come forward and admit that she was the driver,’ Vito breathed, his tone one of harsh condemnation.
‘I think we have a very good chance of, at the very least, having Ava’s conviction set aside as unsafe,’ David Lloyd forecast with assurance. ‘I’m happy to take on the case.’
‘And obviously I’ll take care of the costs involved,’ Vito completed on an audible footnote of satisfaction.
The other men were all heading straight back to London again in the helicopter. As the trio stood chatting together Vito approached Ava, who was still frozen in her armchair showing all the animation of a wax dummy. ‘I really do have to get back to the office, bella mia,’ he imparted, searching her blank eyes with a hint of thwarted masculine frustration. ‘I pushed a great deal of work aside to deal with this over the last couple of days. I didn’t want to bring it to you without checking out the evidence first.’
‘I know … you didn’t want to raise false hopes,’ she said flatly.
‘Naturally all this has come as a shock but say the word and I’ll stay if that would make you feel better …’
‘Why would it make me feel better?’ Ava parted stiff lips to enquire. ‘You’ve already done more than enough for me. I’ll be fine.’
Vito remembered tears running down her face that day in Harrods and silently cursed. Amazon woman didn’t need anyone, certainly not him for support. He stepped back, anger glimmering in his stunning dark golden eyes, his strong bone structure taut with self-discipline. ‘If you need me, if you have any questions, phone me,’ he urged, knowing he wouldn’t be holding his breath for that call to come.
‘Of course.’ Ava looked up at him as if she were trying to memorise his features. In truth she was in so much shock and pain, she felt utterly divorced from him and the struggle to maintain her composure was using up what energy she had left.
As soon as she heard the helicopter overhead again, Ava went and got her coat, collected Harvey from the hall and went outside, her feet crunching over the crisp snow that had frozen overnight.
To Ava, it seemed at that moment as though Vito had unleashed another nightmare into her world. In the same week that Ava had lost the man she had believed was her father, she had been confronted with the horrible threatening image of a mother who might have sacrificed her youngest daughter to save her own skin. Was it true? Ava asked herself wretchedly. Was it true that Gemma Fitzgerald could have done such a thing? Was that what her mother’s distraught letter was all about? Gemma’s own guilt, guilt so great she couldn’t even face the prospect of seeing Ava again?
Ava’s head was starting to ache with the force of her emotions. She tried to imagine how she would feel without the ever-present burden of feeling responsible for her best friend Olly’s death. She couldn’t imagine it, her own guilt had long since become a part of her. But the pain of thinking that her mother might have stood by doing nothing while her daughter was reviled, tried and sentenced to a long prison term in her place was greater than Ava thought she could stand.
Yet Gregory James had been so sure of facts, so certain of what he had witnessed that night. He said that Gemma Fitzgerald had been driving. And his description of the scene he had witnessed before the car set off rang more than one familiar bell for Ava. Her mother had been a forceful personality and, under the influence of alcohol, her temper and her determination to have her own way would have been well-nigh unstoppable. Growing up in such a troubled home, Ava had seen many scenes between her parents that bore out that fact. Few people had been strong enough to stand up to her mother, certainly not kind, always reasonable Olly. Olly wouldn’t have known how to handle her mother pushing him away and climbing into his car drunk. He wouldn’t have wanted to create a scene. He wouldn’t have wanted to hurt or embarrass Ava by calling for help to deal with her obstreperous mother. But he wouldn’t have wanted to leave Ava alone in that car either at the mercy of a drunk and angry driver … and that would have been why he threw himself into the back seat before her mother drove off and, unhappily, also why he had died.
Ava let the tears overflow and sucked in a shuddering breath in an effort to regain control of her turbulent emotions. Harvey licked at her hand and looked up at her worriedly and she crouched down and hugged him for comfort. She felt so weak and helpless.
What had Vito’s motivation been in pushing forward the prospect of trying to clear Ava’s name with such zeal? Was it for her sake or … his own? Was he more interested in cleaning up her image to ensure that his own remained undamaged? Had he resented the charge that he was sleeping with his brother’s killer enough to move heaven and earth to prove that that had not, after all, been the case? She reminded herself that had Gregory James not first contacted Vito, the possibility that she had been unjustly imprisoned would never have occurred to Vito. Just like everyone else he had believed Ava guilty and he had never forgiven her for it …
Her phone rang and she answered it. It was her sister, Bella.
‘Are you all right?’ Bella asked worriedly.
‘Not really,’ Ava admitted, swallowing one hiccup only to be betrayed by a second audible one.
‘I’ll come and pick you up,’ Bella told her bossily. ‘You shouldn’t be dealing with this on your own. Where’s Vito?’
‘He had to go back to London,’ Ava explained, feeling a twinge of guilt at that statement when she recalled his offer to stay. But what would he have stayed for? So that she could weep all over him instead? Prove how much very hard work she could be even in what was supposed to be a fun lightweight affair?
Her sister’s home was a former farmhouse on the far side of the village, a cosy home filled with scattered toys, a chubby toddler called Stuart with an enchanting smile and a wall covered with photos of children in school uniform and crayon drawings.
‘Excuse the mess,’ Bella urged. ‘Dad came over last night to talk about this. He’s appalled by what Vito had to tell him. To be honest we were all just grateful that Mum disappeared that night without making a big scene. You know what she was like … we assumed she’d caught a cab home. All of us were drinking, none of us were driving. We’d arranged a mini cab for midnight to take us back.’
Ava sipped gratefully at the hot cup of tea Bella had made her. ‘Do you think it’s true?’
‘Well, I always had a problem getting my head round the idea that you could be that stupid and I never could work out why Olly was in the back seat without a seat belt when you were supposedly driving. But in the end we all just assumed you’d gone a bit mad for a few minutes and that few minutes was all it took to wreck your life,’ Bella remarked in a pained tone. ‘I’m so sorry, Ava.’
‘You don’t need to be. It’s done now. I mean, the police thought I was guilty too.’
‘I do remember Mum being really weird about it all,’ her sister confided with a grimace of discomfiture. ‘Now I can understand why. No wonder she felt guilty. It was an incredibly cruel thing for her to do to you … you not being able to remember the crash delivered you straight into her hands.’
Ava hugged the friendly toddler for security, still freaking out at the belief that her own mother could have taken advantage of her like that.
‘I know I shouldn’t interfere,’ the small blonde woman remarked gingerly, ‘but I don’t think Vito liked being referred to as your lover in that offhand voice you used.’
‘Oh.’ Ava went pink. ‘I didn’t know what else to call him.’