‘A wedding present, his father said, but I knew it was a bribe. Connie adored the pink villa and made it into an exquisite home, landscaping the gardens and filling the villa with the finest furnishings, full of beauty, style and class, much like the lady herself. That’s why I bought it when they forced her to sell it – something in the deeds, they said, a stipulation, that the family home was only hers to live in while she was married to a Donato. Nonsense! But like I said, Connie had no fight left in her by then. Or money to pay lawyers to fight the wealthy Donato family. She had no money or assets of her own, just the gifts from Gio. She lived on in the villa for a while but it was never the same … not without her darling Gio, and with only the memories of happier times to haunt her.’

Grace sat silently for a moment, trying to imagine the unbearable pain and hurt this must have caused Connie, to not only be cast aside by her own parents at such a young age, but then by her husband’s parents too. Banished in shame to a village called Tindledale when she was only seventeen years old, pregnant and alone and grieving for Jimmy, and then later banished to Italy so as not to shame the US senator of the wealthy Donato dynasty.

‘Oh poor Connie,’ Grace said quietly. ‘The more I find out about her life, the more my heart breaks for her. It was all so unfair.’

‘But you must not upset yourself, young lady. Connie wasn’t one for pity,’ Nonna Maria said. ‘No, she was stoic and always conducted herself with class and decorum. Not like us Italians with our fiery passion,’ and she did a deep, throaty laugh.

‘Did you know anything about Connie’s parents, or her child, Lara?’ Grace ventured, desperate to know anything at all more about Connie’s family, as it seemed they were running out of options to find a living relative, but Nonna Maria responded blankly.

‘Who?’ she said, the light seeming to have faded in her eyes.

‘Connie’s baby, she was called Lara,’ Ellis tried, but it didn’t help.

‘She was taken too. Everyone Connie loved was taken from her,’ was all Nonna Maria added.