Piero’s dark eyes looked almost black but his skin paled. He took a step back. ‘How do you know I talked to Gerardo?’

‘He told me!’ she snapped. ‘Shame you didn’t anticipate him demanding a fistful of euros or you could have bought his silence in advance. I would never have needed to know that greed’s the only emotion I arouse in my father.’ Her lip trembled. ‘And that you would go behind my back.’

Silence. Piero took a step away, flipping his T-shirt from a hook on the wall and pulling it on as if he needed the layer of cotton between them.

His refusal to defend himself added oxygen to her fire. ‘I know you want me to make my home here but this is my business, not yours.’

The gaze he turned on her was like a stranger’s. ‘I don’t even know if I’ll have a home here myself,’ he put in without emotion. ‘The others have just been up to ask me to accept the Binotto deal if there has been no interest in the vineyard in three months. Three months!’

Zia did hear his words. She did see his dejection. But the last few months of discovering everyone she loved had lied to her all her life had coalesced into a rage that stripped her of rational thought. She bundled away his anxiety as if consigning a troublesome dog into another room. ‘Holy crap, haven’t you seen the obvious yet?’ She heard the contemptuous words as if someone else had said them.

His eyes narrowed, his voice suddenly as tight as hers. ‘The obvious?’

‘Leaseback!’ she burst out. ‘I’ve mentioned it in front of you till I’m blue in the face and you never got it. Approach an asset finance company for a leaseback deal on Tenuta Domenicali, for goodness’ sake! You all get your dosh, Salvatore can retire, Emiliano can run the business and you can leave the company. Sorted. Il Rifugio doesn’t even come into the equation.’

Fury wiped every other expression from his face. ‘I must be slow,’ he said with icy sarcasm. ‘Not only did I not figure it out but I assumed you’d know I’d want to hear how to save my home and family relationships.’

His biting anger was so uncharacteristic that it brought Zia back to herself.

She licked her lips, trembling in the aftermath of her unaccustomed loss of control and, suddenly stricken, replaying in her head the way she’d been yelling at him. Shame trickled down her neck and she made her wavering voice calmer. ‘When I butted in before, it went badly. I told myself not to interfere again. But twice I’ve asked if you’d want someone to tell you if there was another avenue to explore and you said “no”.’