She rolled onto a cool place on the sheet as her mind slid to the confrontation with Gerardo.

I have a wife and children … ‘Yes, I am aware,’ she should have answered. ‘The irony of you saying that to me, your eldest child, doesn’t seem to have entered your avaricious little mind.’ She’d have had to stop to look up the Italian for ‘avaricious’, though, so would probably have had to settle for ‘greedy’.

Restlessly, she tossed and turned. She must be considerate of Lucia and make sure no antagonism prevented her from picking up the reins of her family life once she was well. Six weeks from today Zia had to leave Italy anyway.

She wasn’t even sure if that was such a bad thing now.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Emotional roller coasters had no safety restraints and Piero had been thrown around on one since Zia had stormed into his workshop that morning, paralysing him with her accusations then casually tossing him a get-out-of-jail card called ‘leaseback’.

Or maybe that should be a ‘stay-in-your-home’ card.

Too wounded to decide what to do about her wrath he grabbed his laptop and drove to Emiliano’s lovely house. ‘We need to talk,’ he said, entering without waiting for an invitation when Emiliano answered his knock.

‘Yeah, come in,’ Emiliano said ironically, closing the heavy wooden door in Piero’s wake. But when he heard the highlights of Zia’s disclosure – Piero didn’t feel like pressing on his bruises by confiding the accusation part – he beamed. ‘This has huge potential! Why hasn’t our agent suggested it?’

‘Because there would be nothing in it for him?’ Piero hazarded.

Jemma, grasping the importance of Piero’s errand, took Camilla and Cristian to play with their cousins and the brothers settled into researching leaseback – or sale-and-leaseback, as they soon discovered was the full title. ‘I want to know everything there is to know before we talk to Papà,’ Piero said grimly.

Emiliano had fetched cold beers and the American cookies he baked to relax. He fired up his laptop and placed it opposite Piero’s on the table. ‘Graziella can’t know about leaseback either or she would have suggested it by now.’

Piero nodded. ‘How about you research asset finance companies and I’ll look for downsides and test cases?’ He began an internet search and the brothers worked in companionable silence.

When Jemma returned home with the children Piero and Emiliano broke off long enough to eat pizza and join the conversation. Cristian and Camilla had gone up to bed and Jemma was relaxing in front of the TV before Piero sat back from his laptop, screen-fatigue stinging his eyes. ‘I believe leaseback’s a prospect for Tenuta Domenicali,’ he pronounced.