Chapter Thirty-one

Rocco Mario leafed frantically through the file Elena had presented him with. Finally he thrust it down on the table. His complexion had taken on an unhealthy grey hue, his shock palpable. ‘Did Andrea Santino put all that stuff together for you?’

‘Yes,’ Elena breathed. ‘Please don’t tell me any lies. I need to hear the truth.’

‘It looks a lot worse than it is,’ Rocco declared defensively. ‘Let me explain how it happened—’

‘It wasn’t something that just happened. Don’t talk as though it was something that you had no control over,’ Elena broke in tautly. ‘You forged my mother’s will so that I was left penniless. That’s what it comes down to!’

‘You’re making too much of this,’ the older man argued vehemently. ‘It all started out quite innocently. When you were a baby, I tried to persuade your mother, Isabel, into a business partnership. I hoped that together we could build houses on the estate.’

‘Build?’ Elena parroted. ‘But it’s against the law to develop a site that’s been listed as be