Cinderella's New York Christmas

‘What?’ Sebastian’s voice sounded wheezy. His eyes were wide.

Leo sat frozen in his chair. He was a businessman. He had a head for business. He knew exactly what this was.

‘This is blackmail,’ he said coldly.

‘No,’ said Noemi quietly.

‘Manipulation, then.’

She turned to face him and gave a slow nod. ‘You could be right.’

‘But why?’ Leo leaned across the table towards Giovanni. ‘Why on earth would—’ he couldn’t even bring himself to say the words ‘parents’—‘Salvo and Nicole do this?’

Giovanni sighed and leaned back in his chair.

‘Did this just happen?’ interjected Sebastian angrily. ‘Did they just do this because they found Leo?’

Leo drummed his fingers on the table. He couldn’t get his head around this at all. ‘Were they sick?’

Giovanni started.

Leo’s brain was struggling to make any sense of this at all. He asked again, ‘Were they sick?’ He shook his head. ‘This doesn’t make any sense. I don’t imagine for a second that they could have predicted the accident they were in, so the only other thing I can think of was that they were sick. They were trying to find a way that we...’ he paused for a second at that word ‘...would all have to work together. Nothing else makes sense.’

Sebastian looked pale. His eyes found Noemi. ‘We would have known. They would have told us.’

She gave a bewildered shrug. ‘They didn’t tell us about Leo until a month ago. And only then because I found his letter.’

Giovanni cleared his throat. ‘Their will has always said this.’

‘What?’ This time it was three voices in unison.

Giovanni gave a slow shake of his head. ‘They always believed they would find Leo. Initially, the will just named him as “the eldest biological child”. They never stopped searching. Even if they died before they found him, they still wanted him to know he was always part of the family, and to give him the opportunity to know the family business.’ Giovanni took a deep breath. ‘They believed in family. You know that.’ He shook his head. ‘They changed the will to include his name as soon as they found him. But the truth is he was always included. In their eyes, he was always part of the family—whether they knew his new name or not.’

Noemi blinked and looked between Leo and Sebastian. ‘This isn’t about the business,’ she said quietly.

Leo could tell Sebastian was still angry. There was a tiny tic in his jaw. But he met his sister’s gaze and gave her the slightest nod. ‘I know that.’ It was the most conciliatory thing he’d said since Leo had got there.

Leo felt blindsided and he hated that. Every business meeting, every potential deal, he always went in prepared. He would know the background, the finances, the personalities and their quirks before he even set foot in the room.

But here? For the first time since he’d been a child he felt totally out of his depth.

It felt as if the room was closing in around him, suffocating him with the heat from the fire, the love from the pictures on the wall, and that horrible feeling of emptiness inside.

Sebastian’s voice was tight. ‘Mamma and Papà spent their lives growing this family business. It’s gone from a few tiny shops in Italy to a billion-euro company with worldwide acclaim. You might know business, Leo, but you don’t know this business. And I’m damned if I’m going to let their pride and joy fall apart around you for the next six months because you don’t know what you’re doing.’

He’d had enough. Leo had reached breaking point. He pulled back every emotion that he’d been struggling to keep in check. Business. Sebastian was talking business to him and no one was better at business than him.

‘I might not know anything about the jewellery business, Sebastian, but one business is the same as another. Don’t make any mistake, I don’t want to do this, and I’m not interested in doing this. I don’t need your mamma and papà’s business, and I certainly don’t need their money. I could walk away right now quite happily, but where would that leave you?’

He let the words hang in the air. Noemi’s face was pale as she stood up and reached out and took Leo’s hand, stumbling. Leo caught her elbow but Sebastian was at her side in an instant. ‘Are you okay?’ He slid his arm around her waist, helping to prop her up. It was like she was caught between two brothers.

She gave a shake of her head as she steadied herself for a few seconds, one hand still holding Leo’s. ‘Just a bit dizzy.’ She pressed her other hand against her stomach as she took some slow breaths and the colour in her cheeks started to return.

When she lifted her chin, her eyes were filled with tears. ‘Don’t do this. Don’t be like this.’ Her head went from one brother to the other. ‘I hate this too. But Mamma and Papà want us to work together. They want us to be a family.’ She turned to face Giovanni. ‘You’ve read the will, but I think we should have a little time to consider what it all means.’ She let go of Leo’s hand and reached for his shoulders, turning him to face her. ‘Leo, I want to know you. I want to know my brother. I’ve already missed out on so much of your life, I don’t want to miss out on any more. I’m not asking you to be my best friend. But family is important to me—now, more than ever.’ She squeezed his shoulders. ‘Why don’t you both take a bit of time? This is a lot, I know that—for all of us. We all need to think—to process—and...’ she glanced at Sebastian again ‘...probably to cool off. How about we agree to meet again later?’

Her eyes were pleading as she looked between the two men. Giovanni nodded. ‘Sounds reasonable. Nothing will happen quickly in terms of the will. It will take around six to eight weeks for things to be legally tied up back in Italy, and I can string things out as long as you all need.’

‘Fine.’ Sebastian’s answer was short.

‘We can meet again around Christmastime?’ Noemi said, her voice breaking with distress. ‘Back here?’ She pressed her lips together. ‘It’s what Mamma and Papà always wanted.’

There was an edge to her words. A hint of desperation. It brought it home to him again. She’d just lost her parents. They all had.

He moved from her grasp and collected his coat. The swell of emotion in the room too much for him. He gave the briefest of nods. ‘I’ll get back to you both,’ he said as he walked swiftly towards the glass doors and out into the dark night.

He hadn’t even bothered to fasten his coat again and the Swiss Alpine air bit around him. He could barely register the cold, his body was so flushed with heat.

New York. That’s where Leo wanted to be right now. That was where he called home. He’d left Indiana and his adoptive parents behind a long time ago.

As he tramped along the snow-covered path he quickly realised he had no idea where he was going. The car from the airport had dropped his luggage at the luxury chalet booked by his PA. Trouble was, he didn’t know where that was. He pulled out his phone to search on a map. Around him people were crowding out of bars and hotels. It only took a few glances to realise that the Mont Coeur ski resort was filled with the rich, the very rich and the very, very rich.

He knew how ironic that thought was. He was in that category—as was his newfound family. But Leo didn’t usually willingly mix in these circles. He’d always been picky about who he surrounded himself with, preferring people with their feet firmly on the ground to those who worried about climbing the social ladder.

He could go into a bar—find somewhere to have a drink. But he wasn’t really in the mood for a drink. Distraction maybe—but not a drink.

He checked out the map on his phone and headed down another street, this one a little quieter and leading away from the main thoroughfare.

He probably should have hired a car or tried to find a taxi, as he realised the road towards his luxury chalet was mainly uphill. But the truth was he didn’t really mind. It gave him a little time to think about what had just happened.

Several things burned in his mind. Giovanni had said the will had always included him. That made him feel...odd. His adoptive parents had always maintained that his real parents couldn’t wait to be rid of him. The harsh words had felt as if they’d burned their way into his soul, wounding him in a way he’d never spoken about. He’d spent years resenting both his real and his adoptive parents, feeling as if he wasn’t really wanted anywhere. Finding out now that was all untrue was more unsettling than he could have ever imagined.

He let out a long, slow breath, sending warm air out into the icy night, clouding around him.

Leo reached the end of the street and looked up from the map on his phone. His chalet should be off to the right, but to his left he saw Mont Coeur’s practice slopes. Even though it was nine o’clock at night, there were still a few people getting in that last run.

They were illuminated with bright white lights, reflecting off the glossy snow, smoothed down hard by the constant traffic on the slopes. In most other ski resorts, the slopes were high above the actual towns. Mont Coeur was different. It was built halfway up the mountain, almost right in the middle of the slopes, which made them much more accessible.

He stopped for a minute, leaning on a fence as he watched a single figure head down towards him. Dressed completely in black, the figure zig-zagged down the practically empty slope at an alarming rate of speed. Skiing was something he’d loved to do over the years and he could appreciate the skill and expertise. He frowned. Wasn’t the figure coming down just a little too fast?

There was a loud bang to his right. His head flicked to the side, just in time to see a car with a black cloud of smoke coming from under its bonnet.

He flicked back to the skier. Oh, no.

They’d turned to check out the noise too, and now it was too late. In the blink of an eye he realised they hadn’t slowed their descent enough. That split-second distraction had been too much.

They desperately tried to slow, but it was too little, too late and they hurtled into the tyres at the bottom of the practice slope with a sickening crash.

Leo didn’t think twice. He leapt over the fence and scrambled over the thick tyres. There was hardly anyone around, and it was clear he was the closest.