Page 278 of Modern Romance January 2025 5-8

Charlotte watched him leave, knowing what choice she should make to live again, but she couldn’t make it right now. Glancing over her shoulder to take one last look outside, she followed Enzo. She was certain that whatever message he had just received had something to do with the vineyards.

She walked into his study and saw him behind his glass desk with his laptop set up, clicking through something, a look of intense concentration on his face.

‘What’s going on?’

‘Before my mother’s death, I contacted a company that specialised in the restoration, preservation and archiving of historical documents.’

‘I remember that.’ Charlotte had been the one to research the different companies and hand a shortlist to Enzo. Every single piece of historical paper, no matter how old, had been entrusted to them. It had surprised Charlotte that no one had thought to preserve the documents before—she would have—but it hadn’t surprised her that Enzo had been the one with the foresight to secure the De Luca legacy. The process was long and arduous. Each page had to be carefully handled and scanned, turning it into an accessible digital copy, then storing the delicate document safely away from air or light.

‘Even copies of my father’s documents were handed over.’

‘From the office in Perlano?’

‘And elsewhere. The recording process is finally done.’

With the ownership of the vineyards hanging in the balance, Charlotte could see the value in it coming through now. She was glad she’d chosen Enzo over a swim, because whatever he found now could either lose him the vineyards or ensure his claim. Either way, she would show him he could trust that she would be there for him.

Enzo scanned through each document, quickly opening and closing various files, looking for the agreement his father would have had his mother sign when he transferred the vineyards to her. It would undoubtedly have contained the terms of her ownership, giving Enzo definitive proof they were meant to be his. His father was far too scrupulous a businessman and dedicated to his duty to their family legacy not to have put something in place. It was only a matter of finding it.

He felt Charlotte’s presence close by him. He was grateful for it, but he didn’t take his eyes off the screen skimming through each file but not finding what he was looking for. In fact, there was no record of his mother ever having owned the vineyards at all.

‘Something is missing,’ he said out loud.

‘What is?’ Charlotte asked beside him.

‘My father gifted the vineyards to my mother, but there is no record.’ Having the exact date of the transfer would make his search easier. Hoping to find it, he pulled up the land registry in a new tab and searched through the database. He only knew the year—twenty-five years prior, when he’d been seven years old. Old enough to remember the conversation when his father had informed his mother of the gift. Old enough to remember her happiness.

What he found in the registry brought him to a halt. ‘This makes no sense.’

Enzo saw his own name staring back at him. For eight years the vineyards had belonged to him. He’d inherited them when he had inherited everything else from his father’s estate.

‘What doesn’t?’

He didn’t answer Charlotte and instead searched through the site and then the files he had digitised.

‘Enzo, talk to me.’ Charlotte moved to stand in front of him.

‘My father told her that he had already done it. That she would have to leave them to me in her will, but they were hers for life. He lied.’

An uncomfortable prickling covered Enzo’s skin. His father, the man he had looked up to, had wanted to emulate, had lied.

He pressed his fingers to his eyes.

‘I don’t understand,’ Charlotte said.

‘Emilio has no claim on the vineyards because my father never transferred them to my mother,’ he replied gruffly, showing Charlotte the evidence on the screen. ‘He lied to her. I never bothered to look into it because I trusted him. Ownership went straight from him to me. They have been mine since his death.’

How could his father have lied? Of everything in the world, trust was the most important to Enzo, and he trusted his father. Wanted to be half the man that his father had been. The man who had protected hundreds of years of legacy and made it thrive. Enzo couldn’t believe that that man would have done anything without a very good reason. So maybe there was one to explain his actions. After all, he had never lied to Enzo, only his mother. The mother who had given Enzo his birthright and then tried to take it away to give to Emilio, the son she had always favoured.

There was a burning lump in his throat. Holding on to Charlotte’s hips, he pulled her down onto his lap.

‘Oh, Enzo.’ He felt her arms wrap around his neck, holding him to her.

‘He didn’t trust my mother. Maybe she never trusted him either. After all, that second will exists.’ Enzo’s hands clutched at Charlotte’s dress in a tight fist. His teeth were clamped together so hard it felt as if his jaw might shatter.

‘Do you think he was justified in lying to her?’ Charlotte’s words were gentle, but there was an undercurrent to them.

‘She defied the one condition he placed on the gift, Charlotte. Maybe he knew her better than I did.’