“Yes. I’d like that. You have no idea what it’s like to be stuck in a dorm with a bunch of crazy college kids who don’t do anything but party. It’s a wonder how any of them maintain the grade point average to stay in college in the first place.”
“See that’s what I like about you, Natalie, your level-headedness. You are going to go far.”
“Thank you, Ms. Hill. Maybe one day I’ll own a business like you.”
“The sky’s the limit. You’re still hanging in there with the double major?” Ava asked.
“Yes. Business and marketing,” Natalie said.
“Smart girl.”
“Natalie! Come eat with me!” Maia yelled out from the kitchen.
Ava and Natalie laughed.
“I guess I’ve been summoned,” Natalie said, rising.
“I guess so. Let me know when you want me to send someone to your dorm to help you move your things.”
“I will and again thank you, Ms. Hill. Are you sure there’s nothing wrong?” Natalie asked with a look of concern on her face.
She needed to tell someone what was going on and, since she’d just invited Natalie to move in, it might as well be her.
“There’s been a challenge to Joseph’s will.”
“What? By who?”
“A man claiming to be my late husband’s son. He feels he’s entitled to a part of the estate.”
“That’s terrible. I’m so sorry about this, Ms. Hill. What are you going to do?”
“My attorney is looking into it. I just wanted you to know since you’re going to be living here.”
“Thank you for confiding in me. I’m here if there’s anything you need.”
“I will. Thank you, Natalie.”
The girl gave her a smile and made her way back to the kitchen.
Alone, Ava rubbed her hands over her face. She couldn’t say anything about the other mysterious happenings going on in her life. She didn’t need Natalie spooked. Besides, right now she had no idea what was really going on. But she did know one thing, everything that was happening was Joseph’s fault. She wouldn’t be in this mess if he’d just kept it zipped up or used a condom like he did with her. He’d been so careful not to get her pregnant until he decided to marry her. Why couldn’t he have done the same with the other women he was screwing?
Ava had no idea how this protest suit could affect things. She’d already sold the house she and Joseph had shared, as well as the condo he’d bought for her all those years ago. She needed no reminders of her sordid past, but Dominic Sambarino seemed determined to do just that. Ava’s cell phone rang. She picked it up from the couch.
“Hello.”
Silence.
“Hello. Is anybody there?”
Ava took the phone from her ear and looked at the screen. Restricted. How did someone get my private number? Brows furrowed, Ava brought the phone back to her ear.
“I don’t know who you are or how you got this number, but I suggest you lose it and never contact me again,” Ava said in a hard tone.
More silence. Ava felt the knot of tension forming in her neck. Enough of this. She moved the phone away in preparation to hang up, then she heard it.
“I can’t do that, Ava.”
Then the line went dead. Ava stared at the phone in her hand. The voice. There was something about it. Something familiar, but she couldn’t place it.
Chapter Nine
The week had been a long one for Ava. Between worrying over the mysterious phone call she’d received, trying to maintain her business and Maia’s all-consuming excitement about Natalie moving in, Ava was exhausted. Thank God today was Friday.
This evening would be the start to a wild weekend in which she intended to let loose and have some fun. If that fun included having her legs wrapped around a handsome stranger, all the better. And after everything she was currently going through because of her husband’s inability to keep it in his pants, no one could blame her.
Her attorney, Melissa, had filed a petition to have the lawsuit dismissed. Now, all they could do was wait to see which judge would be assigned the case. The next phase was likely a hearing. Ava couldn’t wait. She was ready to wipe the floor with Dominic. How dare he think he could just walk into her perfectly ordered life, and disrupt everything without any consequences?
By the time she was finished, he’d wish he’d never attempted this foolishness in the first place. Her desk phone rang. “Yes, Karen?”
“A ‘Smitty’ is on the line for you.”
“Put him through, Karen.” Ava waited for the transfer and soon Smitty’s voice came on the line.
“How’s my favorite mob princess?”
“Really, Smitty? You call my work phone making jokes like that.”
“Hey. You are what you are. No denying it.”
Ava laughed. “All right. You got something for me?”
“Yeah I do. Check your email and get back to me after you’ve had a chance to look it over.”
“I’ll get back to you next week.”
“Next week. I thought you’d be chomping at the bit.”
“Don’t get me wrong. I am, but I have plans this weekend so I’m putting all business on hold for a few days.”
“Ava is about to let loose. Don’t let me catch you on the news,” Smitty teased.
Ava ended the call and quickly went to her private email account. The email from Smitty was waiting. No note, only an attachment, a PDF with fifty pages. Ava waited for the information to come out of her printer. As the first of the pages slid out of her printer, she realize the first was a birth certificate. Dominic Sambarino. December 3rd. Only eight years separated them in age.
Ava noticed that no father was listed under parent’s information and the name Martelli nowhere on the birth certificate. The boy had been born at Dade Memorial. His mother’s full name was Carmella Donatella Sambarino.
The birth certificate would be helpful. If things went further with this court business it could definitely go a long way to thwarting Dominic’s case. She wondered how Smitty had been able to get a hold of it so quickly. There was no telling with him.
Putting it aside, she reached for the next page off the printer. It was a photograph of Joseph, Carmella and a very young Dominic. Even at a young age, Ava could see the rage hiding behind his eyes. In the picture Joseph was kissing Carmella’s cheek.
Ava swallowed the rising anger in her throat and put the picture away. She could hear the printer slowing. It was almost done. She moved the waiting pile of papers onto her desk. More photos. Pictures of Carmella and Joseph. Pictures of all three of them together. In none of the pictures was Dominic smiling.
For him to be so adamant about Joseph being his father, he sure didn’t appear to be very fond of him. Ava hated to admit it but the pictures established that there was some kind of relationship between the three. The true extent of it though, could be spun any kind of way with the right attorney. And Melissa was definitely the right attorney.
Ava looked through a few more family photos. Each one made the knot in her neck pull a little bit tighter and she didn’t understand why. She knew Joseph had not been a faithful man. She’d never expected that of him. But seeing photographs of him with another woman, well it was tangible proof of everything she’d tried to lock away.
Dirty little secrets. She guessed everyone had them. She blinked away the tears forming in her eyes. Some things always had a way of coming to the light no matter how much you tried to keep them in the dark.
Frowning, she put the pictures away, only to find that there were more of them. The first was of Dominic and a pretty woman obviously older than him. She quickly thumbed through more of the pictures. They were all the same. Dominic pictured with attractive, older women, some black, some white and others Hispanic. All of the women appeared to be impeccably dressed and expensively coiffed—all in their thirties and forties.