Page 3 of Snow Going Back

Kate laughed at the memory. ‘I’d forgotten all about that.’

‘I hadn’t,’ Amy replied. ‘I’d planned to declare my undying love to Kevin Barker that night and he ended up copping off with Cheryl McCall instead. I was heartbroken.’

‘It was probably for the best. I bet he’s really ugly or in prison now,’ Kate joked.

‘Actually, he’s drop-dead gorgeous, owns a string of hotels and lives in Tuscany,’ Amy replied, sipping her champagne.

‘Really?’ Kate asked, surprised.

‘Yes. But he’s also married to a six-foot Italian called Antonio, so you’re right, it probably was for the best,’ Amy told her. ‘Anyway, what’s Eleanor done this time?’

Kate sighed irritably. ‘She basically outright asked Lance when he’s going to marry me and get me pregnant, like I’m about to hit my expiration date and fall to the shelf of barren old maids!’ She shook her head. ‘It was so inappropriate.’

Amy’s jaw dropped. ‘Wow. And you didn’t strangle her to death with the strap of your handbag right there and then?’ She blew out a long breath. ‘Well, I applaud you.’ She patted her on the back. ‘Seriously, well done.’

Kate laughed and linked her arm through Amy’s, pulling her away from the bar. ‘Come on – let’s dance. We’re here to celebrate your wedding, not plot the early demise of my excruciatingly embarrassing mother.’

‘Who says we can’t do both?’ Amy replied.

Kate laughed again, but there was an edge to her tone, and she threw a dark look towards the door Lance and Eleanor had disappeared through. ‘Don’t tempt me…’

THREE

The fortnight following the wedding passed in a blur. At least it did for those whohadn’tbeen relaxing on a beach in the Bahamas sending photos of delicious-looking cocktails and perfect sunsets to everyone back home in a cold, grey and drizzly London.

Kate yawned as she leaned back against the passenger-seat headrest of Lance’s car, feeling drained after a whole week of working all day and night into the early hours. She’d barely caught four hours of sleep the night before –twothe one before that. All she wanted to do now that she’d made it to the weekend was turn off her phone, draw all the curtains, lock the door and fall into a deep uninterruptable sleep. But that wasn’t an option today. Instead, they were now en route to her parents’ house in the country for the afternoon. These visits were a monthly arrangement. They gave Kate the chance to catch up with her parents properly, and for the most part, to Kate’s relief, it had stopped Eleanor turning up unannounced at her flat in London whenever she felt like it.

As the sharp, greyscale lines of the city made way for the countryside’s frost-kissed hedges and hills, Kate closed her eyes – just for a moment. But when she reopened them what feltlike a second later, Lance was suddenly turning into the quaint Cotswold village she’d grown up in.

‘Oh, I’m so sorry!’ she exclaimed, realising she must have slept for the entire journey. She felt a flood of guilt at being such terrible company on the long drive.

‘Don’t be,’ Lance replied. ‘You looked like you needed it. I didn’t want to wake you.’

‘Thanks,’ Kate replied.

‘What time did you leave the office last night?’ he asked.

Kate blew a long breath out through her cheeks. ‘I think it was about three,’ she said. ‘I don’t know.’

Lance frowned. ‘What’s complicated things?’

‘OK, so, the client wanted to sell off what is, effectively, a failing arm of their company,’ Kate explained. ‘They split it up into smaller pieces to sell off separately, to make it look more appealing.’

‘Isit?’ Lance queried.

Kate shrugged. ‘I guess. Less of a loss showing in the financials of each smaller piece, but it’s still exactly the same. Nothing was hidden though, so that was fine. It meant more complex contracts, and many more of them, of course, but again, this was still all fine.’

‘So whatwasn’tfine?’ Lance asked.

‘The amendments they made to my contracts and all the unstoppable wheels they set in motion too early, in the hope they could push some dirty details through each one without me noticing,’ she replied with clear annoyance. ‘It’s been pure crisis management all week with an almost impossible deadline.’ She rubbed her forehead, feeling stressed.

‘Seriously?’ Lance replied in surprise. ‘How onearthdid they come to the conclusion that they could hide details in a legal contract from their own contract lawyer?’

She shrugged and pursed her lips, glaring out of the window as the reminder of what they’d tried to do made something inside her bubble irritatedly once more.

Kate was a senior associate at her law firm, her speciality international contract law. Unlike Lance – who was used to sudden case dramatics, being a criminal defence lawyer at a firm across the city – she very rarely needed to enter this level of crisis mode. And had this crisis been a genuine one, due to a mistake or unforeseen circumstance, she wouldn’t have minded so much. But she bitterly resented this particular case and the clients responsible now because they’d caused this mess knowingly, and in an attempt to screw other people over for money they’d neither earned nor deserved.

And it wasn’t just the clients they would have screwed over for it, either. They’d also been about to screwher. They’d tampered with her documents, which, if she hadn’t caught it, could have landed her in real trouble. If it wasn’t for the impact it could have on herself, she’d have dropped them immediately and left them to figure out their own mess. But as it stood, she had no choice but to pull them all through it, then she could drop them afterwards.Ideally off the edge of a really high cliff, she thought bitterly. It was clients like those that made her hate her job some days.

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