A Bride for Kolovsky by Carol Marinelli Page B

swings—not even a duck in sight.
    â€˜Is Rowena nice?’ Lavinia attempted, when Rachael climbed down from her dutiful swing, but Rachael just shrugged. ‘I am trying to get things sorted for you,’ Lavinia started, but there were so many things Ms Hewitt had said not to discuss with her.
    â€˜How?’ Rachael asked.
    â€˜I just am.’ Lavinia had to settle for that. ‘Let’s go on the see-saw.’
    â€˜Before you take me back?’
    They didn’t even last the hour. Lavinia tried to console herself it was because Rachael was tired, but the reality was that their time together was hard work.
    â€˜I’ll try and see you again next week,’ Lavinia said, not wanting to make promises Ms Hewitt might not let her keep. Securing her into her seat, she went to give Rachael a kiss, but she pulled her head away.
    She dropped her back to the foster home, gave her a hug that wasn’t returned, and, driving back to work Lavinia, who never cried, was precariously close to it. She’d had so much pinned on that hour, and there were so many things she had wanted to say. Nothing had transpired. If anything, Rachael was more distant than before.
    She dashed to the loo in the foyer, blew her noise, touched up her make-up—though she needn’t have bothered.
    No one even noticed Lavinia enter the office, so furious was the argument taking place. The room seemed filled with people from Legal, Accounts and, loudest of all, Katina.
    â€˜N’et.’ Katina’s lips were white with rage. ‘You cannot do this! It’s too late. You cannot do this.’
    â€˜I’m not doing anything,’ came Zakahr’s clipped response. And, just as Lavinia had surmised on the first day, he didn’t shout, didn’t raise his voice—such was his authority he simply didn’t need to. Zakahr overrode everyone. ‘You have to sign!’ Katina insisted. ‘You have to—’
    â€˜I don’t have to do anything,’ Zakahr interrupted, and Lavinia froze in realisation. The shots of Rula were scattered over his desk, but Zakahr was ignoring them. As chaos reigned around him he was typing away at his laptop as if there was nothing more annoying than a fly in the room.
    â€˜You’re trying to ruin the House of Kolovsky,’ Katina spat. ‘You tried before, with your cheap suggestions to Nina, and now…’ Katina was so furious she tripped over her words. ‘Now with this decision you will ruin it.’
    â€˜Why?’ Now Zakahr did look up. ‘Because I refuse to endorse a few images? This —’ his manicured hand swept the photos on the table ‘—is not the vision I have for Kolovsky. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do. I suggest you have the same.’
    Katina cried.
    One of the hardest women Lavinia knew actually cried as she left the room.
    â€˜That’s months of work you’ve just destroyed,’ Lavinia said when they were alone; her heart was thumping in her chest yet Zakahr seemed unmoved. He stood and stared out of the window, down to the city streets below.Maybe, Lavinia reasoned, he just didn’t comprehend what he had just done—or maybe, and she paled at the very thought, maybe Katina was right… ‘ Are you here to destroy Kolovsky?’
    â€˜You’re being ridiculous.’
    â€˜Am I?’ Lavinia asked. ‘You tried to destroy it before.’ She watched as his shoulders stiffened. ‘When Nina didn’t know you were her son you bombarded her with ridiculous suggestions—you were going to put a Kolovsky bedlinen range in supermarkets…’
    â€˜A one-off!’ Zakahr did not turn. ‘With a portion of profit going to my charity. Why would I want to destroy what I own?’
    â€˜Because you hate her?’
    Hate was a word that sounded wrong coming from Lavinia; there was no venom behind it, just a bewildered