It was her stomach that woke her, many hours later, reminding her she’d eaten nothing since the hurried slice of toast for breakfast.

The chips and chocolate in the mini bar weren’t going to cut it, so Eva ordered room service, and ate at a table overlooking the lights of Hong Kong.

She checked her phone, multiple messages and missed calls, mostly from Stephen and Mia, one message from her mother. Hello darling, just to let you know your father’s Aunt Muriel has passed away. The person who told us mentioned you being contacted as well so if you get a strange call, that’s probably it. We’ve been asked to attend the reading of her will in England, and I hear her house is quite the showpiece, so I’ll be sure to send photos.

Eva replied. Already informed and will be at the reading as well. See you there.

When was the last time she’d seen her parents? Two years ago? Three? They’d stopped off on their way from somewhere to somewhere else and she’d taken them out for dinner. Her mother had alternated between gushing over Stephen and fashion advice and her father had tried to take an interest in her work. Poor Dad, he such a ‘real world’ sort of person, couldn’t get his head around ‘all this digital cyber stuff’ as he called it, and yet that was what she did for a living.

Did being the operative word. Should she put the word out in the morning? Start hunting for jobs? Or wait for a little while? If she had to be in England for a week or two, the time zone change would make interviews difficult.

Her head was getting heavy again. She headed back to the sinfully comfortable bed and knew nothing more until her alarm ruined a perfectly good dream.

It had involved an English stately home, complete with fancy garden and rolling green fields around it but all the other details – the people, the situation – drained away too fast for her to remember anything other than a vague sense of comfort.

She’d agreed to meet David for breakfast when he’d deposited her bag and left her in this amazing room. The phone started ringing as she headed for the shower. Mia. She switched it to silent.

By the time she sat opposite her new family lawyer and ordered coffee and a Full English breakfast, it was after nine and she’d ignored five more calls.

When her phone lit up yet again, she went to turn it over, then registered the name. “Oh crap, it’s my boss. I need to take this.”

Sierra burst into speech before Eva had a chance to say hello. “There’s some red-headed woman in reception insisting on seeing you. She says she’s your best friend and it’s an emergency.”

Eva replied. “Her emergency is me walking on her and my ex-fiancé boinking after you kicked me to the curb yesterday afternoon.”

Bitter? Her? Never!

“Oh, I’m so sorry.”

“So am I if you’ve got her cluttering up the place. I’m going to work remotely today if that’s okay.”

Sierra sounded flustered. “Oh, yes, that should be fine. In fact it might be good for you to steer clear of the office while you tie up your projects for handover. We can get together for a team lunch or something when you finish up next month.”

“I thought I only had to work through two weeks.”

“Well, yes, but it would be great if you could extend things a little, just get that retail site launched and have a quick look at a new project that’s just landed.”

Not a chance in hell.

Eva took great satisfaction in saying. “I’m sorry, I’m going to have to stick to the agreement we signed yesterday. I have to be in the UK on family business in just over a fortnight.”

Sierra sounded confused. “The UK? But isn’t your family Chinese?”

So much for knowing her team. “Mum’s Hong Kong Chinese, Dad’s English, hence the surname – Stone.”

“I’m sure we could set you up to do a bit of project work from the UK. The time difference won’t cause too much of a problem.”

Eva squared her shoulders, even though her boss couldn’t see her. “I’m afraid you’re going to have to make a decision, Sierra. Either you’ve made my role redundant, as there’s duplication and not enough work to go round; or you’re continuing to employ me, in which case I’m going to need some sort of guarantee of job security for the next twelve months.”

Sitting across the table from her, ostensibly reading on his phone, David smirked. She should introduce him to Becky, he was totally her type, and it would freak Stephen out beyond belief.

She cut across Sierra’s spluttering. “Call me back when you’ve decided. I’ll keep going on the retail site until then.”

David spoke without looking up from his phone. “Since it’s in my employer’s interest to have you on a plane to Heathrow in as short a time as possible, please feel free to pass on any documents you’d like a legal opinion on.”

“I’ll forward the redundancy papers to you as soon as I log on. Which I should probably get on and do.”

“Of course, but I would appreciate your review of a couple of our documents once you’ve finished your breakfast.”

Eva finished the last piece of some of the best bacon she’d ever had and pushed the plate to one side. “I’m done,” she reached for the papers he held out. “Now what if I’d like a legal opinion on these?”

He grinned. “I can recommend one or two reputable practitioners. I’m sure their rates will be reasonable.”

She rolled her eyes at him and skimmed down the page, written in surprisingly clear and easy-to-understand English.

She flicked over the page, then the next. It all looked very straightforward; she agreed to the firm undertaking necessary tasks, with her direction, in order to get her to Fairfield Manor in time for the reading of Muriel Aberswyth’s will in just under a month’s time.

“When do you need this back?”

“My bosses would like it on their desk by first thing tomorrow.”

Perfect.

Eva said. “In that case, I’d like to run this past the friend I’m having dinner with tonight. You could join us for dessert, answer any questions, and take it away with you afterwards.”

“Or I could come here and collect it from you at breakfast tomorrow.”

“I need Becky to be able to report back to her mother on you. I’m sure Stephen and Mia have been spreading all sorts of stories and she’s going to be the best person to shoot them down.”

David looked unconvinced but took the details of the restaurant and promised to be there.

He stood. “I’ve reserved your room for your remaining time in Hong Kong. Please let me know if you would prefer to move elsewhere.”

Eva scrambled up as well. “No, no, this is fine. Just so long as Stephen doesn’t find out where I am.”

He’d wanted to add her mobile to his ‘find my phone’ app a few weeks before, thank goodness she’d refused. Had he wanted to keep track of her so she wouldn’t discover his extra-curricular activities? She wasn’t about to ask. She wasn’t about to ever speak to him again.

Her lawyer bid her a brisk farewell and left the restaurant, Eva returned to her room and spent the day finalising the details of the retail website she’d been focused on and collating information on her other projects.

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