Free An Affair of the Heart by David George Richards Page A

in Italy. The press are
going to have a field day!”
    “Then keep them
away from her!”
    “That’s going
to be practically impossible now that everybody knows that she’s
arriving today! Whatever possessed you to ask her to come
here?”
    “She’s my
daughter!” Alex insisted. “I want her here, with me!”
    “But she knew
Sarah, the opposition is bound to call her as a witness!”
    “A witness to
what?” Alex snapped. “She wasn’t there! What could she tell
them?”
    “They’ll call
her as a witness to Sarah’s character,” Sir Richard Hargreaves
replied. Alex ignored him, continuing to pace up and down, so Sir
Richard continued. “They’ll want to try and prove that your wife
was content to have her organs used after her death. It’s the sort
of thing that she might have confided in her friend, your daughter.
They did know each other for quite some time, after all.”
    “It doesn’t
matter what she thought, or what she told Diana!” Alex said
angrily, his voice raised. “What counts is what the MRI did that
night! They didn’t have my permission to do what they did, but they
just went ahead and did it anyway! My God! Not only didn’t they ask
me! But I don’t think they even wanted to tell me what they’d done,
until that policewoman made them!”
    “Alex! Stop
walking about and sit down!” Helen suddenly shouted.
    Alex stopped
dead in his tracks and turned to glare at her. “What’s the matter,
Helen? Pressure getting to you?” he said rather coldly.
    Helen glared
back at him. “No,” she ground out between clenched teeth. “You’re
wearing out the carpet.”
    Alex came
forward and put his hands on her desk, leaning right over it, and
staring straight into Helen’s eyes. “I’m paying you a lot of money
to win this case,” he said in the same cold tones. “And so far the
results I’ve seen haven’t filled me with much confidence. Remember,
Helen, that there are plenty of other firms out there who are just
as capable of fighting this case for me. So be careful, because
rather than being famous for winning this case, you could be just
as famous for being sacked halfway through it.”
    Sir Richard
raised his eyebrows and stared at them both. “Getting a little
heated, aren’t we?” he said.
    Alex
straightened up and walked towards the door. “The presence of my
daughter will have no bearing on the case.” he said as he opened
the door. “I want her picked up at the airport. Arrange it. And
keep those damn reporters away from her!” Then he left.
    Helen was left
alone with Sir Richard. There was an uneasy silence. Sir Richard
took a deep breath and said, “You do know that our client is quite
likely to pull the plug on this little affair of ours at any
moment.”
    “He won’t give
it up,” Helen replied, still annoyed with herself for allowing Alex
to rattle her. “He’s got far too many scores to settle with this
case.”
    “I wouldn’t be
too sure. It’s obvious that his wife’s death has affected him very
badly, and he’s far from rational at the moment. All it would need
is for a glimmer of common sense to break through that thick layer
of anger and frustration he’s surrounded himself with, and we could
both be out of a job. The presence of his daughter right now could
be more damaging to our cause than you think. She could supply that
common sense, and she’s the one person right now who he’s likely to
listen to.”
    Helen thought
for a moment. She was growing calmer again. She looked at the notes
on her desk. One of them contained the flight details and arrival
time for Diana Williams. She made her mind up quickly.
    “Then we’ll
just have to make sure that that doesn’t happen, won’t we?”
     
     

Chapter
Twenty-Three
The Voice of
Common Sense
     
    Diana Williams
came through the Arrivals gate at Manchester Airport’s Terminal Two
to be greeted by a hoard of photographers and reporters screaming
for her views on the trial. It was a mad scramble