Melanie Milburne: Timing and Second Chances

If you are anything like me you will spend literally hours of your life wondering:  If only I hadn’t stopped to look at that dress I wouldn’t have got that parking ticket. Or: What if I’d done so and so? Or: If I’d only been a minute earlier/ later so and so wouldn’t have happened.  

I once missed an international flight connection because I didn’t check my itinerary in time. It was just so frustrating!

If only…

Timing is everything. We think things should happen to our timetable but so often they don’t. Remember John Lennon’s fabulous and so true lyrics: Life happens while you’re busy making plans?

I thought a lot about the issue of timing when writing the second book of my Sabbatini Brothers Trilogy- One Last Night. Maya is in the process of divorcing her rich and powerful husband because she can’t provide him with an heir.

I watched the Royal Wedding in April (who didn’t?) and now it seems every gossip magazine is speculating on when The Duchess of Cambridge will produce an heir and a spare. Give the poor girl a break, already! Maya felt the same pressure and for five years did her level best to succeed but each time it ended in heartbreak.

With the divorce settlement papers just about to be signed Maya attends Giorgio’s brother Luca’s wedding, and after a stolen night of passion with Giorgio, guess what?

Maya looked at the dipstick in shock. Her throat closed over as if a hand had locked around her neck as the two blue lines appeared.

Positive.

Timing, don’t you just love it?

Maya can’t bear to tell anyone about this surprise pregnancy, least of all Giorgio. She wants to set him free because surely this will end in tragedy just like all the other times. But then Giorgio hears news of his grandfather’s ailing health…

‘You can have your divorce, but not right now,’ Giorgio said at last. ‘I want my grandfather to die in peace, believing we have patched things up.’

Maya felt her heart slip like a stiletto on a slate of ice. She spun round and faced him again, her eyes wide with panic. ‘You’re asking me to come back and live with you as your wife?’

What a time to be pretending to be reconciled!  Maya had hoped to quietly slip away and let nature decide her future, but life of course, had a different plan. Forced back into Giorgio’s life, pretending to be pretending she is in love, she is given a second chance. And so too is Giorgio who never wanted to divorce her in the first place.  During their separation he was learning all about the truth of that adage: you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.  This chance to get Maya back is just too good to miss.

Giorgio and Maya are two complex characters who have a lot to learn about themselves and each other. I loved watching them grow and finally embrace what life had in store for them instead of what they had planned.

Happy planning…oops, I mean reading!

Melanie Milburne