A Year of Chasing Love Read online

  About the Author

  ROSIE CHAMBERS loves writing uplifting, feel-good stories set in sun-filled locations around the world. Her stories are filled with fun, friendship and foodie treats, which Rosie hopes will bring a smile to her readers’ faces. She’s always in the market for quirky stationery and is never happier than with a pen in one hand and a cup of tea in the other. A Year of Chasing Love is her debut novel.

  A Year of Chasing Love

  ROSIE CHAMBERS

  HQ

  An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.

  1 London Bridge Street

  London SE1 9GF

  First published in Great Britain by

  HQ, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2020

  Copyright © Rosie Chambers 2020

  Rosie Chambers asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

  A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

  E-book Edition © 2019 ISBN: 9780008364755

  Version: 2019-11-19

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  About the Author

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Acknowledgements

  Dear Reader …

  Keep Reading …

  About the Publisher

  To all those who choose love.

  Prologue

  ‘There’s a guy in reception asking to see you, Olivia.’

  ‘Did you ask him to make an appointment?’

  ‘I did, but he said he’d wait for as long as it took for you to see him.’

  Olivia sighed. As a divorce lawyer she often had clients calling into the office, hoping to see her straight away, desperate for someone to listen to their story. Usually she didn’t mind, and if she didn’t have a prior engagement, she’d try her best to accommodate them in her crammed-to-bursting diary. After all, she knew how hard it was to take those first steps to visit a solicitor, never mind rustling up the courage to divulge the most heart-breaking details of your failed marriage to a complete stranger.

  ‘Okay, no problem. I’ll squeeze him in before I see Mrs Coulson at eleven thirty.’

  ‘Shall I show him up to your office?’

  ‘No, no, it’s okay. I need a coffee so I’ll come downstairs with you. You never know, I might be able to persuade him to make an appointment.’

  Olivia pinned a professional smile on her face and followed Katrina down the corridor, giggling at the clickety-clack of their stilettos on the polished wood flooring. Little did she know that would be the last time she would laugh for a long time, because as soon as she stepped into the reception area, a crumple-faced man leapt out of his seat, reached into the pocket of his grubby raincoat, and extracted a large manila envelope which, incongruously, he then waved in the air. The glee reflected in his hard, ball-bearing eyes was the absolute antithesis of the bewildered confusion that was racing through her veins.

  ‘Mrs Fitzgerald?’

  ‘Yes?’ Very few people outside her circle of friends knew her married name. Alarm bells started to ring, and she exchanged a quick glance with Katrina who was staring at the man with patent dislike. ‘What can I do for you, Mr …?’

  In order to elongate the drama, the man took a few moments to survey the elegant, marble-walled foyer of Edwards & Co, Solicitors and Commissioners for Oaths – already devoid of its Christmas decorations despite twelfth night being the following day – deriving obvious pleasure from the perplexed expressions on the faces of his audience. A tickle of recognition began to agitate at the edges of Olivia’s memory; the dishevelled attire, the ill-disguised porcine proportions, the whiff of stale nicotine. Where had she seen him before?

  ‘Just leave the papers and get out!’ snapped Katrina, the first of her colleagues to step forward to break the freeze-frame image.

  Without further ado, the envelope was thrust into Olivia’s hands and the process server ambled towards the smoked-glass elevator, a grin on his face and an air of satisfaction following in his wake. As the doors slid shut behind him, the burble of conversation magnified. No one needed a Private Detective badge to work out that what had just transpired had come as a complete shock to Olivia.

  ‘Come on,’ said Katrina. ‘I think some privacy is—’

  ‘Hey, I know that guy!’ announced Miles, a fellow divorce lawyer and Olivia’s least favourite colleague. ‘That was Jack Leyland, Ralph Carlton’s personal lackey – does all his dirty work for him. What was he doing here, though? I thought we instructed that ballet-shoed princess, Heidi Fowler, to deliver all our court documents, not that piranha. Although, I’ve always said that Jack does have his uses. Are we changing our approach at last?’

  Ralph Carlton was renowned throughout the legal profession as the go-to rottweiler in the field of matrimonial litigation, which could only mean one thing. Olivia’s stomach gave a pain-filled lurch and a curl of nausea began its assiduous journey around her chest.

  Oh God, surely not!

  ‘No, Miles, we …’ she muttered, desperately trying to reconnect her brain to its modem.

  ‘Because I have to tell you, all this conciliatory, non-confrontational malarkey is starting to scratch at my balls. We need to get a lot tougher in our negotiations, especially after that article about you being London’s Top Divorce Lawyer appeared in the local rag. Ridiculous accolade, if you ask me – just because you’ve achieved the questionable milestone of having handled five hundred divorces doesn’t mean that—’

  ‘Shut up, Miles. Haven’t you got secretaries to harass?’ said Katrina mildly, taking charge of the situation and guiding Olivia out of the reception and back down the corridor to her corner office.

  By now, panic was beginning to ricochet around Olivia’s body, her throat had contracted around what felt like a prickly pear, and she felt light-headed. She collapsed onto the overstuffed leather sofa she used to interview the more emotional clients who sought her advice and slowly slid the paperwork out of the envelope as if it contained a poisoned pen letter – the effect it caused was almost as bad.

  Because London’s Top Divorce Lawyer had just been served
with her very own divorce petition.

  Chapter 1

  ‘I didn’t think he’d do it, Kat.’

  Olivia sunk into the ‘sympathy couch’ and met her friend’s eyes, her fingers trembling on the rectangular missive of tragedy. The shock of the public ambush had begun to thaw but the horror remained, settling just below where her heart hammered out a symphony of sorrow against her ribcage. Nausea lingered at the back of her throat, constricting the flow of oxygen, and the threat of tears blurred her vision.

  ‘I know, Liv, I know,’ murmured Katrina, patting her hand and offering her a tissue.

  Olivia accepted, dabbed the corners of her eyes and started to peruse the documents.

  ‘Oh, my God, no! I don’t believe it.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Nathan’s cited Unreasonable Behaviour! Listen to this! The Respondent is a workaholic, often spending in excess of eighteen hours a day at her office, refusing to accept, and dismissing the importance of, her responsibilities to their relationship. Many holidays and weekends away have been cancelled or cut short due to the tenacity with which the Respondent pursues her career.’

  ‘Oh, Liv, I’m so sorry …’

  ‘And what about this: The Respondent has persistently neglected the Petitioner and their extended family and friends despite numerous attempts by the Petitioner to rectify their growing estrangement. And this: Since the inception of their partnership, the Petitioner has made clear to the Respondent his desire to start a family but … Oh my God, no, no, no, no …’

  The anguish churning through her veins threatened to overwhelm her as she continued to read the painful litany of accusations, and the stark truth of what lay at the crux of their problems was revealed.

  ‘But the Respondent refuses to contemplate the proposal, continually deflecting the Petitioner’s heartfelt pleas to participate in a rational and intelligent conversation, citing the importance of her career over the creation of a family.’

  Olivia raised her eyes to meet Katrina’s and the sympathy scrawled across her friend’s face almost caused her to crumble completely. She swallowed down hard, inhaled a steadying breath and made an attempt to corral her rampaging emotions. She had to admit she was acutely aware of Nathan’s desire to start a family. At his lavish fortieth birthday party at The Dorchester just before Christmas, she’d witnessed for herself the hunger in his heart as he had hugged each one of Katrina and Will’s three young children in turn when they presented him with a selection of home-made birthday cards covered in dried pasta and sequins. But reading about his rejected yearning for fatherhood as a ground for her ‘unreasonable behaviour’ in bold, black typescript, well, it shocked her to the core.

  ‘Look, Liv, these things always sound worse when they’re written down.’

  ‘We always say that to our clients, don’t we? Well, let me tell you now, for the record, those words are no consolation. I promise that from now on, I won’t be caught trotting out that old chestnut again.’

  ‘And you know what? I’m absolutely certain this is all Ralph Carlton’s doing – he’s the ultimate exploiter of human misery! No wonder you had no advance warning – it’s his trademark.’

  Olivia thought of the undisguised triumph in the process server’s eyes. The knowledge that he would, at that very moment, be scurrying back to his employer to recount every painful detail, caused her cheeks to flood with warmth. Then, her mind switched to the headlines that had been splashed across the local newspaper the previous month. The story had also been picked up by the Law Society Gazette, as part of their end-of-year round-up of news, which had ensured maximum publicity for the article celebrating the debatable accomplishment of her five hundredth divorce.

  She had squirmed at the label the tabloid had bestowed on her – ‘London’s Top Divorce Lawyer’. She knew the dubious badge of honour would rile many of her peers but especially Ralph Carlton who had grabbed that self-styled accolade for himself years before. In fact, she wouldn’t put it past him to casually leak the little gem that that same ‘Top Divorce Lawyer’ had joined the exclusive club no one wanted a golden pass for. She knew any gossip would spread like red wine on a cream carpet, and even if Ralph didn’t breach the code of ethics on client confidentiality, she had no difficulty in remembering Miles’s fascinated attention in the foyer and he was one of the biggest gossips she knew.

  ‘Liv, everyone knows Ralph Carlton is a rabid vulture who feasts on the bones of broken relationships. I can totally picture him now, grinning away on his dung-splattered perch as he drafted those awful allegations. Nathan would never say any of those things.’

  ‘But, sadly, not one of them is untrue. I do neglect Nathan, and our family and friends! I do work all waking hours here at my desk – my personal life is just one of the casualties I left in my wake when I chose the marbled entrance hall of Edwards & Co twelve years ago. I do cancel our date nights and I do miss important landmark birthdays. Remember Nathan’s mother’s sixtieth?’

  Olivia grimaced with shame as she recalled the expression of displeasure on her mother-in-law’s over-powdered face when she’d dashed into The Music Room at The Ritz an hour after the word ‘Surprise!’ had been hollered.

  ‘Yes, maybe, but Nathan works just as hard as you do. And he’s away from home more often than you are.’

  Loyalty drew an indignant expression on Katrina’s olive-toned features, but no amount of heartfelt empathy could distract Olivia now that she was on a roll of rigorous self-analysis and recrimination.

  ‘And remember those VIP, rarer-than-gold-dust tickets Nathan landed for the opening night of Waitress at the Adelphi Theatre last year? How I’d been banging on about going to see the show for ages? But it was Hollie who ended up going as his “plus-one” – his wife’s best friend instead of his neglectful wife! And I’ve lost count of how many “must-have” restaurant reservations we’ve cancelled.’

  ‘But, Liv—’

  ‘And the one about the missed holidays is true. In the seven years since our honeymoon, we’ve managed a weekend trip to Blackpool to watch Rachel and Denise dance at the Winter Gardens, and a flying visit to Edinburgh to see his brother, Dan, get married. But, if I recall correctly, even on that occasion I insisted we caught the first flight back to London so we could be at our desks at the crack of dawn on Monday morning. In fact—’ she loathed the squirm of guilt that wriggled through her abdomen ‘—I have to confess that I actually popped into the office on the way back from Heathrow.’

  ‘Olivia—’

  ‘And Nathan has tried to talk to me about starting a family. That one’s true, too. It’s just I’m not ready to give up on my career for a pile of dirty laundry and cracked nipples. Miles would almost certainly muscle in on my caseload and he’d ruin everything I’ve been building these last few years with his attitude of bulldog rather than guide dog! I can’t give it all up to swan off and have a family. I just can’t!’

  ‘Life doesn’t end when you have kids, you know.’ Katrina smiled, sweeping her long mahogany hair over her shoulder, her eyes softening at the mention of children.

  But Olivia had all the evidence of the impact of motherhood right in front of her eyes. Katrina possessed a first-class honours degree in law from Durham University, Olivia’s own college where she had only managed a 2:1. In fact, if Olivia were brutally honest with herself – and what better time than now – she would have to admit that Katrina was a better lawyer than she was. Nevertheless, her friend was content with her position as paralegal at Edwards & Co in return for flexible, part-time hours so she could put her expanding family’s needs first. ‘Date nights, not late nights’ was Katrina’s mantra.

  ‘Nathan is ambitious, too,’ insisted Katrina, coming to sit next to Olivia on the couch. ‘Wasn’t he in Paris for a month before his birthday, and isn’t he about to start a six-month secondment to Singapore next week?’

  Olivia acknowledged the veracity of Katrina’s argument but didn’t mention the qualifying mitigation that
Nathan had pleaded with her to fly over to Paris for a pre-Christmas weekend whilst he was there, all expenses paid. The ‘City of Romance’ held a special place in both their hearts as the French capital was where they’d honeymooned, and yet despite this, Olivia had been unable to drag herself away from her precious clients, or her volunteer work at the local homeless shelter at their busiest time of the year.

  However, she knew it was her refusal to contemplate a sabbatical from work to travel with him to Singapore that had provided Nathan with the impetus to end their marriage – the first step of which she held in her ice-cold hands. She cringed as she recalled the disappointment and hurt that she’d seen etched on his handsome features as he had begged her to start the new year by seizing the opportunity to mend their flagging relationship.

  ‘How can he expect me to ditch my career and go chasing after him halfway around the world?’ she pleaded, twirling a strand of her toffee-coloured hair absent-mindedly around her fingertip, but she could see from Katrina’s hesitancy that her chosen line of advocacy was weak.

  ‘He only wanted you to take a couple of weeks off, help him to settle in, spend some quality time together – not resign your partnership at Edwards & Co.’

  ‘But my clients depend on me!’

  ‘Your clients would’ve managed without you, Liv. Miles might be a pain in the butt and profess a different approach to marriage breakdown than you, but he’s a good enough lawyer.’

  ‘But I loathe the way Miles and Ralph Carlton do business, racking up the acrimony with twisted truths and spurious allegations.’ She brandished the envelope in her hand as evidence. ‘Inciting the parties to fight over their pepper pots and garden gnomes so that their legal fees are exorbitant and the money cascades into the lawyers’ coffers.’

  Olivia knew that the majority of her clients were involuntary refugees from the countless matrimonial conflicts waging across London and the Home Counties. They chose to consult her because she took an interest in their emotional wellbeing as well as the paperwork. She listened to their grievances, smoothed over the thorny issues of contact with the children and dividing the joint assets, offered pragmatic solutions as well as the astute application of legal principles. An involuntary smile twitched her lips as she recalled the ridiculously childish correspondence she had been forced to discuss only yesterday with Martha Grainger, the CEO of an ethical jewellery company, when Ralph’s client, Martha’s ex-husband, had demanded shared access to their allotment of chickens.