A Heart For Business draft 2 by Alexis Blake

words sink in. Serena’s father was back in the states. Trent immediately tamped down on the emotion that threatened to sideline his focus. He hadn’t thought of Serena for several months now, and wanted to keep it that way.
    Serena Bresi had taken the fashion world by storm at the age of sixteen. Three years after that, she had met Trent at a fundraiser in New York City and they had fallen madly in love. At least, Trent thought she had been in love with him as much as he had been with her.
    Their love affair had been the subject of all the social magazines and the paparazzi had hounded them mercilessly. When Trent had taken over Coldwell Enterprises from his father, he had immediately used his many contacts in Europe to expand the company overseas.
    Everything had been going smoothly, or so he thought. Serena had signed a contract with a large fashion house in Milan and had temporarily moved to Italy. Trent had missed her, but had so many things on his plate in the states, that the time had just seemed to slip away.
    Four months later, he had flown to Milan to surprise Serena for the weekend. He had gone straight to her flat, flowers in hand, surprised to find her home in the middle of the afternoon.  The surprise had been on him, however, as she had answered the door with the arms of her current lover wrapped intimately around her.
    Trent had been so furious, he had immediately left and returned to the airport. His private jet had been airborne several hours later. Serena had called him repeatedly, but he had ignored her calls. Trent valued honesty and loyalty above all else, and her betrayal had hurt him deeply. He had let it be known to the media, that they had decided to break things off, but were still friends. He’d had no wish to tarnish her reputation in the publics’ eyes.
    When she had called him three weeks later during the middle of the night, he had reached for the phone, unaware that she was on the other end of the line. Having been caught off-guard, he had listened as she tearfully apologized and begged for his help. It seemed that she had just found out she was pregnant and expected Trent to come to her rescue. Trent knew there was no possible way the baby was his since he hadn’t touched Serena for over five months.
    Trent had been repulsed and hung up the phone without replying. Two days later, he received news that Serena had driven her car off a bridge. Her suicide note made it seem that Trent had refused to do the right thing and marry her, and that she couldn’t bear to shame her family by having a child out of wedlock.
    Marco Bresi, Serena’s heartbroken father, had managed to keep the suicide note out of the media, but had vowed to get revenge for Serena’s death. He blamed Trent for causing her death. Trent had thought of telling Marco the truth, but didn’t think that her grief-stricken father was in any position to listen at the time so had kept silent.
    True to his word, Marco had started to go after Trent, keeping their feud to the business world, thus far, but Trent knew that it was only a matter of time before Marco started trying to attack him in his personal life as well. Now that Marco had personally come to Denver, it seemed that time had arrived.
    “Did you speak with him?” Trent asked.
    “He didn’t give us a choice. He made a point of cornering us during the intermission. Trent, there was such hatred in his eyes when he asked about you. I know you and Serena broke up before her death…”
    “Janet, let it go. I told you then, and I’ll tell you the same thing now. What happened between Serena and myself was between us. I will not discuss it and as she’s dead, there really is no point. Marco believes some things that are not true. I’ve tried to correct his thinking, but he doesn’t want to hear it. That is on him.” Trent took a breath and then continued, “Now, we both have work to do. Was there anything else you wanted to discuss with me?”
    Janet wondered if