The Claim Read Online Free PDF Page A

despite Beppe asking how the hell they were going to do what they needed to do, Rocco enrolled himself in a conversion course and inhaled the law. He also begged his father to keep his nose clean until he was fully qualified. A three-year degree condensed into one year didn’t even begin to challenge him. He read more, and he did a master’s degree specialising in criminal law. He applied to some of the biggest law firms in London for a training contract and walked every single interview. While others struggled to even get a look in, Rocco had a choice of firms. He attended the College of Law, and partway through the first tutorial on Business Accounts, he clocked Anna. The top of her red tinted curly head, really, because she was furiously writing down everything, calculator glued to her left hand. As if she could feel his stare, she glanced at him. Rocco sent her a grin. Her mouth twisted in disapproval. His grin widened. She carried on writing. The next tutorial, he sat next to her and watched her workings out.
    “You’re right,” he murmured in admiration. “Can I copy?”
    “Then how will you learn?” she retorted.
    “I know how to do it, I just can’t be arsed today. It involves effort.”  
    “I’m sure you’d have more if you weren’t so busy humping your way through campus.”
    “How dare you? I’ve been untouched except for precious times with my priest.” Anna stared at him in horror. “What, not into Catholic jokes?”
    “Child sex abuse is not funny.”
    “It is when your priest does try it and he’s found floating in the Thames the next day.”
    Anna put her pen down. “You need help. Honestly, I know some counselling services that’d be happy to help you out.”
    “How about you help me?”
    “I donate to charities via direct debit. I’m not into personal volunteering.”
    “It’s not charity if I take you out.” He named the French restaurant two streets away which had two Michelin stars. “What do you think?”
    “I actually eat, so offering to go there means your card better not bounce.”
    “It won’t,” he promised. “Are you coming then? Help out a damaged young—”
    “All right, just shut up and let me take these notes.” He caught the tiniest smile on her face and felt like he’d reached the summit of Everest. When she first smiled properly at him, because he showed up to their dinner in a suit and tie, it was like being given a knighthood. Anna made him earn her affection, and when he had it, blazing sun in the height of summer in the Sahara couldn’t compete with the heat of being with her. She had her own gravitational pull, and even though she could tell a person where to get off with specific directions to the Land of Fuck You, people wanted to be around her.
    She crackled with energy, right to the tips of her flame-tinted curls. Her passion was employment law, she informed him, only because just as she was going into teaching, one of her aunts was unceremoniously sacked. Anna, incensed with the injustice of it all, went with her aunt to the Tribunal and won the case for her aunt on discrimination. Of the forty thousand pounds compensation award, Anna was given ten thousand which she used to pay for her conversion course. He heard from others at the college that Anna would get into long and involved debates with the tutor on aspects of the various employment acts and, moreover, the government for siding with businesses for the sake of money.
    “It’s like she’s been possessed by the spirit of a thousand trade unions,” one guy sighed. But that was his woman. No bullshit, all smarts, honour and a legal bullet in the eye if you crossed her. Beppe didn’t like Anna at first. It was a typical clash of who knows best—best friend or girlfriend. But it was Anna who suggested a group trip to the Alps to ski, and after that and paying for several grappas for the chalet girls Beppe had his wandering eyes on, Beppe declared eternal loyalty to Anna.
    “Because