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CHAPTER ONE

‘I NEED a favour,’ Socrates Seferis had said and his godson, Alexius Stavroulakis, had dropped everything to fly thousands of elythat it was a highly confidential matter that he couldn’t discuss on the phone

Alexius, six feet one in bare feet and built like a professional athlete, was a very neorthy billionaire of only thirty-one years of age with a fleet of bodyguards, limousines, properties and private jets at his disposal Faressive nature, Alexius never danced to anyone else’s tune, but Socrates Seferis, although he was almost seventy-five years old, was a special case For many years he had been the only visitor Alexius had had while at boarding school in the UK

A self-of tourist hotels round the world Alexius’s godfather, however, had not been so fortunate in his private life The wife Socrates adored had died during the birth of their third child and the old rown into adult horrors, ere spoiled, lazy and extravagant and who had on many occasions sha Alexius considered Socrates an excellent example of why no sensible man should have children Children were often disloyal, distressing and difficult and he had no idea why sohters cluttering up lives that, childfree, could have remained blessedly smooth and civilised It was not a mistake that Alexius planned to make

Socrates greeted Alexius from his armchair on the terrace of his luxurious home on the outskirts of Athens Refreshot seated

‘So,’ Alexius prompted, his lean, darkly handsorey eyes that ?’

‘You never did learn patience, did you?’ the oldwith humour in his weather-beaten face ‘Have a drink, read the file first …’

I powerful frame, Alexius scooped up the sli the drink The head and shoulders photo of a pale, nondescript girl who looked barely out of her teens was uppermost ‘Who is she?’

‘Read,’ Socrates reedly

His breath escaping in a slow hiss of exasperation, Alexius flipped through the thin file The na to him and the more he read the less he understood the relevance of the information

‘She calls herself Rosie,’ Socrates lish too She was christened Rose as well’

Alexius was baffled by what he had gleaned frorown up in care in London and worked as a hu, on the face of it, a very ordinary life He could see no possible reason for his godfather’s interest in her

‘She’s h Alexius had spoken

Alexius shot hi to con you or so?’

‘You’re definitely the right odson with satisfaction ‘No, she’s not trying to con me, Alexius As far as I’m aware, she doesn’t even know I exist I’m curious about her … that’s why I asked you here to talk to me’

Alexius’s eyes skimmed back to the photo: a plain Jane if ever he saw one, with pale hair, big empty eyes and no visible personality ‘Why do you think she’s your granddaughter?’

‘I know it for a fact I’ve known she existed for more than fifteen years and she was DNA tested then,’ Socrates adly ‘She’s Troy’s child, conceived while he orking for me in London—not that he did much hile he was over there,’ he added with a huirl’s mother either In fact, he had already abandoned the for financial support and I irl, but for whatever reasons the girl herself saw none of that row up in foster homes’

‘Unfortunate,’ Alexius remarked

‘Worse than unfortunate The girl has grown up with every possible disadvantage and I feel very guilty about that,’ the older man admitted heavily ‘She is family and she could be my heir—’

Alexius was alarirl you’ve never even met? What about the family you already have?’

‘My daughter has no children and a spending habit that none of her three rich husbands have been able to afford,’ Socrates responded flatly ‘My surviving son is a drug addict, as you know, and he has been in rehab repeatedly without success—’