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‘Shohat?’

He straightened his shirt, then turned back to face her ‘I’ll take you to meet her You can see for yourself why I don’t want ’

The car came to a stop outside an immaculate two-storey house in a quiet Athenian suburb

No sooner had the engine been turned off than Christian got out, not bothering to wait for the driver to open the door for him

The entire drive had been conducted in silence, Christian sitting ra what lay beneath his skin

It was a demeanour Alessandra had never seen from him before It unnerved her

That he’d cancelled his first appointriet it over with’

It ith a deep sense of dread that she followed him out of the car and up the small driveway

A tall, thin woman with short white hair appeared at the door, lines all over her weathered face, her thin lips claether in an obvious display of disapproval

Wordlessly, she turned on her heel and walked back inside, leaving the door open for the s homely about it What could have been a beautiful ho but a carcass, sanitised functionality at its best

If Elena Markos could speak English, sheher disdain for Alessandra, refusing her hand when Christian introduced theh her when Alessandra said, ‘Hárika ya tin gnorimía,’— ‘pleased to ht breakfast to her suite thather here