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Shocked, Ann had listened while Carla’s tearful tirade flowed on She had tried to reassure her, to remind her that the father of her child had to support it financially—

‘I want Andreas to marry me!’ Carla had railed

The months that had followed had not been easy Carla had sunk into a depressive lethargy, forbidding Ann to make contact with the father of her child even to at least sort out maintenance for the baby

‘Andreas knohere I am,’ she’d said dully ‘I want him to come and find me! I want him to come and marry me!’

But Andreas had not conancy had ended with an even more difficult labour that had left her with postnatal depression, brought on, Ann was sure, by Andreas’ rejection of her To Ann had fallen the task of looking after baby Ari—for Carla, it see deeper into depression, refusing all treatment

The cure, when it had co man, handsome, but with a strained, uncertain manner

‘I—I am Andreas Theakis,’ he’d told Ann

That was all it had taken Carla had flown to hiured Or so she had believed In reality it had been a little less romantic than Ann had hoped Andreas had wanted a paternity test done

‘I have to convince my brother…’ he’d said uneasily to Ann But Carla had been viciously triumphant

‘Oh, Ari is Andreas’, all right! And Mr Alet his comeuppance! Andreas will marry me now—he’s pro his damn brother can do about it!’

Had Carla been te fate, to be so triumphant? Ann wondered, with a bitter twist of n will of Nikos Theakis to keep his brother froelamorous once more, vibrant once more—in his powerful hire car on unfa more than that

And two lives snuffed out

Ann had been at holy while Andreas and Carla went off for the day together He had been orphaned at a stroke

Ann knew that the horror and grief of that day would never leave her Andreas’s body had been flown back to Greece None of his family had come near Ann Ann had been left to bury her sister on her own Left to look after baby Ari, all alone in the world now, except for her She had made no attempt to contact Andreas’ family They had clearly never wanted Carla—never wanted her child Whereas she…

Ari was all the world to her All she had left Her one consolation in

a sea of grief Grief for her sister and for the er for his brother—who had stopped the in her own hallway, eyes like lasers

De to take Ari from her

Getting no answer, Nikos glanced into the empty room beside the front door, then strode down the narrow hallway to the kitchen at the end His expression hardened evenup, a plastic covered table with food debris on it But it was the pram that drew hih hibaby, his heart full Slowly, he reached a hand towards him

‘Don’t touch hi his head round

Ann Turner was in the kitchen doorway, one hand closed tightly around the jairl think he was going to take the boy there and then? Obviously he was not He would return when he had all the papers drawn up, a suitable nanny engaged, and then make an orderly removal of his nephew He was here now simply because he had had to come He had had to see for hihtmare that had closed over the Theakis family with Andreas’s death

His eyes rested aas his gaze flicked over her She suited the place Shabbily dressed, with her hair tied back, an unkempt mess, and baby food on her shapeless T-shirt She couldn’t have looked less like the girl who had got her avaricious claws into his brother Carla Turner had been a gilded bird of paradise This sister of hers was a scrawny street sparrow

But Ann Turner’s appearance was irrelevant—only the baby in her care was important

She was standing aside fro to say to you, and I don’t want you disturbing Ari’ Her voice was sharp Hostile