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CHAPTER ONE

ANATOLE TELONIDIS STARED bleakly across the large, expensively furnished lounge of the penthouse apartment in the most fashionable part of Athens It was still as untidy as it had been when his young cousin Marcos Petranakos had last walked out of it a few short nightht to his death

When their randson he had been distraught ‘Anatole, he’s dead! Marcos, my beloved Marcos—he’s dead!’ the old man had cried out

S far too fast in the lethal supercar that had been Tirandfather’s recent diagnosis with cancer

The death of his favourite grandson, whom he had spoiled lavishly since Marcos had lost his parents as a teenager, had been a devastating blow Ti now only for his own death

Anatole could understand his grandfather’s devastation, his ic death would affect more lives than their own family’s With no direct heir now to the vast Petranakos Corporation, the company would pass to an obscure Petranakos relative whose business inexperience would surely, in these parlous economic times, lead inevitably to the co to the country’s sky-high unemployment levels

Though Anatole had his own late father’s business empire to run—which he did with tireless efficiency and a pressing sense of responsibility—he knew that, had Marcos lived, he could have instilled a si cousin, guiding hied, self-iuidance

Frustration with the fate awaiting the Petranakos Corporation—and its hapless workforce—Anatole started on the gri cousin’s possessions Bleakly, he began his sombre task

Paperas the first essential As he located Marcos’s desk and set aboutout its juh hianised person he’d known—receipts, bills and personal correspondence were alljust how uninterested Marcos had been in anything other than having a good tihly temporary females had been his favoured lifestyle Unlike Anatole hi the Telonidis businesses kept hi h-powered businesswomen he worked with in the world of finance

Frustration bit at Anatole

If only Marcos had ht have been a son to inherit from Timon! I’d have kept the Petranakos Corporation safe for hirew up!

But to the fun-seeking Marcos e would have been anathema! Girls had been for casual relationships only There’d be ti married, he’d always said

But there was to be no later

Grim-faced, his honed features starkly etched, Anatole went on sorting through the papers in his cousin’s desk Official in one pile, personal in another The latter pile was not large—not in this age of texting and the internet—but one drawer revealed a batch of three or four envelopes addressed to Marcos in cursive Roman script with a London postmark and UK stamps Only one had been opened

Anatole frowned The lilac-coloured envelopes and the large, looping script suggested a feh Marcos’s dramatic death had been splashed across the Greek tabloids, a British girlfriend ht be necessary, Anatole thought reluctantly, for him to let her know of Marcos’s fate That said, he realised as he glanced at the envelopes’ postmarks, none of these was dated o Whoever she was, the affair—or whatever it had been—was clearly long over

With a swift i through Marcos’s personal effects Anatole took the folded single piece of paper from the one envelope that was open He flicked open the note and started to read the English writing

And as he did he froze completely

Lyn ood, she would far rather be studying history! But accountancy would enable her to earn a decent living in the future and that was essential—especially if she were to persuade the authorities that she was capable of raising a child on her own: her beloved Georgy But for nohile she was still waiting so anxiously to learn if she could adopt him, she was only allowed to be his foster carer She knew the welfare authorities would prefer for him to be adopted by one of the many childless couples anxious to adopt a healthy baby, but Lyn was detery from her! No one!

It didn’t le it was to keep at her studies while looking after a baby as well, especially with ret swept over her: if only she’d gone to college sooner and already had her qualifications But she hadn’t been able to go straight from school because she’d had to stay home and look after Lindy She hadn’t been able to leave her young teenage sister to the indifference and neglect which was all her mother had offered But when Lindy had left school herself and gone to London, to live with a girlfriend and get a job, herin after decades of abuse fro and alcohol, and there had been no one else to look after her except Lyn

And now there was Georgy