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At seventeen, her millionaire Greek father, Kristos Theron, owner of a successful hotel in New York City, had been killed in a small plane accident. He’d left a will with a legal stipulation. If he died before she was of age, his best friend and former business partner, Nassos Rodino, would become her legal guardian.
Nassos had come to New York often throughout her early childhood and she had seen him as part of her extended family. When her father died, it was no hardship to travel to Greece with him.
But the moment Nassos had brought her to his home, she’d discovered that he and his wife had been living in a troublesome marriage.
Lys had never known the reason for their struggles, but it grieved her because she’d sensed that deep down they loved each other. It was all very complicated and she’d tried not to add to their problems. But in that regard she felt she’d failed when she’d started dating men neither of them approved of.
Nassos called them rich men’s playboy sons. Danae saw them as opportunists with no substance, adding to Lys’s insecurity that somehow she didn’t have the ability to attract the right kind of man. None of her relationships developed into anything serious because she sensed her adoptive parents’ disapproval.
Since coming to live with them, the paparazzi had followed her around, never missing a chance to exploit her private life by filming her accompanied by any rich man she may have been seen with in public. Unfortunately in her work at Nassos’s exclusive hotel chain, wealthy people made up her world. She’d never known anything else.
If she’d met and fallen in love with a poor fisherman, would they have approved of her choice? She didn’t have an answer to that question, nor to the many others that she often thought of as Lys suffered from a lack of confidence. Having lost her mother at the age of nine hadn’t helped.
Their disapproval hurt her terribly because she’d loved Nassos and his wife so much and wanted their acceptance. Lys’s father had entrusted her to Nassos. Right now she felt like she’d let down three of the most important people in her life, but not on purpose.
Though he and Danae had suffered marital difficulties, they’d been wonderful to Lys and had made life beautiful at their villa on Kasos Island while she’d dealt with her sorrow. They’d helped her through those difficult years and had made it possible for her to go to college on the mainland.
Nassos was the kindest, dearest man Lys had ever known in her life next to her own father. The two men had been born on Kasos and had always been best friends. Early in their lives they’d gone into the fishing business together and had slowly amassed their fortunes. Kristos had ended up in New York, while Nassos stayed on Heraklion and had eventually married.
For Lys, the underlying strife during their divorce had been devastating. Since then she and Danae had been estranged. It tore her heart out. At this point Lys didn’t know how to overcome her pain except to pour herself into work at the hotel, and avoid the press as much as possible.
Deep in tortured thoughts, she heard a voice. “Kyria Theron?” She lifted her head to see another officer in the doorway. “Thank you for coming. Detective Vlassis will see you now.”
Hopefully this meeting would provide the answer that let her out of proverbial jail and allowed the funeral to take place. She walked inside.
“Sit down, Kyria Theron.”
Lys found a chair opposite his desk.
“Coffee? Tea?”
“Neither, thank you.”
The somber detective sat back in his chair tapping the tips of his long fingers together. “I have good news for you. The medical examiner has turned over his findings to my office. We know the truth and foul play has been ruled out.”
“You’re serious?” Her voice shook. The rumor that she might have poisoned Nassos with some invisible drug in his penthouse apartment in order for her to get a portion of his money had been devastating for her.
“It’s been determined he died of a subarachnoid hemorrhage probably caused from an earlier head injury.”
“Why did it take so long?” she cried.
“Unfortunately the bleeding went undetected. The reason it was difficult to find the first time was because it’s not unusual for SAH to be initially misdiagnosed as a migraine.”
“So the doctor didn’t catch it.”
“Not at first. A human mistake. It caused a delay in obtaining a CT scan.”
A small gasp escaped her lips. “After he’d hit his head on the kitchen cupboard several months ago, I thought he must have suffered a concussion. I told him I wanted to talk to his doctor about it, but Nassos told me to stop fussing because the pain went away. That must be why he had a stroke.” Tears rolled down her cheeks. “Thank heaven he can now be laid to rest.”
“This has been a very stressful time for you, but it’s over. The press has been informed. I’m sorry for your loss and wish you well in the future.”
Another miracle. “Thank you. Have you told his ex-wife?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” Now Danae could make the funeral arrangements. “You’ll never know what this means to me.”
Lys jumped up from the chair. “Thank you.” She couldn’t leave the police station fast enough and rushed past the officer posted at the front desk without glancing at him. She couldn’t endure one more smirk.
Once outside, Lys hurried to her car, running past the usual news people stalking her movements to take pictures. She got into her car and drove back to the Rodino Luxury Hotel where she had her own suite. She’d been living there and working in the accounts department for Nassos since graduating from business college in Heraklion four years ago.
The moment she reached her room on the third floor, she flung herself across the bed and sobbed. It was over at last. But with Nassos’s death and Lys’s unwanted estrangement with his ex-wife, there was no one to pick up the emotional pieces.
The couple’s tragic divorce had fragmented Lys. If they’d been going to end their marriage, why hadn’t it happened years before now? She simply didn’t understand. And then had come the shocking news of his death... The loss was almost more than she could bear.
They’d worked together at the hotel. He’d taught her everything about the business. He’d been her friend, confidant, mentor. How was she going to be able to go on without him?
For Nassos not to be there anymore was killing her and she missed Danae terribly. Until the police had closed the case, Lys had been in limbo, trying to do her usual job, but her mind and heart hadn’t been there. When she did have to leave the hotel for any reason, she’d felt accusatory stares coming in all directions and avoided any publicity if she could help it.
Thankfully this was over and there’d be an end to the malicious talk that he’d been murdered. Hopefully everything would die down, but where did she go from here? Lys felt like she’d been driving her car when the steering wheel had suddenly disappeared, leaving her to plunge over a cliff. She was so heartbroken she could hardly think.
While in this state, the phone rang. Lys turned over to look at the caller ID. It was Xander Pappas, Nassos’s attorney. She picked up and learned that he’d be in Nassos’s private office at the hotel in a half hour to talk to her. The detective had already been in touch with him.
“I have something important to give you.”
She sat up in surprise. “Will Danae be meeting with us?” Lys longed to talk to her.
“No. We’ve already spoken and I’ve read her the will. She’ll be calling you about the funeral.”
“I see.”
Stabbed with fresh pain, Lys thanked him and hung up. If there hadn’t been a divorce, she and Danae would have planned his funeral together. Now everything had changed. More tears gushed down her cheeks before she got off the bed to freshen up.
Of course she hadn’t expected to be present at the reading
of the will and hadn’t wanted to be. Danae had been married to Nassos for twenty-four years. That business was between the two of them.
A few minutes later she left for the corporate office downstairs. On the way, she couldn’t help but wonder what Xander wanted to give her. Nassos couldn’t have known when he would die, so she couldn’t imagine what it was.
After nodding to Giorgos, the annoying general manager of the hotel, she walked in to Nassos’s private office. The attorney greeted her and told her to sit down.
“I have two items to give you. Both envelopes are sealed. You’ll know what to do after you open the envelope marked Letter first. Nassos wrote to you at the time he divorced Danae.” He put both envelopes on the desk.
She swallowed hard. Nassos had written something that recently? “Have you read it?”
“No. He gave me instructions to give them both to you upon his death, whenever that would be. Who would have imagined he’d die this early in his life? I’ll miss him too and am so sorry since I know how close you two were. I’ll leave now. If you have any questions, call me at my office.”
After he left the room, Lys reached for the envelope and pulled out the letter with a trembling hand. She knew Nassos’s handwriting. He wrote with a certain panache that was unmistakable.
My dearest little Lysette,
