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CHAPTER NINE
‘WHERE’SROULA?’ASKEDGALEN, frowning, when he returned from his walk.
Dora shrugged.
He guessed she was at lunch—though it didn’t really matter. Well, itshouldn’treally matter. His staff were not chained to their desks, and there were a million places she could be, but he wanted to discuss the morning’s events.
Calmly.
He wanted to reset the tone.
Have sex?
Seriously, for the first time he was actually willing to sleep with someone he worked with just get it out of the way.
Hate me in the morning, Roula!
Oh, and she would—because he wasn’t her husband—but then perhaps they could get on.
He took another swig of antacid.
No...
He met with Joe, and with Nico too, and then just sat there. At least without her there he could work in peace.
It was an empty peace, though.
So he called out for a delivery ofbougatsa—a sweet custard in pastry. Not because he was hungry, more because...
Only it was a silent delivery—from Dora.
‘Where’s Roula?’ Galen checked, when usually he didn’t even look up.
‘She took the day...’ Dora said, and went to leave him to it.
‘Took the day?’ He frowned.
‘Galen, don’t worry about it.’
‘What’s going on?’
‘She has some family issues,’ Dora said. ‘You just get on.’
Dora closed the door on her way out, and in that moment Galen loathed his carefully structured life, and his absence from the world. He’d so carefully crafted it, but as he scrolled through the news on his phone he felt as if he’d been smacked over the head with a cricket bat.
Roula’s life had fallen apart, and no one had thought to tell him.
It was odd to sit in her office and take calls.
Costa: ‘How is she?’
Leo: ‘Oh, tell darling Roula to call me, please...’
Yolanda, in tears: ‘I knew something was wrong.’
Just an endless stream of people, and he was curt, or vague, or polite if it was called for.
Galen still had the news on, watching the updates and gleaning facts from the little they told and combining them with the bits he knew.
