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Pollyanna looked at her husband, and she couldn’t even cry. “You’ve left me with nothing, Kyr,” she whispered dully. “You’ve taken everything away from me, and I don’t know where to go from here.”
In front of her, the porters had finally finished loading her luggage and the children’s, and Pollyanna moved mechanically. She focused on being Mama and not Pollyanna as she called out to Leo and to the twins, smiling even as she was dying, telling them to kiss their Papa goodbye.
She stayed in character throughout the flight, feverish in her desire not to let herself think. When they arrived at her parents’ house, she took on another role, that as dear little Polly, her parents’ only child.
She greeted them with kisses and hugs, and she kept up a happy chatter all throughout the day. After dinner, she tucked the kids in for the night and told her parents she would retire early because of jet lag.
They had nodded understandingly, and she went to her room, thinking she had done okay.
But sleep didn’t come, and when she went downstairs to join her parents for a nightcap, that was the moment she realized she hadn’t succeeded in fooling anyone at all.
Halfway down the stairs, her parents’ hushed voices drifted to her, and she listened, white-faced, as they discussed about what the Floros had revealed to them. Her father sounded grim. Her mother was crying.
And then they were going over their options, and that was then she, too, wanted to cry.
We’ll leave this house, of course, her father decided. Kyrillos bought it for us, and it might make Polly feel obligated to him.
We’ve been poor before, her mother said valiantly. It won’t kill us, and we’ll figure out a way to survive on our pension.
Pollyanna thought there could be nothing more heartbreaking than hearing her sixty-year-old parents planning to start from scratch.
But she was wrong.
As she tiptoed back up the stairs, knowing her parents would hate it if they realized she had overheard them talking, another set of voices reached her. It was the twins, speaking in low, hushed Greek.
“I want to ask when Papa will join us,” Ella was saying.
“Stupid.” Dio’s voice was furious. “He won’t come. They’re getting a voice.”
“You don’t know that.” But Ella’s voice was quivering.
“Yes, I do,” her twin snapped. “She’s crying all the time, when she thinks we’re asleep. You hear her too, don’t you? It’s like what happened to Miko’s parents. Remember what he told us? It’s the sign.”
Ella started to cry.
“Stop it, Ella.” Dio’s tone was harsh, but there was a quaver in his voice, too. “Mama will feel bad if she sees you crying—-”
“But I don’t want them to get a divorce,” Ella sobbed.
“If they don’t get a divorce, Mama will keep crying,” Dio whispered.
Silence.
“I don’t want Mama to be sad anymore, Ella.”
Silence.
“Papa’s strong, but Mama’s not.”
Pollyanna covered her mouth to keep her sobs from coming out, knowing that if she showed herself now, she wouldn’t be able to keep the truth from her face, and it would be all over for her children.
Oh God, her parents were worrying about her, and now her own children were, too.
Her inadequacies and weakness tore at her, and Pollyanna pressed her hands harder against her mouth.
All her life, she had been happy to be just Kyrillos Gazis’ wife, and she had let it define her.
But now she wasn’t that anymore.
Pollyanna covered her face.
I need to be strong for them. I need to be strong for them. Please God, please. Please. I don’t care about anything else. Just please help me be strong for them.
Chapter Two
As Kyr’s private plane disappeared in the horizon, a vision of his future lay ahead of him, desolate and empty, and the thought thrust him into motion.
He would fight to his dying breath to keep his family with him, Kyr vowed grimly.
Annalisa.
Leo.
Ella.
Dio.
And his Pollyanna.
In ten minutes, he reached the hotel where Ana had checked in. The moment he arrived at the lobby, locals who knew who he was glared accusingly at Kyr, but he ignored this, walking purposefully towards reception.
“Ana Jenner, please,” he said curtly.
The receptionist, another local, gave him a tight-lipped smile. “A moment, please.” Her scowling gaze remained on him as she made the call to Ana’s room. Putting the receiver down, she told him, “You may proceed to Room 1409, sir.”
“Please let her know I’d rather speak with her here.”
The scowl disappeared from her face, and it was testament to how much Pollyanna meant to the locals, that even staff working for the competition was so passionately loyal to her.
“Understood, sir. Shall I let Ms. Jenner know you’ll be waiting for her at the coffee shop?”
“That would do, thanks.” Nodding at the receptionist, he made his way to the coffee shop, choosing a table closest to the door where everyone would be able to see them. Hiding in the corner would only be misleading, and he didn’t want things to be so much worse than they already were for his wife and children.
