Page 2 of Greek's Temporary "I Do"

‘Then train her better,’ Mina’s voice snapped out.

‘Mina, she’s just a child.’

‘Trust me, that’s something you have to nip in the bud. And it’s really unfair of you to lead her on.’

‘Lead her on?’ Leo asked, the confusion in his tone clear. ‘Mina, I think you’ve misunderstood. She’s nothing to me. Just the daughter of my father’s business partner. That’s all.’

Unable to see past the tears in her eyes, Helena spun away from the door and down the corridor. She pulled up short at the top of the stairs.

She’s just a child. She’s nothing to me.

She clenched her jaw so hard her teeth started to ache, and furiously wiped at the tears in her eyes. How could her heart hurt and pound so much at the same time? She took a shuddering breath but it did nothing to ease the pressure in her chest. Another tear fell down her cheek and she wondered why it felt as if a rope tying her to shore had been cut. As if she were a boat drifting out to a stormy sea without an anchor.

She looked down at the present in her hands, the box slightly crumpled, and knew she couldn’t give it to Leo. Not now. Humiliation crept across Helena’s skin and settled into her stomach.

She thought of the cubbyhole that Leander, she and Leo sometimes used to leave silly notes or treats for each other. It was hidden behind a small painting just down the hall. With a numbness creeping over her, she went to the painting and shoved the present into the hiding cubbyhole, hoping that no one would find it for a very long time.

Her throat thick with hurt, she forged that feeling into resolve. Mina had nothing to worry about. Helena wouldn’t look, or think twice, about Leonidas Liassidis ever again.

But as she wiped her eyes and made her way downstairs she didn’t see Leander step out from the shadows, concern and sadness flicking between Helena and the door to his brother’s room. He shook his head, before slowly following Helena down to where the rest of their families were gathered.

CHAPTER ONE

‘TELL ME AGAIN that I’m doing the right thing.’

‘You are doing what you need to do.’

‘Am I?’

‘Helena, if you want me to talk you out of this, I can... I don’t care about the guests, the church, the press interest all of this hoo-ha has gained, or the damn money.’

‘Hoo-ha?’

‘Yes, Helena. Your wedding is a load of hoo-ha,’ Kate said with such seriousness, Helena didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Groaning, she turned away from her reflection in the mirror. ‘You’re right. It is a load of hoo-ha. Just think what would happen if they all knew the truth,’ Helena said as her heart lurched guiltily.

That this marriage was a farce, a sham, utterly fake. But it was also the only way to fix the terrible situation she was in—the only way to save her charity, Incendia.

‘If only they hadn’t been whipped into a frenzy by Leander the Lothario,’ Kate joked.

Helena smiled at Kate’s teasing. Leander Liassidis might have been the eternal playboy cruising through life like he didn’t have a care in the world, but for Helena, when she needed it, he’d been her rock and her saviour. She loved Leander like a brother and the only thing that ever caused her any worry was the hope that one day he might find someone that he could love sincerely. Which was perhaps a tad ironic, considering that in less than twenty minutes Helena would be walking down the aisle to stand beside him in front of one hundred and fifty guests, where a priest would declare them husband and wife.

‘If only my inheritance didn’t have the most ridiculous strings attached to it,’ Helena wished out loud.

‘What on earth was your father thinking?’ Kate demanded. ‘As if access to your inheritance should ever have depended on a man.’

Helena’s heart turned as it always did when she thought about her father. He had passed away just after her sixteenth birthday and not a single day had gone by that she hadn’t thought of him, hadn’t missed him.

‘To be fair, if I could have waited just two years until I was twenty-eight, none of this would have even been necessary,’ Helena countered.

‘Of course. Also, perfectly reasonable,’ Kate said sarcastically. ‘A woman matures only when she marries a man or when she’s nearly thirty!’ she cried.

Helena couldn’t help but smile. Their unwavering defence of each other was what made them strong, their bond closer than family because it had been chosen. And Helena would choose Kate every single day.

‘I’m sure my mother would have helped me fight it, if there had been time,’ she insisted, missing the sceptical look that passed across Kate’s features. ‘But challenging a will in the courts would take too long and draw too much attention. The financial review of Incendia is due in December. The police have advised that they won’t have caught Gregory by then, and even if they do, they won’t be able to return the money he stole until after a full investigation and a lengthy court case,’ Helena said, shaking her head.

Helena had never believed that she’d one day get to work at the charity that had been a lifesaver to her when she’d needed it. After the loss of her father, her abrupt return to boarding school had been hard. Her fear of falling asleep and never waking up—just like her father had done one awful June night—was at risk of becoming full blown and permanent insomnia. So her tutor had recommended Incendia to her. There she’d received grief counselling and support while she underwent the genetic testing to see if she had inherited Brugada syndrome, the disease that had killed her father.

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