Page 59 of Greek's Temporary Cinderella

And a determination that seared through him like rods of steel.

He was moving forward on all fronts and he would get where he wanted to be. Needed to be.

His phone rang and he snatched it up off his desk in the office—once his father’s office, now his. He was now heading the company that had brought him the wealth that his father had been so keen for him to not jeopardise...not to share with a wife whose main interest in his son was his money, his coming inheritance.

‘Any news?’ he demanded of the caller—an estate agent this time.

Two minutes later he replaced the receiver, a look of satisfaction on his face. That box was ticked. Good. Time to move on the next one.

He picked up his phone again, spoke to his PA in the outer office. ‘I need an employment agency,’ he said briskly. Then spelt out his requirements, hung up the phone again.

OK, so what next? Time to chase that damn lawyer again—the one that specialised in family law. He needed answers—reliable ones—and then to set bureaucracy in motion.

So much to do.

He needed to move faster.

I’ve wasted six years—I won’t waste a day longer than I have to.

That was the promise he’d made to himself as he’d watched Eliana walk away from him—for the third and final time.

Psychiko—Paris—and now Thessaloniki.

It wasn’t going to happen again.

He speed-dialled the lawyer, ready to make sure it wouldn’t.

I said I’d fight for her—and that’s what I’m doing. Because now I know that however venal the reason she left me six years ago, this time it could not be more different.

And because of that knowledge searing through him, he would fight for her—and this time he would win.

Because now I know with absolute certainty that my whole life depends on it—my whole future.

And Eliana’s.

The woman he now knew, with that same absolute certainty, he could not live without.

Eliana was in the kitchen, washing up Miki’s tea things. Miki himself was snuggled up with his ya-ya, watching a cartoon with her. Eliana could hear their chuckles, and it warmed her. This was what she had shaped her life around—that orphaned little boy and his bereft grandmother, victims of a fate that had stripped Miki of his parents, his ya-ya of her only child.

I took this on—I must see it through.

The problem was brutal: lack of money. If she had more money then she could move Miki and his grandmother out of the city—install them in a little house somewhere, with a garden, space for a growing boy. But there was no money for any of that—only just enough for keeping their heads above water as it was.

Would Leandros think her impoverished, penny-pinching life now her just desserts for what she’d done six years ago? He’d been shocked by Miki’s existence, but would he think it was simply up to her to deal with it?

After all, he’d let her walk away—had made no attempt to come after her. Had simply accepted what she’d told him and left her to it.

She gave an inner sigh. She must not think about Leandros. He was gone from her life, and that was all there was to it. She had a life here to get on with—such as it was.

She put Miki’s dried dishes away and fetched some vegetables from the fridge to make a start on supper. Her days were very much the same—a routine she was getting used to. She got on well enough with Miki’s grandmother, though they had little in common other than Miki.

A sliver of apprehension went through her. Living here with Miki and Agnetha did increase the risk that word might somehow get back to Damian’s father...

The sound of the doorbell made her jump, as if she had conjured up the very thing she feared. Frowning, she went back into the living room, glancing at Agnetha and Miki, still absorbed in watching their cartoon.

She unlocked the apartment door, pulling it open.

And stopped dead.

---