Page 42 of Christmas Baby with Her Ultra-Rich Boss

She had to be okay. For her baby’s sake. It was for her baby’s sake that she had forced herself to eat these past five days. It was for her baby’s sake that she’d moved out of Konstantinos’s penthouse and taken up her parents’ and sister’s heartfelt insistence that she stay with them. She hadn’t had much choice when her dad returned from a mystery trip with a fold-up bed that must have cost more than a decent permanent bed, and rearranged the living room furniture to fit it in.

They knew everything. Once Konstantinos had gone, she’d dragged herself to the bedroom, pulled some clothes on, and got the concierge to arrange a driver to take her to her family. Her intention to only tell them about the baby without giving any details had been as good as her intention of never falling in love with Konstantinos. It had all spilled out. The only details she’d spared them had been of the actual conception itself. In many ways, it had been cathartic. In many others, reliving it all only made her despair grow. She’d handed her heart to a man who didn’t want it.

Her family had been brilliant. She’d known all along that they would support her but what she hadn’t comprehended was how much sheneededtheir support. Their love. As for Heidi... The joy that had sparkled in her eyes when Lena had lifted her top for her to see the bump had put to rest her fears that this would be another kick in the teeth to a woman who had already lost so much.

She wished she had her sister’s strength. She’d tried. Tried her hardest to save her tears until night came and the house fell silent with sleep. She was trying now, as she watched the birds feeding and the images of the two young girls practising their gymnastics continued to flicker before her filling eyes.

So much loss. So much pain.

‘Mum?’ she whispered.

‘Yes,älskling?’

‘I miss him.’

When the tears spilled out, she couldn’t fight them, could only cling tightly to her mum and soak her jumper with her tears, praying her mum spoke the truth when she softly said time always healed.

Lena feared her heart had shattered into too many pieces to ever heal.

Konstantinos finished his Scotch. The temptation to pour himself another was strong but he resisted. He’d drunk more than he would usually consume in recent days. But not wine. For some reason the smell of wine currently turned his stomach. He’d put his hand over his glass to stop the waiter from pouring it during a meal with his senior Australian management team earlier that evening.

He’d only drunk more Scotch than usual because his chest felt so damn cold and hollow. He couldn’t think what was wrong with him. Here he was, in the midst of a roasting Australian summer and he felt none of the usual benefits.

His phone buzzed. His heart thumped as it had done with every buzz since he’d landed here. He had no idea why that was, either.

He reached to his hotel suite’s bedside table for it. A message from his mother. This time his heart clenched. She wanted to know what she should buy Lena for Christmas. Like most of their compatriots, the Siopis family exchanged gifts on New Year’s Day but his mother had been researching how the Brits did it and learned they exchanged theirs, like a growing number of Greeks, on Christmas Day itself. His kind-hearted mother wanted Lena to enjoy some of her own traditions.

He sighed heavily and reached for the Scotch after all, took a drink and then relayed the message he should have told his parents days ago: that Lena wouldn’t be joining them.

Why had he put it off?

Gutless coward.

He poured himself another drink, this time to drown the sound of Lena’s contempt from his mind.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

AFTERMIDNIGHTMASSwith his parents, Konstantinos sat at the front terrace of the family restaurant that had been a part of his whole life and gazed up at the stars. How had he never seen them before? His formative years spent living in Kos’s mountains, at a location where tourists flocked to watch the sunset, and not once had he lifted his eyes upward and seen what was above him. The night sky had simply been there.

He wondered if Lena was outside looking up, too.

He couldn’t stop thinking about her. The harder he tried, the worse it got. A Lena-sized infection of the mind. And now it was officially Christmas Day and she was thousands of miles away, her silence as deep a chasm as the distance between them.

‘What are you doing out here?’ His father pulled up a chair beside him.

‘Looking at the stars.’

They sat in comfortable silence for a long while. That was something Konstantinos had always appreciated about his father. He never felt the need to fill silences.

‘Is something on your mind, son?’

He’d thought too soon.

He tried to smile. ‘Nothing important.’

There was more silence, then, ‘Is it that Lena?’

There was nothing malicious about his father’s question but still he found himself bristling at her being referred to asthatLena.

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