Page 35 of Pregnancy Clause in Their Paper Marriage

LANAHADNOidea what to expect as she walked into the foyer of Christos’s family home. Based on what he’d said, and really, what he hadn’t said, she’d been braced for a frosty welcome, or at least a formal one. Christos clearly had become alienated from his family—after his mother’s death? Or later? And why?

What Lana hadn’t expected was for one of his sisters to bustle right up to her, her face lit up with a smile, place her hands on either side of her face and give Lana a smacking kiss on each cheek before enveloping her in a bear hug.

Lana submitted to the hug for a second, completely frozen, utterly shocked, before she managed to put her arms around the unknown sister, although she was already suspecting it was Kristina.

‘Finally, he brings you!’ Kristina exclaimed. She had a strong Long Island accent and was short and round and full of good humour. Lana liked her instantly. Kristina turned to Christos and shook her finger at him. ‘What on earth were you hiding her for? She’s gorgeous.’

‘I wasn’t hiding her,’ Christos replied mildly. He seemed like his usual laid-back self, his smile wry, his stance relaxed, but Lana sensed some dark emotion pulsing underneath. Was Christos’s image—that rueful, smiling, joking entrepreneur—as much of a façade as hers was, that cool, glossy remote persona she donned like armour? Had they both been pretending all along?

It was a surprising and, she realised, actually welcome thought. She wanted there to be more to Christos in the same way there was more to her—and she wanted them to know that about each other.

Nowthatwas not an entirely welcome thought. At least, it was a scary one. She’d never wanted to be known before. She’d made sure she wouldn’t be. And yet here she was, thinking she wanted to be known—and more—by Christos?

‘Come into the kitchen,’ Kristina said, taking her by the hand. ‘We’ve got food—so much food!—and coffee. I want to hear all about you. Every single thing.’

Well, Lana thought wryly as she let herself be led into the heart of the house, if she wasn’t going to be known by Christos, she certainly was by his sister.

The rest of his sisters were waiting in the kitchen, Sophia dressed in a tailored blouse and trousers, her smile warm but cautious, while Thalia—because it had to be Thalia—catapulted across the room in a cloud of dark hair and threw her arms around Christos with a squeal.

Christos had to take a step back for balance as he hugged his sisters back. Lana couldn’t see his face, but she had the sense he hadn’t been expecting this.

‘Why haven’t you come home before now?’ Thalia exclaimed, her face pressed into his shoulder. She was small and slender, dressed in a pair of oversized dungarees and a T-shirt. ‘It’s been years, Christos.Years.’

‘I’ve been busy,’ he replied as he released Thalia. ‘But I’m sorry. I should have come home sooner.’

‘Yes, you should have.’ She wagged a finger at him, seeming playful, but Lana could tell how hurt she was by his absence; her large green eyes were glassy, and her lower lip trembled. She couldn’t be much more than twenty, Lana thought, much younger than she’d expected. Kristina and Sophia both looked to be in their early thirties.

‘Ah, the prodigal son returns.’ A man stepped into the room, looking so much like Christos that Lana thought she knew what her husband would look like in thirty years. He had the same long, lanky frame, although a little less muscular, and his shoulders were slightly stooped. His head of thick, wavy hair was liberally peppered with grey, and there were deep creases by his hazel eyes and from nose to mouth. He smiled at Christos, and Christos gave a jerky nod back, not quite looking at him. The older man’s welcoming smile drooped along with his shoulders, and then he straightened and turned to Lana with another warm smile.

‘I’ve been so looking forward to meeting you.’

Lana glanced at Christos, because she realised she’d never asked him if he’d told his family about their original arrangement, or their newer one. What did they know about the state of Christos’s marriage?

‘And I’ve been looking forward to meeting you,’ she replied, shaking his hand. ‘All of you. Christos has told me about you, so I think I know who you all are. Kristina?’ She glanced at the first sister she’d met, who laughed and clapped her hands. ‘And Sophia?’ Sophia smiled and nodded. ‘And Thalia!’

Thalia nodded, without the smile, and Lana felt a flicker of trepidation. The young woman was looking as if she did not welcome her entry into her brother’s life.

‘Come sit down, sit down,’ Kristina said. ‘And tell us everything. To think, Christos has been married to you for three whole years and never brought you home.’

So, they did know, Lana realised, but how much?

‘We’re here now,’ Christos said, and his tone was just short of brusque, although it didn’t seem to put off Kristina.

‘So you are, so you are,’ she agreed as they all sat down in the adjoining family room, which was comfortable and welcoming, scattered with sofas of cream leather. ‘And we’re very glad of it. We’ve been so curious about the woman who managed to get you to the altar, when there hasn’t been another who has been able to get you to a third date!’ Lana smiled a little at that, and Kristina nodded knowingly. ‘He doesn’t tell us himself, of course, but Thalia reads all the articles about him in the gossip or business magazines. She even has a scrapbook!’

Which seemed slightly obsessive, Lana thought, but she supposed understandable, especially if Christos never came home...and why not? Right now, his absence from their lives felt like a mystery. His family was showing nothing but love for him, and meanwhile he was sitting on the sofa next to her, looking relaxed, yes, but she could feel the tension emanating from him like a force field. He did not want to be here, she realised. At all. And she had no idea why.

She didn’t get any more clues to the answer to that question as they sat and chatted for the next hour, while Kristina plied them with coffee and Greek pastries. She learned that Kristina lived nearby and ran her own bakery in Brookhaven, while Sophia worked remotely for a graphic design company and had a town house in Long Island City, which shocked Lana, because it was only a twenty-minute subway ride from where she and Christos lived. Why had they never had Sophia over? Why had Christos never met up with her in Manhattan?

Thalia, she learned, lived at home with her father Niko, who had retired from banking ten years ago. She was studying online for a degree in art, but Lana got the sense that she wasn’t very interested in her studies. She was twenty-two but she seemed younger, losing interest in the conversation, interrupting people, teasing Christos and then pouting if he didn’t reply right away. Lana found her somewhat exhausting, although she tried not to show it. Christos humoured her, but she could tell he found it hard.

Something about Thalia caused him pain, she realised; she sensed it, with an instinct she hadn’t possessed until recently. She used to never know what Christos was thinking; now she sensed what he was feeling...but she still didn’t understand why.

‘She’s lovely, Christos.’

Christos stiffened as he turned around from the deck railing where he’d been gazing unseeingly out at the yard, mainly to avoid his family after an intense couple of hours. They’d chatted over coffee and cake and every moment had felt like torture. Thalia’s endless needs and demands. Sophia’s quiet censure. Kristina’s determination to make everything seem normal. His father’s sorrowful silence.

He couldn’t take any of it, not any of it, not when guilt still ate him up every time he came home.

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