Read Chapter One Part One here
Read Chapter One Part Two here
Read Chapter One Part Three here
Chapter Two
Part One
Thunderstruck, Jonathan didn’t even blink or say a word when Eleanna bent
down and laid a kiss on his cheek. He sat there motionless, watching as she
left the pub.
When the waiter came by to ask
him if he needed anything else, Jonathan jumped. He glanced at his watch. Surprised
to find it was already ten o’clock, he paid for the drinks and hurried outside.
The rain had stopped, and the sky had cleared up. As tangled thoughts kept his
mind spinning, he decided to walk home. The soft night breeze would help him
clear his head. Something didn’t seem right about this whole deal, and he
wanted to find a way to change Eleanna’s mind about going to Skopelos.
About
an hour later, when he’d finally made it to his apartment, he still hadn’t reached any conclusions. Hoping that Eleanna
would see things more reasonably, he decided to talk to her first thing in the
morning.
***
Even though office hours were
nine to five, it was only seven thirty when
Jonathan stepped off the elevator onto the thirteenth floor. Eleanna was
already at the office. He strode to her cubicle, and, seeing her face relaxed and some color back in her cheeks, Jonathan
felt optimistic. Everything is going to
work out fine, he reassured himself for the hundredth time.
“Good morning, Eleanna,” he said
cheerfully. “How are you feeling today?”
“Good morning, Jonathan.” Eleanna
looked up from the pile of files on her
desk with a fragile smile. “I’m doing fine, thank you. I wanted, though, to
apologize for last night…for getting up
and leaving like that. I was under a lot of stress.”
“I understand—you don’t have to
apologize. I’m only glad that you’re feeling better. I’m sure now that you’ve thought
about it more clearly, you can see that
there’s no point in you going to Greece.”
“Oh, but I am going to Greece! Why
can’t you just try to understand? I’m having a hard enough time as it is, and I
would appreciate if you didn’t make things any harder for me.”
“But Eleanna, I’m only thinking
about you. What are you going to do in a foreign place, where you don’t know
anybody? That’s crazy!”
“Jonathan, please… I have to do
this. Don’t you understand? If I don’t, I would never know anything about my father.
I’ve been wondering my entire life about what he was like. Maybe over there I’ll get some answers and maybe not. But
still, either way I have to try.”
Determination was written all over her face,
and Jonathan couldn’t do anything else but go along with her. He felt the
uncontrollable urge to take her into his arms and protect her from the whole world but fought hard to restrain himself. He
had to support her in this decision. She had already made up her mind, and to
keep on nagging her would only cause problems in their relationship. And he
didn’t want that at all—especially now that she was about to fly out to some
foreign island, and God only knew when she was coming back.
“Besides,” she continued, “I was
right about the letter. It was pretty close, but not my father’s handwriting,
after all.”
“That makes me even more worried,”
Jonathan said, drawing a deep breath. “I don’t want you going over there alone.”
“I’ll be fine!” Eleanna stubbornly
sprang to her feet.
Jonathan watched her until she disappeared
around the corner toward Henry Mark’s office, before walking back to his.
***
A few minutes later, Eleanna walked
out of her boss’s office feeling like a weight had been lifted off her
shoulders. Even though he seemed fond of her, she was worried about how he was
going to react to her leaving on such short notice for an undefined period of time. However, Mr. Marks didn’t
refuse the leave of absence she requested. Even
though, like Jonathan, he pointed out that the inheritance could be handled
without Eleanna having to fly to Greece when he saw how strongly she felt about
it, he gave his consent. She also apologized for leaving the office so
abruptly the day before.
Eleanna was relieved to have this
part over with. She liked her job and
didn’t want to cause any problems. But going to Greece was something that she absolutely had to do.
Reaching her cubicle, she sank into
her chair and let out a deep breath. Her thoughts flew to Jonathan. He was
always so sweet and tentative to her, and Eleanna felt guilty about the way she’d
behaved. She had been selfish and didn’t
think for a moment how he’d felt about her going to Greece. She was no fool; she
knew the way he felt about her. And she was very fond of him too. But she saw
him more as a friend than anything
else—there was no sparkle, no fire there. Well,
these things only happen in the movies, she reprimanded herself. But no
matter what, she didn’t want to rush things between them. Friendship was all
she could offer him right now, and this was all she wanted from him too.
Traveling to Greece was something
that had always been in the back of her mind. Deep down inside, she always knew
that there’d come a time when she’d have to go to Greece and face whatever fate
had in store for her there.
“What’s wrong with me?” she
snapped to herself. “Why do I have this feeling that I’m never coming back?”
“Did you say something?” Samantha
asked, raising her head from a document she was reading.
“I was just talking to myself,”
Eleanna admitted.
Pull yourself together. This whole thing had gotten her all upside down. Then again, it was like
something inside her was drawing her to Greece. She’d never been a wanderer—as a matter of fact, she’d never traveled
anywhere. Well, my trip from Greece to
England doesn’t count since I was only a baby and can’t remember a thing.
And now, she was returning to the country
she was born in, where she knew nobody and probably already had at least one
enemy—the man who wanted to buy her out.
***
Read Chapter Two Part Two here
If you can't wait, the book is available at:
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