Bound To Her Greek Billionaire. Rebecca Winters

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СКАЧАТЬ trying to do her usual job, but her mind and heart hadn’t been there. When she did have to leave the hotel for any reason, she’d felt accusatory stares coming in all directions and avoided any publicity if she could help it.

      Thankfully this was over and there’d be an end to the malicious talk that he’d been murdered. Hopefully everything would die down, but where did she go from here? Lys felt like she’d been driving her car when the steering wheel had suddenly disappeared, leaving her to plunge over a cliff. She was so heartbroken she could hardly think.

      While in this state, the phone rang. Lys turned over to look at the caller ID. It was Xander Pappas, Nassos’s attorney. She picked up and learned that he’d be in Nassos’s private office at the hotel in a half hour to talk to her. The detective had already been in touch with him.

      “I have something important to give you.”

      She sat up in surprise. “Will Danae be meeting with us?” Lys longed to talk to her.

      “No. We’ve already spoken and I’ve read her the will. She’ll be calling you about the funeral.”

      “I see.”

      Stabbed with fresh pain, Lys thanked him and hung up. If there hadn’t been a divorce, she and Danae would have planned his funeral together. Now everything had changed. More tears gushed down her cheeks before she got off the bed to freshen up.

      Of course she hadn’t expected to be present at the reading of the will and hadn’t wanted to be. Danae had been married to Nassos for twenty-four years. That business was between the two of them.

      A few minutes later she left for the corporate office downstairs. On the way, she couldn’t help but wonder what Xander wanted to give her. Nassos couldn’t have known when he would die, so she couldn’t imagine what it was.

      After nodding to Giorgos, the annoying general manager of the hotel, she walked in to Nassos’s private office. The attorney greeted her and told her to sit down.

      “I have two items to give you. Both envelopes are sealed. You’ll know what to do after you open the envelope marked Letter first. Nassos wrote to you at the time he divorced Danae.” He put both envelopes on the desk.

      She swallowed hard. Nassos had written something that recently? “Have you read it?”

      “No. He gave me instructions to give them both to you upon his death, whenever that would be. Who would have imagined he’d die this early in his life? I’ll miss him too and am so sorry since I know how close you two were. I’ll leave now. If you have any questions, call me at my office.”

      After he left the room, Lys reached for the envelope and pulled out the letter with a trembling hand. She knew Nassos’s handwriting. He wrote with a certain panache that was unmistakable.

      My dearest little Lysette,

      Immediately her eyes filled with more tears.

      I’ll always think of you that way, no matter how old you are when you read this letter. You’re the daughter I never had. Danae and I couldn’t have children. The problem was mine. I found out early in our marriage that I was infertile. It came as a great shock, but I’d dreamed of having children, so I wanted to adopt. She didn’t, and I could never talk her into it. I decided she didn’t love me enough or she would have agreed to try because I wanted children more than anything.

      Six months ago, Xander let me know that he knew of a baby we could adopt. I went to Danae and begged her. It could be our last chance, but she still said no. In my anger I divorced the woman I loved and always will. Now I’m paying for it dearly because I don’t believe she’ll forgive me.

      You need to know that you were never the reason for our marital troubles. I ruined things at the beginning of our marriage by making an issue that she stay at home. I insisted she quit her job because I was raised with old-fashioned ideas. I was wrong to impose them on Danae. She’s very much a modern woman and a part of me resented the fact that she couldn’t be happy at home.

      Please realize that your coming to us helped keep our marriage together and deep down she knows it. I’m afraid it was because of my damnable pride—my greatest flaw—nothing more, that made me divorce her, so never ever blame yourself. If I was hard on you because of the men you dated, it was only because of my desperate fear you might end up in a bad marriage with a man who didn’t value you enough. Danae felt the same way.

      Forgive us if we hurt you in any way.

      “Oh, Nassos—” Lys cried out in relief and anguish.

      You have a massive inheritance from your father that will be given to you on your twenty-seventh birthday. He dictated that specific time in his will to make sure you’d be mature enough when you came into your money.

      Lys was incredulous. She’d thought it had all been incorporated into the Rodino empire. Nassos would have deserved every euro of it.

      Again, I have no idea how old you are now that I’m dead. I suspect you’re a very wealthy woman, hopefully married with children, maybe even grandchildren. And happy!

      As you will have found out from Danae, she inherited everything with one exception...the hotel is your inheritance from me to own and run as you will.

      Lys reeled physically and clung to the arms of the chair.

      No. It wasn’t possible. The hotel should have been given to Danae, who understood the hotel business very well. It was Nassos who’d hired her away from another hotelier to come and work for him twenty-four years ago. How sad that even after his death, Nassos couldn’t allow her to continue in a career she’d enjoyed.

      Lys’s eyes closed tightly for a moment.

      Danae hadn’t contacted Lys yet. There hadn’t been time. How could Nassos have done this to the woman he’d loved? Wiping her eyes, she went on reading.

      But you’re not the sole owner, Lys.

      What? The shocks just kept coming.

      Before you take possession, you must give the sealed envelope to Takis Manolis. You’ve heard me and Danae talk about him often enough. When he came to Crete periodically, we’d discuss business on my yacht where we could be private. I never did believe in mixing my business matters with my personal life. The two don’t go together.

      You’ll know where to find him when the time comes. The two of you will share ownership for six months. After that time period, you’ll both be free to make any decisions you want.

      By the time you read this, he’s probably married with children and grandchildren too. I’ve thought of him as the son I never had.

      It was my thrill and privilege to be your guardian, friend and adoptive father for the child of my best friend Kristos.

      Love always,

      Nassos.

      * * *

      You can’t go home again.

      Whoever coined the phrase was wrong. Yes, you could go home again.

      In the last eleven years, Takis Manolis had made four trips a year to Crete and nothing had changed... Not the pain, not СКАЧАТЬ