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‘Son …’ Elana sobbed. ‘Demi, please, I only did what I thought was right for us.’

‘Yes, for us, not for me. I don’t think I can ever forgive you.’

‘Please, Demi, don’t say that.’ She reached out for him, but he remained impassive.

They were interrupted by Magda, the housekeeper. ‘You have a visitor,’ she told them. ‘Christian, Níko’s boy.’

‘Send him through,’ Demetrios told her.

Elana was still dabbing at her eyes, composing herself, when Christian came out on to the terrace, but he seemed too preoccupied to notice anything amiss.

‘Is Ari here?’

Demetrios flicked an irritated glance at his mother. ‘Why?’

‘I’m worried about her.’ Christian pushed his hand through his hair. ‘Your boat is missing from the harbour. I saw Ari driving it yesterday afternoon – she came by the boathouse, but she hasn’t returned it to the harbour.’

‘But she is here, no?’ Demetrios turned to Elana.

Elana shook her head, a look of panic in her eyes. ‘I haven’t seen her today. I assumed she was sleeping in after a late night.’

Demetrios called Magda and asked her if Ariana was in her room.

She shook her head. ‘I have not seen her today, and her bed had not been slept in when I cleaned her room.’

‘Shit …’ Christian said, looking more worried. ‘It’s late afternoon.’

‘There is no need to panic, surely,’ Demetrios said. ‘She could have spent the night at a friend’s house. She knows she will be in trouble with me for borrowing the boat, so she is staying out of my way.’

Elana was shaking her head, she felt a blast of cold dread run through her veins.

‘The thing is,’ said Christian, ‘we had a quarrel. She was upset and before I could stop her she took off in the boat. This morning, when I saw the boat was missing, I asked around. A couple of the fishermen said that Ariana had brought it back last night, but then someone else said they’d seen her return after midnight and take it out again.’

The colour drained from Demetrios’s face. ‘This quarrel, what happened?’ he demanded, his eyes blazing. ‘Tell me.’

‘She came to the boathouse and … this is embarrassing …’ He blushed. ‘She tried to seduce me.’

Demetrios leapt forward and grabbed Christian by his T-shirt, ‘If you have harmed her—’

Christian held his hands up, ‘No, boss, of course not. I told her I wasn’t interested, that I thought of her like a little sister. That was when she stormed off.’

Elana moaned. ‘That is worse – don’t you see, Demi, she feels shamed and humiliated.’

Demetrios rounded on his mother. ‘This is your fault, you stupid old woman, filling her head with ideas, always trying to manipulate, to make “alliances”—’

Elana wrung her hands, sobbing. ‘Demi, please, hate me later. Just find Ariana …’

Chapter 33

‘Cheers!’ Shauna clinked her cold glass of retsina against Roxy’s. When they had arrived at the restaurant, Níko had embraced them both like long-lost daughters and insisted on giving them a bottle of his finest wine on the house and serving them himself. He had drawn attention to the table and, for the first time in weeks, Shauna had been asked for her autograph. The fans, a German couple who’d been sitting at a nearby table, chatted politely to her while she signed her name, and then left with big grins on their faces. Luckily, she didn’t think anyone else had noticed.

Alex had been exhausted when they had got back from the beach and had fallen into a deep snooze by the time Shauna had come to get him ready for dinner.

‘You two go, I will look after him for you,’ Delphine, the housekeeper, had told them.

‘He’ll be sad to have missed seeing Grace,’ Roxy said.

‘We’ll make time before we leave tomorrow,’ Shauna promised.