'Damon is Greek,' Sarah had reminded her gently. 'His culture, his background and his upbringing are bound to differ greatly from yours. If you really love him, Callie.. .all that goes with the territory.'Sarah surfaced from the past and found herself perched on a bench in the park down the road from the hospital. To think that all those months ago she had actually been relieved to hear Damon mentioning the necessity of obtaining his brother's approval before he could marry!
Alarm bells had only really gone off the day she'd caught the name Terzakis on the evening news and glimpsed a forbiddingly handsome male, surrounded by executives and cameras, refusing to comment on his acquisition of some company in New York. She had bought a serious newspaper the next day on the way into work and she had read all about Alexis Terzakis with growing consternation. That evening she had rung Callie and asked her to come home for a night. Callie had come with bad grace, demanding to know what all the fuss was about.
'You said that Damon was running his family's hotel in Oxford,' Sarah had reminded her. 'What you didn't say was that the Terzakis family are billionaires!'
'Alex is the billionaire,' Callie had said drily. 'Damon just gets pocket money.'
'I thought Damon's family were hoteliers-----'
Callie had burst out laughing. 'Sarah, you are dumb! Don't you ever read the business columns? Damon's family own a shipping line, an international string of hotels, engineering plants, finance companies... you name it, they own it!'
Sarah had been disturbed. She had genuinely had no idea that her sister's boyfriend was from so wealthy a background. Damon had seemed very unassuming. He had settled that evening into their shabby lounge without a shade of discomfort. She remembered Callie referring to her own job as secretarial and quickly dismissing the subject.Actually Sarah was a humble filing clerk in a big anonymous office and she had not climbed the ladder any higher because the frequency with which she had held down two jobs had meant that she had no time to spare for evening classes. Sarah had spent countless evenings over the past seven years waitressing or cleaning for extra money to stretch their tight budget.
She had tried not to feel hurt that evening she'd first met Damon when Callie had asked her in advance not to mention those latter sources of income. Callie had been embarrassed by her sister's acceptance of such low-grade employment. And, sadly, Sarah had understood. Callie had always wanted to be somebody and that vein of insecurity had been stirred when she'd found herself mixing with students from far more comfortable backgrounds than her own. She hadn't wanted anyone to know that the source of the cheap but fashionable clothes she wore with such panache had been a sister, who regularly cleaned office blocks after closing time.
And now Callie was gone. Sarah raised trembling hands to her face as if she could somehow contain the anguish inside her. She could not imagine life without Callie. Callie with her raw energy, boundless untidiness and quick temper. Callie had been born when Sarah was six. Sarah, a quiet, rather lonely child, had delighted her parents by displaying not the smallest atom of jealousy. She had been enchanted by her baby sister. She had read her stories, picked her up when she fell over, taught her nursery rhymes before she started school and later helped her with her homework. With two parents working full-time, there had been plenty of opportunity for Sarah to fill in the gaps in Callie's days when their mother was too tired or too busy.
'Miss Hartwell.'
Sarah lifted her aching head like a sleepwalker and focused on Alex Terzakis in disbelief. He looked alien against the backdrop of the scruffy park.'Allow me to offer you a lift home,' he drawled flatly.
Sarah burst out laughing, hysteria clawing like insanity at her cracking composure. Abruptly she covered her working face again, stricken that he of all people should see her in such a state. Dear lord, what did this barbarian want from her now. Couldn't he even leave her to grieve in peace?
Only a couple of hours had passed since she had been bundled unceremoniously from her sister's bedside and the crash team had attempted to get her sister breathing again. It had happened so fast and they had tried so hard. But Callie, once the leading light of her school athletics team, had died of a massive coronary, just days off her nineteenth birthday. Sarah had been shattered but she had been totally devastated by what she'd learnt from the consultant gynaecologist afterwards.
Early in her pregnancy, Callie had been warned that she had a weak heart. Routine testing had revealed what nobody had ever had any cause to suspect. She had been advised to have a termination and she had refused. She had not shared any of that with her sister. Sarah had been surprised by the sheer frequency of Callie's antenatal appointments but she had had no idea that there was anything wrong.