The next day they had received a request from their doctor to meet with him and later they had once again found themselves seated in his sterile white office, this time listening to the devastating results of the tests.
“I’m sorry Miss Lane” he had spoken, his voice almost fatherly.
“The cancer is at an advanced state and the lymph system has caused it to spread throughout your system. We have found secondary signs all over, including within your lungs, which is why you are coughing so much.”
Mina had felt her whole world collapsing at his words, fear clutching at her stomach as the room had spun alarmingly. She had cried out in pain.
“No…no…you must be wrong” her eyes pleading with the doctor to tell her that he was mistaken, that it was somebody else’s file he was looking at.
“It…it must be a mistake”. She had repeated over and over before her head had flown to the side as she had felt the soft hand of her mother’s cover hers. Her eyes had flown to look at the small woman who sat so calm and serene her hand patting Minas softly in reassurance as her daughter had sobbed uncontrollably, her face not able to hide the shock and fear of what she had just learnt. With a soft reassuring smile her mother had looked back to the doctor.
“What can be done” all she had asked as the older kindly man had looked unwaveringly back at the regal woman comforting her daughter before him.
“I’m sorry… the cancer being where it is and how far it has already spread…there is nothing that we can do”
Without even blinking her mother had continued so calmly.
“I see…How long do I have?” the soft answer causing her to nod in understanding.
“No more than six months”.
Mina had remembered how she had sat, her mouth opened, tears streaming down her face the whole situation so surreal to her, like a bad dream.
“Six months!” she had moaned her voice cracked and barely audible “So little”.
For the next few days her mother had been the strong one, making plans and helping Mina to come to terms with the situation. It had been a few days later when unable to sleep, Mina had found her crying, holding onto a pile of photos, photos showing two smiling faces by a pool at a Grecian villa. In those pictures she had seen her mother, so beautiful, smiling at her father with such love in her eyes.
Between tears her mother had told her the story of how they had met and fallen in love. How happy she had been at the villa and how it had been the happiest home she had ever lived in. At that point Mina had vowed to somehow let her mother spend the rest of her life back in the one place she had been most happy promising herself to somehow make this one thing happen.
After some research she had discovered that the villa was still a rental property and that it was ready to be leased in a month’s time. Using all her savings and remortgaging the home they shared she had been able to pay the first month’s seventy five thousand pounds rental fee. Knowing that she needed more, a lot more, she had then done the one thing she had always vowed never to do, contact her father’s family for financial help.
Finding out about the Dupris family had been fairly simple given how much was written about them on the Internet. She had discovered that Alexander’s wife had died six months before he had in a car accident and that it was Nikos Dupris who ran the Dupris Empire. She had read story after story of his ruthless business dealings, along with the many stories of his romantic entanglements.
The pictures of the 30 year old had shown how handsome he was, but they had in no way prepared her for the sheer presence of the man. Even now she could feel those icy grey eyes as they seemed to bore deeply into her soul holding her immobile like a butterfly skewered to a board. The smell of his musky aftershave also rushing back to her, making her shiver despite the searing heat of the sun beating down, the memory strangely pleasurable to the young woman.
Only now did Mina realise that she had stopped her drawing, lost in her thoughts, and with a small laugh she had re-focused her attention to the landscape before her.
Moving into the pool area, Nikos Dupris had perused the scene smiling softly at the laughing children and ignoring the looks of the many young women as they threw him flirtatious smiles. Nikos was well used to the attention of women, and much more sophisticated ones than these he had thought, his eyes continuing to scan the area.
With a frown he had failed to spot the woman he had come to find, and had summoned a waiter with a flick of his hand, the man instantly rushing over to him, recognising power when he saw it, smiling as the tall man had asked if he knew where Miss Lane could be found. The waiter had nodded pointing to where Mina sat, hidden beneath the hat and glasses, smiling wider as he was tipped handsomely.