‘Where have I gone?’
‘You’ve taken a hire car.’ Elena’s bottom lip quivered. Her eyes brimmed with the glitter of tears as she played her role with breathless innocence and trembling perfection. ‘You’re driving towards Karpathos. To visit your mother’s grave.’
Thea had wanted to go before the wedding. Her father had refused to allow it. Try as he might, he’d never excised her mother’s memory from her life, so her visiting there would make sense to him. It was a subtle mix of truth and fiction blended into a believable enough concoction.
Still. It didn’t feel right.
‘I hate using Mama’s memory this way.’
Elena shook her head. ‘Maria would have approved. Anything to get you away from men like those. But forget that. Was I good enough?’
‘You should become an actress,’ Thea said. ‘After that flawless performance Christo’s minions will definitely head south looking for me.’
‘And you’ll be starting your new life.’ Elena smiled—her first display of happiness on this bleak day. ‘Can’t you tell me where you’re going?’
‘No. It’s safer this way.’ It would protect Elena as much as herself in the little time they had.
Thea grabbed her motorcycle helmet from the chair behind her, hesitating.
‘How in Hades am I going to get this over my stupid hair?’
All that teasing and plaiting... The style had taken aeons to create, with the hairdresser cooing over what would be a wasted effort.
Elena pulled at a few of the sculpted curls. ‘It’ll take an hour to get rid of these pins!’
‘No time for that. I’ll squash the helmet over the top somehow. How much time have we spent already?’
Elena checked her watch. ‘We haven’t been long. Anyhow, they’re too busy drinking your father’s ouzo to care. Everyone’s going to think you’re spending ages to look beautiful for Christo. And once you leave they’ll have to go—which none of them want.’
It was the sad truth. Thea had no idea who most of the people at the wedding were. Business associates, she suspected. More deals and alliances being sealed over the carcass of her blighted union. Vultures, the lot of them. They were interested in the food, the alcohol, the spectacle.
‘I’ll never forget what you did for me. When it’s safe, I’ll try to let you know where...’
Thea swallowed the lump tightening her throat. There were few people she loved. Elena. Alexis. The thought of leaving them crushed her.
Elena waved her away. ‘I’m holding you to that. One day when we’re both grandmothers we’ll drink coffee together and laugh about today,’ she said, searching through a bag, then thrusting Thea an envelope. ‘Don’t forget this. Passport. Money. Bank details. It’s all there. Now, go! Be happy.’
Thea hesitated. She slipped her hand into her jacket pocket and rubbed the worn St Christopher medal on its fine chain, safely nestled there. Then she grabbed her padded gloves and secreted rucksack, moving to slip out of the door at the back of the room, which led to the alley where her motorcycle was hidden.
The door was usually kept locked, but she’d been able to charm the manager of the venue into leaving it unsecured for a fictional delivery. A surprise for the groom.
‘Wait!’ Elena squeaked.
Thea whipped around, her heart pounding with the electric spike of adrenalin. They’d been discovered?
All she saw was her friend, a slender shape framed by the light from the doorway behind.
‘What?’
‘Rings!’
How could she have forgotten her engagement ring? The dead weight of the baguette diamond. Huge. Impossible to miss. And her wedding ring wasn’t far behind, with its twinkling encrustation of pure white gemstones. Her husband’s mark. His claim.
Thea prised the pair of them from her finger and handed them to her friend. Now she was free.
Time to go.
‘And that is where this absurd charade ends.’