He shook his head. ‘We’ve been taking it in turns to sit with her.’
‘Oh, Antonios.’ She rose from her desk and put her arms around him. Antonios pulled her to him as he had before, fitting her body to his. ‘I’m so sorry.’
‘I know.’
They remained in a silent embrace, needing no words. Then Antonios eased back. ‘I’ll need to start making arrangements for the funeral.’
‘Of course. If there is anything I can do—’
He shook his head and left. Lindsay glanced back at her laptop.
Thank you for your email. I am honoured to...
With a sigh, she closed the laptop and went to find Antonios’s sisters.
The funeral was two days later, at the Orthodox church in Amfissa, with a large crowd of townspeople along with all of the family, staff and employees of Marakaios Enterprises. Lindsay saw how Antonios and Leonidas stood apart from each other, their sisters like a barrier between them, as the coffin was lowered into the hard, stony earth.
There was a sombre reception back at the house, painfully reminiscent of Daphne’s name day party, yet without her holding court in the centre of the room.
Lindsay helped organize things in the kitchen, glad to be out of the spotlight and knowing Antonios and his siblings needed time together. Her husband, she saw, was still not talking to Leonidas, never mind attempting some kind of reconciliation.
By the end of the day she was exhausted and aching in body and spirit, grateful to retreat up to their private wing. She hadn’t seen Antonios for the last hour and had assumed he was closeted somewhere with his siblings.