‘Will you come back tonight?’
‘Every night, if you’ll have me.’
The large house looked less imposing in the white morning light. I couldn’t decide, on the short walk, whether I was excited, or worried to find out about Leo. Or indeed, whether there would be anything to find out. I knocked on the door and it was opened by Panos, who nodded at me and took me straight into the study, where Delphine and Nikos were seated across from each other on small sofas.
Delphine got up, kissed me on the cheek and seated me next to her. ‘I am glad you could come, Anna. We have a lot to talk about.’
Nikos rose and stood in front of an empty fireplace. He spoke formally. ‘Anna, I understand that you would like to know about what Leo said, but there are more important things that you need to know first.’
He stuffed his hands deep into his trouser pockets, which made him at once less imposing, and a little vulnerable.
‘Forty years ago, before you were even born, my father made a decision which has caused more pain than you know. He had three sons, and I am the eldest. When I was twenty-one he said I was to inherit all of the business he had built up, and that the others, just boys really, were to leave and not return on pain of death.’
I threw my hands up to cover my mouth before I blurted anything out. Be quiet, Anna. Listen.
Nikos understood. ‘Yes, your father, Theo, is my middle brother. He went to live in England with Galena, and I have not heard from him since, as our father demanded. The youngest and best of us, Stephanos, went to America and I had not heard from him either. Until now, when his son confronted me on Saturday night.’
‘His son?’ My heart thudded slowly in my head. His son? The blood rushed down to my feet and the room went dark red and then black.
Delphine caught me as I fell forward, and pulled me back up to lie on the sofa. ‘Oh, Anna, breathe deeply,’ she said, and held me round the shoulders until the nausea passed. ‘I didn’t realise you would be so upset.’ She dashed off to the kitchen and brought me water.
Of course, it wasn’t the separation of the brothers that upset me the most, I’d figured out a lot of that on my own, even if I hadn’t known that Dad had brothers, or been sure that his own father had sent him away.
‘Leo is my cousin?’ I stammered, taking a long drink of water to clean the bile from my mouth. I’d slept with my own cousin?
Delphine caught on. ‘Oh my goodness. Yes, I am so sorry. You didn’t know, but neither did he.’ She glanced up at her husband. ‘At least, I don’t think he knew?’
That didn’t help. I felt… dirty. Used. ‘I feel awful,’ I murmured, ‘like I’ve done something really bad.’ A Catholic childhood means the guilt runs deep and long.
Nikos shrugged. ‘That cannot be helped, you were ignorant.’
That was marginally better. Marginally. Then I got a grip and actually listened. ‘I’m your niece,’ I said and shook my head. “Curiouser and curiouser”, thought Alice, and Anna. There didn’t seem to be much left for Dad to hide from me now.
Nikos sighed. ‘At last, you understand.’
Delphine took my hand again. ‘We wanted to tell you after the party, but of course it all went badly wrong. Welcome now,’ she said, ‘welcome to our family.’ And she gave me a squeeze round the shoulders.
Dully, I finished the water, put the glass down carefully on the side table and settled back onto the sofa. I couldn’t think of a single thing to say.
Delphine looked at me anxiously, then at her husband. ‘Niko, perhaps we should have coffee?’
He went to the door and shouted for Eleni to bring coffee, then returned and sat opposite me. ‘I am not proud of what I did all those years ago. I should have stood up to my father. I should have refused to accept his decision and then my brothers would have been able to stand up to him too. But the truth is we were all terrified of him. Only my mother stood firm when he sent my brothers away.’
‘She moved into my little house.’
‘And never set foot in the villa again. She never forgave my father, or me.’ He wiped away a tear. ‘I should not feel sorry for myself, but because of my weakness, I have lost all those years with my family, and now I am getting old and we have no children of our own.’
Delphine interrupted: ‘It was a miracle when you moved into Nyssa’s house. We realised that your mother must have kept in touch with Nyssa when you were a child. And when you arrived, it was as if we were being given a second chance…’
‘A chance to put things right, Anna. To make it right with Theo and Galena.’ Nikos stared at me with such intensity I knew he meant what he said. My dad, exiled all those years over a cruel and hasty decision made by a bully. Perhaps it was time for a reunion after all. I wanted some good to come from this. ‘What do you want with me?’
Nikos cleared his throat. ‘Anna, I want you to be my heir. To inherit my businesses when I retire.’
No, no, no, no. That could not possibly be right. ‘Heir? But you hardly know me.’
‘I don’t need to know you, you are my blood.’
The odd thudding began in my head again. I took a couple of deep breaths and ignored their worried faces. ‘Leo is also your blood. He’s your nephew. What did he want on Saturday night?’
They exchanged a glance. ‘He wants the business,’ said Delphine, ‘but he wants it now. He threatened Nikos with the tax investigators if he doesn’t sign it over and allow Leo to come in and run it all.’
‘I will not do that, Anna,’ Nikos said, thumping a fist into his other hand. ‘I will not give in to this blackmail. I will not give him my life’s work. Why couldn’t he come openly and ask to speak to me? Then, perhaps we could have talked. Now, I will not let him have a penny. I want you to have it all. Will you say yes?’ He took my hands in his. ‘There will be nothing for you to do for many years, God willing, while I am healthy and well. It would mean so much to me to know that all I have worked for has not been a waste.’
I pulled away, stood up, and had to clutch at the arm of the sofa for support. ‘Can I go into the garden for a moment?’ I asked, and headed out through the patio doors behind his desk. It was still morning, although it felt to me as if a month had passed. The whole world had turned the wrong way, and I was struggling to catch up. I could process the Leo thing as an accident, even though it made me squirm. But the rest?
I walked onto the grass of a huge lawn, idly wondered if it was watered from underneath in the summer, and took in the view of the mountains, cool and purple, with snowy caps and deep, shadowy ravines. They had stood, endured, for so many thousands of years, and witnessed so much death, and love and change. All that could happen in our petty little lives made so little difference to them. And here was a little more for them to observe. I’d been itching to know what was going on, and now I had my answer, didn’t I? I would be rich one day. But is that what I wanted? To own that huge business? Never.
Yet again other people were manipulating my life, of course. But surely I could stand up to this? I didn’t want the inheritance, true, but I also didn’t want Leo to have it. At least it was clear now what he’d been up to on his jaunts away, he’d been staking out the fortress and learning what he could about it, ready to go on the attack. I was just an unfortunate coincidence.
My dream, of a simple life with family around me might still come true, however, and that was something to hold onto. The end of the stupid feud could happen; I was sure of that at least. I walked a bit further and stood under a pergola, heavy with bougainvillea, ready to burst.
Finally, I was in a position to change things for myself, and for those I had come to care about. I’d seen how money talked. I made my mind up. I would only agree to inherit if Nikos would do a few things for me before he retired. There were wrongs to be righted.
But that negotiation could come later. For now, I needed to let them know what I had decided. I turned back and saw them standing, hand in hand, side by side on the patio and recognised the same
vulnerability that I had seen in my parents’ eyes as they said goodbye to me a few short months ago. Bereft, they were. So I would do it for them, for my new family and for Mum and Dad, who deserved an end to the feud.
I walked back, and summoned up a smile. ‘Okay, I’ll do it. I would be honoured to be your heir, Niko,’ I said, laughing a little. ‘This is not how I thought my life would turn out, to be honest, but it’s wonderful that I have found my family out here, and I want to share this with my parents, too. I’ll try not to let you down.’
For the first time since I had met him, Nikos enveloped me in a hug. He smelt so much like my father I felt weepy, and clung onto him. It had been a week of shocks, and a body can only take so much. How did I not notice the resemblance between him and Dad the other night at the dinner? And how did I not realise that when Maria questioned Leo about relatives on the island, it was his resemblance to Nikos that had troubled her?
Back inside, calmer than I had been all morning, I saw that coffee and little almond biscuits had been laid out on the side table. Delphine poured while Nikos sat at the desk and completed some paperwork. He called me over and I sat and read every single line, asking for translations where necessary, and getting to grips with exactly what was being offered. It was an enormous fortune, and an enormous responsibility. I drank coffee and ate a biscuit, buying thinking time, while Delphine fussed around me and Nikos rang someone, most likely his lawyer. Finally, I could see no reason to delay further and signed on the dotted line. I felt as if I had lost control of my life yet again. This inheritance would give me power I had never wanted to wield. I just hoped it wouldn’t be for a very long time.
Nikos spoke in Greek too rapid for me to follow properly, but it appeared he was changing his will in my favour. I still felt stunned. How did I get here from where I was two months ago?
‘So,’ I said, still a little shakily, when he came back and sat down opposite me, ‘what did you actually say to Leo at the party?’
‘I told him that I had already chosen an heir, that he would get nothing after coming into my home and threatening me, and that if I saw him again I would set the police on him.’ Nikos pulled back the sleeve of his shirt and showed dark bruises around his wrist. ‘He did not want to take no for an answer. Luckily, I had Panos to help me.’
‘He hurt you?’ I was horrified. How could he?
‘It was nothing.’
Didn’t look like nothing. I had a wobble. ‘Did you mention my name?’
He had the grace to look ashamed. ‘It came out. We were arguing. He called me a liar, saying that I had no other heirs except him and his two brothers. So I told him who you are. I’m so sorry, Anna.’
Delphine saw the shock on my face. She grabbed my hand again. ‘He won’t come back, Anna. He said he was going to do something about it with his big-shot lawyers.’
I felt a little better. ‘Right, he’ll have gone to see his American lawyer in Athens, no doubt. How can you be sure he won’t come harassing me?’
Nikos looked at his feet. ‘I am still alive, so it will be me he wants to damage, or persuade, not you. Thank you, Anna. Thank you for doing this.’ He smiled for the first time that morning, and I saw that there was the possibility for change in his eyes. Perhaps this would work out after all. Or perhaps I was heading straight into danger.
The rest of the day was bizarre. Nikos took me up to the fortress for a grand tour of the business I would one day inherit. I kept wanting to laugh as we passed the two guards who had stopped Alex and me the day before. They were scanning the roads and hillsides, looking for Leo, I guessed. I was hoping they couldn’t see into the black windows of the Lexus.
Nikos led me around the site. He proudly showed me all that he had achieved; the mechanisation of the oil and wine production, the bottling machines and presses, and he told me that he acted as the centre for the co-op of local producers, and that they had pushed up standards across the region.
Delphine went off to organise lunch in the farmhouse and left Nikos to continue the tour. We walked downhill to the fenced-in building business part. It took up a huge section of the land and, as I’d noticed before, was surrounded by barbed wire. ‘Do you have everything here to make a house from beginning to end?’ I asked, impressed.
Nikos’ chest puffed up a little. ‘It is how I like to work. I owe nobody anything. We make as much as we can in-house, and employ local people to do the work.’ He gave a smile at the look of surprise on my face. ‘You have been talking to Maria. She is bitter, and Spiros was out of control. I should never have sent him to speak to the Papadikis boy, but Spiros has a drink problem, and I could not trust him on the machinery anymore.’ He shrugged. ‘I am used to being painted as an evil man, but in truth, many people here are in my employment, and I look after them.’
I couldn’t quite marry up this apparently saintly person with the successful business owner and the ‘monster’ Maria had talked about, but it gave me a way in to ask a difficult question. Walking and talking has always been the best way to do that, I find. ‘I know that you want to punish Spiros for what he did, but what you have really done is destroy Maria, and she had nothing to do with what happened. She has nothing left without the taverna. She will be out on the street, without a job or a home.’ I stopped walking and looked at him. ‘Uncle Niko, change your mind. Better still, give Maria the deeds to the taverna. Give her some reward for all the years she has served you well. Please.’
His mouth dropped open. ‘Give the taverna away? But it brings me income! I’m not a charity, Anna. Be reasonable.’
Reasonable was not in my vocabulary that day. I’d done something huge to help him out, now it was my turn. I waved a hand to encompass all that he owned. ‘You have all this, how can the few thousand that you get from Maria make a difference to you?’
I hadn’t noticed Delphine arriving until she stood by my side. ‘What have I missed?’ she asked.
Nikos gave a rueful laugh. ‘One hour she has been my heir and already she is ruining my profits. She wants me to give Maria the deeds to the taverna.’
Delphine’s eyes sparkled at me. She raised her delicately-arched eyebrows. ‘So, you want Niko to show kindness, and that he can forgive?’
I chose to ignore the sarcastic smile playing on her lips. ‘I do. Exactly. Thank you for understanding. Look, I don’t know how a business like this runs, but I do know about doing what is right, and taking away Maria’s self-respect isn’t right.’
Delphine took my hand so that we stood together against Nikos. ‘So what do you say, husband of mine? Do I dig out the deeds? Will you grant your niece this one wish?’
I watched his face and decided this definitely wasn’t the time to ask for the other wish yet. All in good time.
Nikos rubbed a hand across his eyes and began to lead us back towards the farmhouse.
I held my breath. So did Delphine, who kept squeezing my hand.
‘Okay,’ he said, after sixty-two paces. I counted. ‘I will do this. But I do not want to look weak. What if other tenants refuse to pay their rent, am I expected to just let it go? To be kind? Kind and poor, eh? Is that how you want me?’
‘Oh, thank you. Thank you, Uncle Niko. Yes, be kind this time because when you’re fair, then people see it as a kindness, not a weakness and they won’t take advantage. It’s similar to what Delphine and I are doing for the Andreanakises. Restitution is a strong thing to do, not a sign of weakness.’ I hoped.
Delphine laughed her tinkling laugh. ‘She has you there, Niko. Let’s eat, and we can talk about Maria and the taverna for a little while, and I’ll tell you all about the new Andreanakis house and what has been done so far.’
So we did. And I felt better than I had in several stressful days. He wasn’t a monster at all, my uncle. He just needed reminding about how to be a human being as well as a businessman. And I was beginning to enjoy my role as Kissamos’ own Mother Teresa, too, even though I had no idea how far I could push Nikos before he said no.
After a late lunch, which had been simple salads, cold meats, cheeses and bread, Nikos phoned his lawyer again, and arranged to have the deeds transferred over to Maria, but not to Spiros. I wanted her to have something of her own. Something that he couldn’t drink away.
Later, when I took a moment to myself, I rang Alex and told him about my day, and he was just as excited as me about the taverna and Maria. ‘But don’t say anything, Alex, I want to talk to her after she has received the paperwork, and knows that it’s true.’
He laughed. ‘Are you feeling good about this? I can hear the excitement in your voice. It seems you have tamed the dragon in his den!’
‘Hmm, we shall see. I have another request for him, and he may not feel so good about that. Anyway, will I see you later? We had a late lunch, but I could do us a supper if you came over around eight?’
‘Lunch? Is it past lunchtime? Oh, I have missed it again. Yes, I’ll get a sandwich now, and see you then. I love you, Anna.’
He said it. He said it. I whispered, ‘Love you too,’ back at him and ended the call, heart pounding. I hadn’t said those words in almost ten years. ‘Please don’t let me mess this up,’ I muttered and made my way back into Nikos’ office, ready to be driven home.
‘I want to stop at my very special vineyard on the way home, if that is okay?’ asked my uncle.
Who was I to disagree? I hoped the visit would result in us having a glass of wine or two. I felt like celebrating. The shock of the first part of the day had faded enough for me to understand that not much in my life would change for the time being, and I had plenty of time to formulate the nebulous idea I had floating about in my head. An idea that might just help Tinos. Which was the other thing that Nikos had to put right.
23
It was after seven when Nikos dropped me and two boxes of wine from his vineyard outside the house. He helped me unload but I refused his offer to take it into the kitchen. I said goodbye to them both on the doorstep, and all the awkwardness of earlier in the day was gone. I was simply saying goodbye to my aunt and uncle.
Those You Trust: compelling women's psychological fiction Page 17