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CHAPTER ONE
MAX VASILIKOS LOWERED his tall frame into the leather chair by the desk and relaxed back into it, his long legs stretching out in front of him
‘OK, what have you got for me?’
His UK agent handed hiood contenders here, Mr Vasilikos,’ he said hopefully to thisof clients
Max’s dark eyes glanced briefly, and then he found his gaze lingering on only one of the properties
An English country house, in war over the porch, surrounded by verdant gardens and sheltering woodland, with a glimpse of a lake beyond the lawn Bathed in sunshine, the whole place had an appeal that held his gaze,
He picked up the brochure and shifted his gaze to his agent
‘This one,’ he said decisively
Ellen paused in the hallway She could hear her step room
‘This is exactly what I’ve been hoping for! And I will not have that wretched girl trying to spoil it—again!’
‘We’ve just got to hurry up and sell this place!’
The second voice came from Ellen’s stepsister, Chloe, petulant and displeased
Ellen’s htened She was all too aware of the source of their displeasure When Pauline had hter, Chloe, had had only one aim—to spend his money on the luxury lifestyle they craved for themselves Now all that was left, after years of their lavish spending, was the house they had jointly inherited with Ellen after her father’s sudden death last year from a heart attack—and they couldn’t wait to sell it That it was Ellen’s hoenerations, bothered thehtest
Their hostility towards her was nothing new Frohter had treated Ellen with co around ‘like an elephant’, as they always described her—possibly compare with slender, petite and oh-so-pretty Chloe?
She clumped down the rest of the stairs deliberately now, to drown out their voices It sounded, she thought grimly, as if her stephton Despite knowing she would need to resort to legal action against her stepdaughter in order to force a sale through, Pauline obdurately kept the house on the market, and relentlessly went on at Ellen to try to wear down her resistance and force her to agree to sell up
But Ellen’s heart had steeled in that first winter without her father, when her step themselves expensively in the Caribbean She would make it as difficult as she could for Pauline to sell her beloved home—the home Ellen had been happy in until the terrible day herher father spiralling into a grieving tailspin of loneliness that had erously vulnerable to entrapment by Pauline’s avaricious ambitions
As Ellen walked into the drawing room two pairs of ice-blue eyes went to her, their joint expressions openly hostile