The Sunrise by Victoria Hislop

luck. Markos will keep us informed, won’t you, Markos?’
    She turned to her husband’s right-hand man and he nodded. It was strange. Perhaps because of the charm he exuded towards female guests in the hotel, she had assumed he was single.
    Aphroditi walked away. She had no wish to make further conversation with Markos. It was awkward at the best of times and she could not feign a pleasure she did not feel.
    Moments after she had left, the couple were joined by another man.
    Aphroditi found herself thinking of the encounter all the way to her meeting and well beyond it into the afternoon. For some reason it was disconcerting to have discovered that Markos had a wife, and even more that he was about to be a father. Exactly why it bothered her she could not explain to herself. In the past year she had begun to hope for a child and month by month had been disappointed. Perhaps this was something to do with her reaction.
    The following morning, the phone rang in their apartment. Savvas had left for a meeting at The Sunrise a few hours earlier. It was a man’s voice at the end of the line. British. Aphroditi found herself shaking. Something must have happened to her mother.
    ‘Mrs Papacosta?’
    ‘Yes,’ she said, sinking into the nearest chair. Her legs could not support her. ‘Speaking.’
    ‘It’s George Matthews here. Matthews and Tenby Solicitors.’
    There was a silence on the line. Neither of them knew if the connection had broken, as often happened.
    ‘We met a few months ago when your father’s will was read.’
    Aphroditi needed no reminder.
    ‘Some other papers have come into our hands … Are you still there, Mrs Papacosta?’
    ‘Yes,’ she replied softly, realising that the call did not seem to be about her mother’s health.
    ‘It seems that your father had made changes to the ownership of his companies some time before he died. He transferred everything into your name.’
    ‘But the will …?’
    ‘This was outside of the will.’
    It took Aphroditi a few seconds to take it in. Her father was canny with money and would have known how to maximise her inheritance.
    ‘Your mother must have known and approved of this,’ the solicitor continued.
    There was a long silence from Aphroditi. She realised now that he might even have known he was dying the last time she saw him.
    ‘Mrs Papacosta …?’
    ‘I’m still here … Thanks for letting me know.’
    ‘Would you like any more information?’
    ‘Not at this moment, thank you. Not right now.’
    Aphroditi wanted to tell Savvas. This news would have an enormous effect on their future. It was exactly what her husband had hoped for.
    By the time George Matthews realised that the line really had gone dead, Aphroditi was already in the lift going down to street level.
    She accelerated hard along the straight road to the hotel, turned through the iron gates and pulled up next to her husband’s car. With a racing heart, she ran towards the entrance.
    The angle of the sun on the highly polished glass meant that she saw her own reflection clearly but everything inside was dark. She burst into the foyer and ran straight into Markos, who was on his way out. Her bag went flying, its contents skittering across the floor in a dozen directions.
    Markos had never seen his boss’s wife moving at any speed greater than a dignified walk. Nor had he ever seen her look less than perfectly coiffed and groomed.
    Several members of staff were instantly on their hands and knees, retrieving her possessions from under furniture and in the plants.
    She had not fallen, but her irritation was unconcealed. She snatched her car keys from Markos’ hand.
    ‘Why the
hell
don’t you look where you are going?’ she said.
    He stood silently to one side. He could do nothing but let the injustice pass. Markos had kept count of the number of times she had dismissed him in this way and added this occasion to the score.
    Aphroditi made for the door marked ‘Staff Only’ in the far