PROLOGUE
May... Infinity Island, Greece
SOMETIMES SHE FELT as though there was nowhere she truly belonged.
And sometimes she enjoyed the freedom that allowed her.
Other times, like now, Stasia Marinakos wanted a clear path in life.
She’d had one not so long ago. Suddenly, that life had been brutally wrenched from her grasp. Though with each passing day, she was learning to live with the loss, allowing herself to smile again and forcing herself to remember that she was still living and breathing.
For the almost two years since her husband passed, Stasia had been focused on fulfilling his last wishes, tending to his estate and piecing together the broken pieces of her heart. But now that was complete. All of his wishes had been fulfilled, except one.
As she sat at one of the tables at the Hideaway Café, her gaze moved across the table to her brother. She knew if she opened up to him he wouldn’t understand. He would try to tell her what to do with her life and she didn’t want that. She needed to find her own answers.
Xander thought she should be cautious with her money and with her life. He wasn’t anxious for her to move on, which she found interesting considering he hadn’t liked her husband in the beginning. In fact, Xander had vehemently disapproved of him until just before Lukos found out that he was sick—
Stasia halted her thoughts. She didn’t want to go down that road. She needed to focus on the here and now. It was the only thing she could control.
“What am I supposed to do with this?”
Stasia held up a cruise ship ticket while sending her big brother a puzzled look. She didn’t have time for a vacation. Now that she was on her own, with no husband and no other family besides Xander, who now had a wife and baby, she needed to pull herself together and carve out a life for herself. That had to be her priority. As it was, she’d put it off for too long.
“Use the ticket and go on vacation.” Xander frowned at her as though he was concerned about her.
She shoved the ticket back across the table. “I don’t have time—”
“Sure you do.” Xander wasn’t a man used to hearing the word no. “Now that our real-estate deal fell apart—of which I am sorry—you have all the time in the world.” He sent her a reassuring smile. “And don’t worry. By the time you get back, I’ll have a new deal lined up that we can go in on together.”
How did she tell him that she no longer wanted to be involved in a deal without hurting his feelings? After all, she was the one who had come up with the idea of them working together in the first place. He’d initially been resistant to the idea, but she’d kept after him until he’d finally given in.
Of course, she’d had some help getting him to change his mind—Roberto Carrass, her brother’s best friend, who’d recently been elevated to the role of business partner. He’d sided with her, convincing Xander to let her be a part of the business.
Stasia pulled her thoughts back to the relevant subject. “I don’t want you going into a deal because you think it’ll suit me.” When he didn’t respond, she raised her voice just enough to gain his attention. “Xander, you aren’t listening to me.”