“What?”
“Pain meds. For my headache. Do you have any?”
“Tia, we need to talk about—”
“Do you have pain meds or not?”
I reached into the bottom of the medicine cabinet and pulled out a new bottle. She took it without looking at me, shook out two pills, and swallowed them dry.
“Tia, please. Talk to me.”
“Aggelé mou?” Santo’s voice came from the hallway. “Where are you?”
She walked past me as if I wasn’t there. Santo stood in the doorway, concern creasing his handsome face as he looked between us.
“I want to go back to Greece. Tonight.”
“Tonight? Aggelé mou…”
“Tonight, Chrys. Please.”
He looked at me, confusion and worry in his dark eyes. I couldn’t speak. Couldn’t move. Could only watch as my daughter walked away from me with her fiancé following behind, asking questions she wouldn’t answer.
12
“Getting cold feet, nephew?” Dimitrios asked, adjusting his bow tie in the mirror.
Chrysanthos snorted. “Absolutely not. I’ve never been more certain of anything in my life.”
I approached him, making a show of examining my tuxedo in the mirror, though my attention remained on Chrysanthos. My only son’s wedding should have filled me with pride, yet I found myself counting down the minutes until the ceremony began.
It had been three months, three weeks, and five days since I saw Dede. Not that I was counting.
“How are you feeling?” I asked.
“Like a man who nearly lost everything and somehow got a second chance.”
Konstantin entered the room, his expression carrying the same grimness that had settled over him for months. The tension between him and Matthaios crackled as my cousin lounged on the chaise near the fireplace, scrolling through his phone with indifference.
“Any news about Simone?” Chrysanthos asked Matthaios.
Matthaios’s jaw tightened. “Nothing. It’s like she disappeared into thin air.”
“Perhaps if you hadn’t destroyed her life, she might still be speaking to you,” Konstantin remarked coldly, pouring himself a drink without offering one to anyone else.
Matthaios’s eyes fixed on Konstantin with dangerous precision. “You should focus on your own non-marriage.”
I understood their pain more than I cared to admit. Lost women. Choices that couldn’t be unmade.
“Enough,” I commanded. “This is my son’s wedding day. Save your squabbling for tomorrow.”
Silence fell immediately. Good.
“Well, never let it be said that a Christakis wedding lacks drama,” Dimitrios announced, helping himself to another whiskey. “Santo, you never mentioned Deanna’s pregnancy.”
My head snapped up before I could control the reaction. “She’s pregnant?”
“It’s not my business,” Chrysanthos shrugged, adjusting his cufflinks again. “Tia’s embarrassed about her parents having another child at her ‘big age’.”
