Greek Doctor: One Magical Christmas. Meredith Webber

      PROLOGUE

      ‘SO I DON’T know what to do!’

      Mak stared at his only sister in disbelief.

      Never in his life had he heard this strong-willed, determined, driven woman admit such a thing.

      ‘Have you talked to her?’

      Helen shook her head.

      ‘I’ve written, I’ve sent emails, and heard nothing in reply. I can hardly just go out there and land on her doorstep. What if she shut the door in my face? Besides, it’s impossible for me to get away. Since Dad’s death I’ve been running the business and trying to keep Mum going—you know how she is—the two deaths coming so close together, it’s as if she’s given up living. Look at Christmas—her Christmas productions rivalled the Oscar presentations. Feast and family, that was her mantra. This year she’s doing nothing and when I suggested I do it, she just shrugged.’

      Mak was still puzzled. Yes, Helen was busy and, yes, his mother did seem to have understandably lost her zest for life, but did that add up to so much consternation? Wouldn’t time—?

      ‘There’s also the cousins,’ Helen muttered.

      Ah!

      He waited for Helen to explain, knowing she would, eventually.

      It came with a sigh.

      ‘The cousins are doing their best to take control of the business and if we lose control of Hellenic, Mum will have to watch all Dad built up go into other hands. She’ll feel as if his whole life was for nothing.’

      While Helen paced the office at the top of Hellenic Enterprises city headquarters, Mak considered what he’d just learned. With his father’s blessing, he’d gone into medicine rather than following the parental footsteps into engineering, but as well as Helen, half a dozen of his cousins, children of his father’s sisters, had entered the family firm.

      And held shares in it!

      He frowned, realising that, although still part of the company, he knew less and less of what went on within it these days, his studies and work leaving him little time to read the company reports. And his father’s unexpected death had left him with a lot of problems to sort out, as he was the executor of his father’s personal estate.

      ‘Can they take over? I mean, do they have the power to do that—the majority of shares between them? And what would it mean if they did?’

      ‘They can if they get that woman to vote with them in the extraordinary general meeting they’ve called for January, and the way they are talking they already have her vote in the bag.’

      ‘You know this for certain?’ Mak asked, aware of the bias Helen felt against ‘that woman’.

      ‘I’m pretty sure and equally sure money has changed hands. Con was out there just last week, ostensibly to check on the experimental power plant but he’s never been interested in geo-thermal power before.’ Helen hesitated before adding, ‘And there was a rather large item in his expenses, listed as a donation.’

      Mak felt himself frowning.

      ‘Did you ask him about it?’

      ‘How could I?’ Helen muttered. ‘I shouldn’t have seen the information—not until the next board meeting when we all table our expenses.’

      ‘You were spying on him?’ Mak couldn’t hide his disbelief.

      ‘I was not—it was just that Marge, Dad’s old secretary, alerted me to it as she typed up the agenda.’

      Which was the same as spying, Mak considered, but that wasn’t the issue right now.

      ‘Maybe Con really was checking on the power plant, and the donation was just that. After all, he’d hardly bribe the woman with the firm’s money.’

      ‘Well, he wouldn’t use his own,’ Helen snapped. ‘You don’t know Con

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