AllFreeNovel
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Somewhere fit for a billionaire, no doubt. An enormous mansion or a glossy penthouse with a view of the sea.
The sort of place designed to showcase a thoroughbred woman dressed in designer silk, sipping her drink while she awaited the Greek Tycoon’s pleasure.
Ella chewed her lip anxiously. Not the sort of place for a penniless nurse wearing a dress she’d found in a charity shop. And the Greek Tycoon’s pleasure wasn’t going to be cheese on toast.
Since the death of his wife he’d avoided commitment, and she couldn’t risk being with a man like that, could she?
She’d made the right decision. For both of them.
The waiting room was crowded with children, a baby was crying and a toddler was using the chairs as a climbing frame.
Kelly, one of the staff nurses from the main emergency department, was standing at the reception desk, looking stressed.
She glanced up with relief as Ella approached. ‘I don’t know how you do this,’ she muttered. ‘I mean, the patients are all too young to tell you what’s going on. It’s all guesswork. And the noise—’
‘Have you seen Nikos?’ Ella interrupted her swiftly, and the other nurse shook her head.
‘He’s up with the general manager, thrashing out some problem or other.’
Ella didn’t hesitate. ‘I need you to call him, Kelly. Tell him there’s a patient he needs to see immediately.’
Kelly laughed nervously. ‘You’re kidding, right? You want me to interrupt a meeting between the chief executive and the Greek god?’
‘Don’t call him that.’ Uncharacteristically irritable, Ella reached for the phone. ‘I’ll do it myself.’ She dialled the switchboard and was instantly put through to the chief executive’s office, where she was told he couldn’t be disturbed for the next ten minutes.
Ella glanced at the clock on the wall and thought of Harry, listless and quiet on his mother’s lap.
It wasn’t natural for a two-year-old boy to be listless and quiet.
What if ten minutes was too long?
‘I need to speak to Professor Mariakos now,’ she said firmly. ‘Not in ten minutes.’ Ignoring Kelly’s awed look, she waited in suspense and then finally Nikos’s deep male tones came down the phone.
‘Mariakos.’
‘Nikos, I need you to see a child,’ she said quickly, feeling the colour pour into her face. What if he snapped at her for disturbing him?
But he didn’t.
He simply said ‘I’ll be right there,’ and replaced the phone before she could respond.
‘You’re brave,’ Kelly muttered. ‘Girlfriend’s prerogative, I suppose.’
‘I’m not his girlfriend.’ What was she? She didn’t know. She was having his baby and soon everyone would know that, but…
Ella pushed the problem out of her mind. ‘Send him to me when he arrives. I have a toddler with abdominal pain that I’m worried about.’
She returned to the cubicle to find the mother reading quietly to Harry.
Ella checked the child’s temperature again. ‘I’ve spoken to the consultant. He’s on his way.’
‘Will he yell at me?’ Carol was looking anxious. ‘I wish I hadn’t come now. Harry hasn’t cried or anything since you left the room. He looks fine, which is great, obviously but now I’m feeling like a fraud.’
‘Why would you feel like a fraud?’ Nikos strode into the room and Ella felt her heart flip as it always did whenever she saw him.
What had he done with the diamond ring?
His brief searing glance told her that they had unfinished business and her insides were suddenly caught in a turbulence that left her breathless.
‘Sorry to disturb your meeting. This is Harry,’ she said quickly, relieved that they had something else to focus on other than their relationship. ‘He’s been suffering from abdominal pain for two days, and Carol feels like a fraud because she has already seen the GP.’
Nikos washed his hands. ‘And his diagnosis was…?’
Carol flushed. ‘Tummy bug. He said only time would help. He also told me that I had to relax a bit about parenting and that I was overreacting. And maybe I am, but—’
‘What is it about Harry that is making you uneasy?’ Nikos’s tone was gentle as he squatted down so that he was the same level as the child. ‘Is it anything specific or just a feeling?’
