Wrong… Wrong. The whole scene was wrong… The sun was burning, the day was hot, complete silence prevailed, everything seemed peaceful, yet something was not right. She searched within her troubled mind to find out what was bothering her. More than anything, it was the silence. At this hour, Margarita, her little white flower, should have been playing carefree in the garden, her cheeks flushed from running around with her imaginary friends, her shouts heard all around, and Katerina running after her to catch up. That was where the mistake was after all. The house looked uninhabited^ even the window shutters were tightly closed. She tried to recall. Maybe the child and her nanny had gone somewhere. Katerina had told her, and she had forgotten. Gap… No reminder of a planned outing for the two of them came to counteract this pounding heart that was beginning to form a knot in her throat and prevent her breaths from coming out rhythmically.
She opened the car door and suddenly it felt much heavier than usual. She unfastened her seatbelt and slipped out of the large vehicle. It had hurt her when, ten years ago, she was forced to give up her small, charming car and drive one of the very expensive and massive cars provided by her husband, which suited their social standing and financial situation. It would have been terribly condescending for Orestis Delmouzou’s wife to drive the same car as any ordinary mortal. Her protests were drowned out by Orestis’s weighty arguments and his firm decision to impose his way of life on her. After all, that’s how her circumstances were arranged, and from a carefree and in-love girl, she found herself living in a well-guarded fortress in the State, among a host of servants and bodyguards, who either rushed to fulfill every one of her wishes or followed her every step.
