But when he finally reached the driver who’d picked her up, the man was no help. “I dropped her off on a corner by the Pappas Market. She was carrying an overnight bag.”
Searing pain ripped Nikos open before he hung up. “I’ve got to find her tonight!”
Yannis looked grim. “You get dressed and we’ll go to every place where she might be staying.”
Nikos changed into jeans and a sweater before they took off for town in the car. They combed the whole area for an hour, without results. “I should never have closed up on her like I did earlier. She couldn’t help it that Mother came to see her.”
“That was my fault, Nikos.”
He stared hard at his friend. “No. The fault is all mine for letting old wounds fester until the result caused Stephanie to run away from me. I can’t lose her, Yannis.” His voice shook. “Where in the hell has she gone?”
“How did she find you?”
The shrewd seaman’s question gave Nikos pause. He struggled for breath. “Through sheer persistence and determination.” His mind reeled with possibilities. “Since she’s not at any local lodgings, she had to get a ride with someone to somewhere else.” His turmoil grew worse.
Yannis patted his shoulder. “Perhaps she went to another part of the island.”
“Maybe. But there’s no place for her to stay, only ruins and churches.”
“Could she have gone back to the dock, to take the boat to Chios?”
“Anything’s worth looking into.” Nikos got the port authority on the line. The captain in charge of the last crossing was emphatic that a blonde, pregnant American woman had not been on board.
Nikos shook his head. “She’s here somewhere, Yannis. Maybe she crept on some fishing boat down at the harbor to spend the night.”
Yannis scratched his head. “I don’t think she’d do that, not in her condition. She’s so excited about that baby, she’d never put herself in precarious circumstances. Besides, everyone knows you. I doubt she’d do anything that could embarrass you. She said as much in the note.”
Nikos stared blindly at the water in the distance. “She had to get help from someone, but in my gut I know she wouldn’t turn to Tassos or my family. She hasn’t made any friends yet.”
“That’s not exactly true.”
His gaze swerved to Yannis. “What do you mean?”
“Bulos.”
Though she’d spent ten hours a week for months with her language teacher, Nikos still ruled him out and shook his head. “Let’s go home and see if she’s back on board the Diomedes. If not, I’ll think about bringing in the police.”
Except that she expected him to trust her enough to take care of herself and come back when she was ready. The police would want to know why she was missing and would figure out she and Nikos were having a domestic quarrel. It would be the talk of the Oinousses.
By three in the morning it was clear she wasn’t coming back. Nikos thought he’d been at the end of his rope in the hospital, but this was agony in a new dimension. If anything untoward happened to her or the baby because of him, life wouldn’t be worth living.
Yannis made them coffee. Both of them were too wired from anxiety to do anything but pace. They were waiting for morning so they could begin their search all over again.
At five to four Niko’s cell phone rang, causing him to almost jump out of his skin. He clicked on. “Stephanie?”
“No, sir. This is Sister Sofia at the Convent of the Holy Virgin on Oinoussa. Are you Kyrie Vassalos?”
Beads of perspiration broke out on his forehead. “Speaking.” He couldn’t imagine why she’d called.
“Your wife checked into our hospice this afternoon.” The hospice! Of course! “But she’s been in labor ever since and is now at the hospital.”
Nikos weaved in place. “God bless you, Sister. You’ve just saved my life!” He hung up. “Yannis? Stephanie is at the hospital having the baby!”
With Yannis driving, they made it there in record time. Nikos burst inside the emergency entrance. “My wife!” he said to the surprised attendant. “Stephanie Vassalos—”
“She’s in the delivery room.”
“Has she had the baby?”
“Not yet. Dr. Panos says for you to come with me. I’ll get you ready. We need to hurry.”
The next few minutes were a blur as Nikos was instructed to sanitize his hands before being led into the delivery room. He was told to sit.
“Nikos!” He heard Stephanie call out to him.
“You’re just in time,” the doctor said without missing a beat. “Your baby fooled everyone and decided to come a few weeks early. Push, Stephanie. That’s it. One more time.”
Nikos’s wet eyes flew to his brave, beautiful wife, propped on the bed. The strain in her body and the way she worked with the doctor was something he’d never forget.
“Ah, there’s the head. This guy’s got your husband’s black hair.”
He heard his wife’s shouts of excitement.
“Keep pushing. Here comes Alexandros.” Dr. Panos held the baby up in the air by the ankles and Nikos heard a gurgle, followed by a lusty cry.
Stephanie started sobbing for joy. “How does he look?” she begged the doctor.
“You can see for yourself after I’ve cut the cord.” A minute later he laid the baby across her stomach and wiped off the fluid. “Come on over here, Papa. You can examine your son together.”
As wonderful as that sounded, Nikos leaned over to kiss Stephanie’s dry lips first. “Are you all right? I’m so sorry I wasn’t there for you.”
Her eyes were a blazing blue. “But you have been, all this time, and I’ve never been so happy in my life. Isn’t he beautiful?”
His gaze flew to the baby, who’d stopped crying and gone quiet. His dark eyes looked at Nikos so seriously, reminding him of the way Stephanie sometimes did. He studied the rest of him. His perfect hands with their long fingers were curled into fists. It was like looking through a kaleidoscope, where all the bits and pieces formed a miraculous design. This one was made from the molds of a Walsh and a Vassalos.
Nikos saw Stephanie’s mouth and chin, his brother’s ears, his mother’s black hair, his own fingers and toes, his father’s body shape. My son. My one and only.
“He looks exactly like you, Nikos.”
He turned his head toward her. “You’re in there, too. But I want you to know that even if he didn’t look like me, it wouldn’t matter, because I fell in love with the two of you a long time ago. A miracle happened on the island.”
“I know.” Tears gushed from her eyes. “I love you, darling. So much I can’t begin to tell you.”
“No woman ever fought harder to show her love than you did when you came all the way to this remote island to find me. I’ll never forget,” he said against her mouth. “I’ve got to tell Yannis. Then I’m going to call the family and tell them they’ve become grandparents again.”
CHAPTER TEN
January 24
YANNIS