“What color is her hair?”
“Black.”
A cry escaped her lips.
Maybe she hadn’t fallen out of heaven.
Was it possible she’d been carried in the whirlwind and dropped in the hotel garden? Stranger things had happened throughout the world during tornadoes.
“Kellie?”
“I know what you’re thinking, Fran—” Kellie cried. “So am I.” The two women stared at each other. “Remember the little girl in the midwest a few years ago who was found awake and sitting up ten miles away in a field after a tornado struck, killing her entire family? We both saw her picture on the news and couldn’t believe it.”
“Yes! She was the miracle baby who lived!”
“It would explain everything.”
Leandros’s dark brows furrowed. “What are you two talking about?”
“Quick, Kellie. While you tell him what we’re thinking, I’m going back upstairs to be with the baby. Maybe she has come to by now. After hearing from Leandros that their baby is missing, I think she could be that lost child! She has to be! There’s no other explanation. She has to live.” Those words had become Fran’s mantra.
The police had made a grid for the volunteers to follow. Nik and his brothers had been given an area to cover in the pine trees behind the resort. They’d searched for hours. Separated by several yards, they walked abreast while looking for any sign of Demi.
Debris had been scattered like confetti, but he saw nothing to identify their family’s belongings. The tornado had destroyed everything in its path, including lives. Pain stabbed him over and over.
Where in the hell was the baby? How could they go home without her body and face their parents? The grief was beyond imagining.
Each of his brothers had two children, all boys. Their wives and families, along with Stavros’s family had flown to Mykonos to join Nik’s parents. He knew Sandro and Cosimo were thanking providence that their own children hadn’t been anywhere near either tornado, but right now their hearts were so heavy with loss, none of them could talk.
Demi was the only little girl in the family, so beautiful—just like her mother. Not having married yet, Nik had a huge soft spot for his niece. She possessed a sweetness and a special appeal that had charmed him from the moment she was born.
Melina’s baby was the kind of child he would love to have if he ever settled down. But that meant finding the kind of woman who could handle what he would have to tell her about himself before they could be married.
Up to now he hadn’t met her yet and was forced to put up with the public’s false assumption about him. Throughout the last year, various tabloids had put unauthorized pictures of him on their covers with the label Greece’s New Corporate Dynamo—The Most Sought-After Playboy Bachelor of the Decade. He was sickened by the unwanted publicity. But this tragedy made the problems in his personal life fade in comparison.
Just two weeks ago he’d bought Demi a toy where you passed a ball through a tube and it came out the other end. She loved it and would wait for it to show up, then crawl on her belly after it. She could sit most of the time without help and she put everything possible in her mouth. Her smile delighted him. Never to see it—or her—again…he couldn’t bear it. None of them could.
Hot tears stung his eyes at the thought that the seven-month-old was gone, along with her parents. It was a blow he didn’t know whether he could ever get over. He and Melina had shared a special bond. She’d been there for him at the darkest point in his life. A grimace broke out on his face as he realized he couldn’t even find her baby. He felt completely helpless.
Sandro caught his arm. “We’ve finished this section.”
“Let’s move to the next grid.”
“Someone else has done it,” Cosimo muttered.
“I don’t care,” he bit out. “Let’s do it again, more thoroughly this time. Examine every tree.”
They went along with him. Maybe five minutes had gone by when his cell phone rang. He checked the caller ID. “It’s Petralia.”
Their heads swiveled around, as they prayed for news that some volunteer had found her body.
“Leandros?” he said after clicking on. “Any word yet?”
“Maybe. If you believe in miracles.”
Nik reeled. “What do you mean?”
“I’m with my wife at the hospital in Leminos village. It’s twelve miles south of you. Come quickly. This morning her best friend Mrs. Myers from the States, who’s staying with us for a few weeks, found a baby girl, barely alive, in a hotel garden.”
Nik’s hand tightened on the cell phone. “Did I just hear you right?”
“Yes. If you can believe this, she was lying in some bushes at the rear of the hotel. On their drive to the Persephone yesterday, the storm got so bad, they ended up staying in Leminos.”
“You mean your wife and her friend—”
“Could have been among the casualties,” he finished for him. The emotion in Leandros’s voice needed no translation. “Fran went out to the back patio to get them a table for breakfast when she heard some faint cries and walked over to investigate.”
“What?”
“It’s an absolutely incredible story. The child is cut up and bruised. All she had on was a torn undershirt. They brought her to the hospital and Fran has been staying in the infant ICU with her in order to comfort her. So far no parents have shown up yet to claim her.”
“You’ve seen her?” Nik cried out.
“Yes. She’s about seven months old, with your family’s coloring. She’s alive, but not awake yet. So far that’s good news according to the doctor who thought at first they were going to lose her. Come as fast as you can to the E.R. entrance. We’ll show you to the ICU.”
He eyed his brothers. “We’re on our way, Leandros—My gratitude knows no bounds.”
“Don’t thank me yet. This child might not be your niece.”
“I have to believe she is!”
Nik clicked off and he and his brothers started running through the forest. On the way he told them the fantastic story. Before long they reached the rental car at the police check point. Nik broke every speed record getting to Leminos while they all said silent prayers.
Once they reached the village, he followed the signs to the hospital. Leandros and his wife were waiting for them in the lounge of the E.R. His lovely wife, Kellie, was in tears over what had happened to Nik’s family. He was deeply moved by her compassion. She, in turn, introduced them to the doctor who was taking care of the baby.
“Come with me and we’ll see if she belongs to you.” On the way upstairs the doctor said, “I’m happy to report that a half hour ago, the baby opened her eyes for the first time and looked around. I think that had something to do with Kyria Myers who’s been singing to her and caressing her through the incubator. She’s the one who first heard the baby cry and found her before she lost consciousness.”
Nik couldn’t wait to see if the baby was Demi, but he understood they had to wash their hands and put on masks and gowns. It took all his self-control not to burst into the ICU. If it wasn’t their niece lying in there it would kill all three of them to have to return to Mykonos without her.
When they were ready, the nurse opened the door and beckoned them to follow her to the corner of the room. A woman gowned and masked like themselves sat next to the incubator with her hand inside the hole to touch the baby. With her back to them, he could