Excerpt of "Deadly Secrets" - Chapter One, Part Two

Thinking back, she could vividly remember her happy childhood.They used to live in a big, white house on top of a cliff, overlooking the Aegean. She would wake up in the morning and run to her balcony to enjoy the breathtaking view.
Her parents were so happy back then. The main offices of her father’sshipping company were in Piraeus—the harbor of Athens—but he ran the business mainly from the island, in order to spend as much time as possible with her mother and her.
Mykonos was a beautiful island, which took her mother’s breath away when she stepped foot on it as a young bride twenty-two years before. The beauty of the land and the kindness of the people kept her captive for a long time. Erin, Helena’s mother, was hopelessly in love with her husband, Captain Angelos Sistakis, and never regretted following him to his homeland, or leaving London, with its cloudy days, behind.
The sunshine in Greece warmed people’s hearts; something aboutall these islands spread across the Aegean captivated their souls, and they never wanted to leave.
That’s precisely the way Helena felt when her mother told her theywere leaving. She’d cried and pleaded to stay, but her mother’s decision was final. Her father’s mysterious disappearance had broken her mother’s heart, and the place had lost its magic touch. Her mother just wanted to get out of there as soon as possible and leave the memories behind.
However, her mother never forgot the love she and Angelos sharedand the happy moments at their house on the island. She spent the rest of her life bitter and miserable. Two years ago, she became sick. Helena watched her slowly fade away and wondered if she even tried to recover.
For the last thirteen years, her mother hadn’t been the same cheerfuland lively woman she used to be. She never got over her husband’s tragic death, but deep down inside, Helena knew it was a lot more than that… her mother feared for her little girl’s life. She was convinced Angelos’ death wasn’t an accident, and that Helena was in grave danger, as well… 

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The beauty in front of her interrupted her thoughts. She took a deep breath, staring at the shores of Mykonos with the scenic coves and the golden sand beaches. Welcome home, Helena… Her heartbeat accelerated, and anticipation washed over her like a cold wave. Tears filled her eyes, seeing her homeland… the land of her adorable father… the land of her ancestors. She was finally home—the home she’d been deprived of for so long…
She wiped the tears with the back of a shaky hand. It was so unfairto lose her father at such a tender age, and to be deprived of everything and everyone she ever knew. Helena, however, knew her mother was scared; she was scared to death. She lived the rest of her life with a threat hovering over her, every step of the way. Was it real? Helena wondered, and the scene of the previous night’s near miss flashed before her eyes. Was any of it real? Helena had thought about it a million times. The only thing she was sure about was that the threat felt real to her mother.
And what about Grandma’s diary? Helena wondered. According to her mother, Eleana—Angelos’ mother—had a gift of foreseeing future events and had written them down in her diary. A lot of important events that affected their lives were written down in her diary… years before they happened. If only I could find that diary, Helena inwardly wished. She neededto find it, not only to get some answers, but to verify it actually existed. Sometimes, she was worried about her mother’s state of mind. Maybe the pain and years of bitterness had affected her and made her imagine things. Finding that diary would prove her mother wasn’t hallucinating, and this was essential to Helena, since her mother had been the center of her world since they left Greece. And now, she was gone, too.

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