Chapter 60: A daughter abandoned

Eleni looked to Thierry, as if for him to stop this but he sat, waiting for her reply.

'Yes.'

'After the court case you went home?'

'Yes.'

'Why?'

Her answer was not original. Had been repeated many thousands of times in other courtrooms. 'Because I had nowhere else to go.'

'And then Mary Eleni ran away?'

'Yes.'

'Did she ask you to go with her?'

Tears welled and spilled and Eleni choked. 'Yes.'

'But you refused?'

'Yes.'

'Why?'

'I was dependent on my husband.' Elisabeth opened her mouth for the next question. 'I did not think she would really go,' Mary Eleni's mother wailed.

Softly Elisabeth asked, 'Did she say why she wanted to leave?'

'Yes.' Urged, she gave the reason. 'She did not want to stay and watch the way her father treated me.'

Elisabeth took the next step. 'Could it have been that she also was afraid of her father?'

Wild-eyed Eleni Stavros said, 'Why would she have been?'

'That's what I'm asking you, Mrs Stavros.'

'He never touched her!'