“That sounds impressive.”
“You and Mama will love Dimitra. I’ve bought her an engagement ring she doesn’t know about yet. Naturally I want to announce our engagement right away, but Mama wants us to wait.”
Irena moved the wheelchair closer. “That’s right, darling. You need time to do a little more living before making a decision that will change your life.”
Kristos looked to Nico for the answer he wanted. “What do you say?”
It was like déjà vu for Nico who understood what it was like to be painfully, excruciatingly in love at that age and want to get married. But no commitment like that should be pursued at their tender age, as he had learned the hard way.
After Mara Tito had sent back all the letters Nico had written to her nineteen years ago, unopened, he’d gotten the message and had learned a bitter truth. The true love he’d thought they’d shared after three weeks of nonstop enchantment had only been on his part. It hadn’t lasted for her. The longing to marry her and have children with her had been his dream, not hers.
The second he’d left to do his military service, she’d never thought about him again. He’d been a fool to think otherwise. When he and Tio had returned home a year later, she was nowhere to be found and untraceable. The phone number at the Vasilakis residence had been disconnected.
All the considerable resources at his disposal as an Angelis to do searches both here and in France had turned up literally nothing. After three difficult years of trying to forget her, he’d met Raisa Nephus and in time had married her.
When Nico thought of how happy Kristos was right now, it worried him that this girl he loved might not prove to love him with the same depth of passion. A real broken heart took years to get over, if ever...
“Uncle Nico?” Kristos prodded him.
Nico realized Irena’s son was waiting to hear his view on the situation. While his friend lay dying in the hospital he’d promised Tio to look after Kristos and Yanni. Nico’s first instinct was to tell Kristos he couldn’t give him his blessing. To get engaged this soon could ruin the rest of his life. No one knew that better than Nico.
In time he’d learned to love Raisa enough to marry her, but it hadn’t been like his feelings for Mara. Raisa had deserved more, and after she’d died in the plane he’d been flying, his guilt had intensified because he hadn’t been able to save her or their baby she was carrying...
But his past life had nothing to do with Kristos. Nico and Irena needed to make a concession to her son so he wouldn’t feel that the entire world had conspired against him.
“Tell you what, Kristos. Your birthday is coming up soon. Invite her over for an informal meal. I’ll drop by at some point after work and you can introduce me. What do you think, Irena?” He darted her a speaking glance.
“We could do that,” she said in an unenthusiastic voice, obviously deciding to go along with Nico’s idea.
“Thank you, Mama! I’ll call her and we’ll pick a date that’s good for everyone. I promise you two will love her.” Kristos kissed his mother and hugged Nico before leaving the room.
Nico got to his feet. “I’m afraid I’ve let you down, Irena.”
“No. You haven’t. It was the perfect thing to say, otherwise he would have declared he and Dimitra were going to run away and get married. You’ve at least bought us a little more time to convince him to think about it.”
“We can hope.”
Deep down Nico didn’t believe Kristos could be made to see reason, not if he loved this Dimitra the way Nico had loved Mara.
In time Raisa had taught him that there were different kinds of love. Though he’d never felt the fire for her he’d felt for Mara, he’d married Raisa. The excitement of a baby coming had brought him a whole new world to look forward to. Until her death they’d been thrilled at the thought of a son or daughter to complete their lives.
As for Kristos, hopefully Nico could reason with him to the point he wouldn’t jump into anything too fast, but he wasn’t holding his breath.
* * *
Alexa had already gotten under the covers when her brunette daughter tiptoed into her bedroom, letting light in from the hall. “Mama? Are you asleep?”
She chuckled. “I was getting there.”
“Can we talk for a second?”
“Sure. Come sit on the bed. What’s so important it can’t wait until tomorrow?”
“Kristos has a birthday coming up. His mother has invited us to dinner so we can all meet.” That was news. “I’ve never met her or his younger brother. It’s on Saturday, a week from today. You can come, right?” Her light green eyes implored Alexa to agree.
To meet the mother meant things were getting more serious between her daughter and the young man Alexa had met at the university a few months ago. She’d been introduced to him when Dimitra had brought him to her faculty office. They’d talked for a few minutes and she’d learned, among other things, that his father had died in a car accident in December.
Alexa had to admit he was good-looking with a definite charm and intelligence. But after falling in love with Nico Angelis at seventeen, their brief time together in Salonica had ended in total disaster. When he’d left for the military three weeks later, he’d never gotten in touch with her again.
Four years passed before Alexa learned the true reason why he’d disappeared from her life. Because of those four years of suffering, Alexa didn’t want her daughter to be thinking marriage with Kristos. Not yet. They were both very young. If anything went wrong and Kristos ended up hurting her, she didn’t want Dimitra to go through that same kind of grief as Alexa at such a tender age.
“I’ll have to check my schedule at the university in case there’s a dinner conflict.”
“Surely you can get out of it. This dinner is important to me.”
She sighed. “When you’re young, everything’s important.”
“I love Kristos.”
“You’ll probably love several men before you find the right one for you.”
“Even if it didn’t last, you fell in love with Papa when you were my age and had me.”
Heaven help me. “You’re right.”
“Do you ever wonder where he is now or what he’s doing?”
“I did in the beginning, but it’s been years, honey.” In truth Alexa knew exactly where Nico was and what his life was like married to an Athenian beauty. He was an Angelis and rising to the top. She’d done everything possible not to think about him over the years.
“I never stop wondering about him, Mama. What would it have been like if you’d been able to marry him. You can’t deny you wanted to marry him. You told me he was the one for you no matter what. Right?”
Alexa moaned inwardly. “That’s true, but it’s also true that I was too young. Honey, you’ve got years to be thinking of getting married.”
“I’m eighteen.”
“Barely.”
“I don’t want to wait!” She was Alexa’s daughter all right, at least the way Alexa used to be. “Please do this for me.”
She patted her arm. “I’ll think about it. Now go to bed. Morning will be here before we know it.”
Her daughter didn’t say anything else and slipped away, hurt by her mother’s unenthusiastic response.
Alexa turned over and buried her wet face in the pillow. Tonight’s conversation with Dimitra had brought back the past with swift, sharp pain. Only two weeks after Nico had left for military service, Alexa’s grandfather Gavril had been made the Greek ambassador in Ottawa, Canada. It wasn’t until they moved there from Nicosia on Cyprus that Alexa discovered she was pregnant.
As Alexa had found out, once you started a partial truth, it lived with you forever.
She’d wanted her daughter to grow up having a respectable background. But she was also desperate to cover her shame and embarrassment over h
er failed relationship at seventeen years of age with a playboy who’d never loved her. With a baby coming, the only thing she could say to people was that something unavoidable had happened that had kept her and Dimitra’s father apart. They’d lost total touch with each other.
It was the same explanation she’d given her daughter when she was old enough to understand.
Alexa prayed it would stop Dimitra from asking too many questions about her father. She also hoped to avoid scandal involving Nico’s prominent family, or scandal for her grandfather who held an important position in the government.
It wasn’t until four years later that Monika Gataki, Alexa’s teenage friend whom she hadn’t heard from in several years, phoned Alexa out of the blue. She made an admission that changed Alexa’s world forever. Monika admitted that she’d been so jealous of Alexa’s relationship with Nico, she’d sent all his letters back unopened.
He’d honestly sent her the letters he’d promised?
The phone call sent her into shock. Alexa couldn’t believe Monika had done something so horrible, so immoral. After four years of guilt, a repentant Monika—who didn’t expect to be forgiven—couldn’t stay quiet any longer.
The devastating revelation meant Alexa and Dimitra could have had a wonderful life with Nico once he’d returned from the military. After getting off the phone, she told her grandparents everything and prayed that it wasn’t too late to tell Nico the truth.
But when her grandfather made inquiries through his private sources to locate Nico, he learned that Nico had recently married a woman from an illustrious family in Athens and was now an executive at Angelis Shipping Lines.
The news that her beloved Nico had recently married changed everything. It made her wonder how long it had taken him to get over her and find another woman to love.
Alexa couldn’t bring herself to tell him about their daughter. Obviously he’d moved on and had found love, something Alexa never expected to find again. It hurt to know that he’d met another woman he cared about enough to marry, but Alexa didn’t want to ruin his chance for happiness. To take vows meant he had embraced a new life. Did she dare disturb the life he was living now?
Could his new marriage survive the fact that he had a daughter? How would he and his wife deal with it? Alexa couldn’t do that to him or to the woman he’d married. As for Dimitra, she’d been a happy, contented child since birth, protected by love and from any hint of scandal or gossip.
Even if Nico were to be told and wanted to see Dimitra, how would her daughter react? Only being four years old, would she be frightened and upset? Or would she love Nico immediately and want to be around the daddy she’d always asked about no matter what?
How would her precious daughter handle visitation when they all lived thousands of miles apart? Her little girl’s life would never be the same. Alexa’s instinct was to protect Dimitra to the death. In the end she decided never to tell father or daughter the truth.
But she did give Dimitra the one little two-by-two photo Alexa had taken of a handsome Nico at nineteen so she’d have something to treasure. She’d also told her he’d gone by the nickname Dino and she’d met him in Greece on vacation before leaving for Canada with her grandparents.
Alexa claimed she’d found it on a shelf in the closet among some things she’d stored. Dimitra kept it like a sacred treasure, making Alexa realize how her daughter hungered for the daddy she’d never known. Dimitra had noticed he had dark hair like her own and that made her happy.
Alexa’s grandparents believed she should seek out Nico and tell him everything. They said he had a right to know he was a father, but they also said it was her decision to make. They hoped she could live with her silence. She’d assured them she could now that she knew Nico was happily married. The knowledge had helped her put her pain and feelings on hold. Her grandparents accepted her decision.
For many years she’d been forced to deal with her guilt and fought not to let it consume her. But recently everything had changed. For one thing, Alexa’s grandmother had died and her grandfather had moved them back to Salonica after retirement.
Once they were settled in the home he’d bought here, Alexa had been watching the news with him. Suddenly a breathtaking picture of a dark-haired Nico Angelis flashed on the screen. He’d just been named CEO of Angelis Shipping Lines and stood with a group of officials as he christened their latest tanker. After nineteen years, the first sight of a grown-up Nico brought Alexa close to a faint.
CHAPTER TWO
NOW THAT THE FAMILY was back in Greece, it was inevitable Alexa would see an important national figure like Nico Angelis on TV. Sure enough the other night the news had shown him among a group of foreign dignitaries discussing a new water route to the east on the Aegean.
He stood a little taller than the other men. With his broad shoulders, there was no man on earth to match him. The woman he’d married had to have thought the same thing. By now he probably had several children. They’d be Dimitra’s half brothers or sisters...
He’d been dashing at nineteen. At thirty-eight years of age, he’d become the quintessential Greek male. Dimitra would be astounded to learn her birth father was someone so famous and outstanding. And impossibly appealing.
But if at this late stage Alexa decided to divulge the truth to him and Dimitra, it could bring chaos. What if he couldn’t accept his daughter in the fullest sense? Alexa would never be forgiven by either of them no matter how much she’d believed she’d done the right thing at the time. Her relationship with her daughter could be permanently jeopardized. Alexa couldn’t afford to risk that.
Dimitra was her life. Because she loved her so much, she decided to relent and agree to meet Kristos’s mother to avoid hurting Dimitra. They’d never had a truly serious disagreement in their lives. Considering that her daughter was head over heels in love, Alexa needed to decide which battle to fight. This wasn’t one of them. Dimitra, who’d only dated a little before meeting Kristos, was only asking her to meet his mother.
She slid out of bed and padded down the hall to her daughter’s bedroom. Dimitra was just coming out of the bathroom. It looked like she’d been crying.
“Mama?”
“I couldn’t let you go to bed until I told you I’d be happy to have dinner with Kristos and his mother.”
Following a cry of joy, Dimitra hugged her so hard she almost knocked her over.
* * *
The night of the dinner, Alexa walked into her grandfather’s den wearing a white silk dress with a small blue print. He could still get around, but his arthritis was worse and at night he’d get so tired, he used a wheelchair. “I promise we won’t stay out late.”
“Take as long as you want.”
Her daughter hugged him. “Good night, Papoú. Please don’t wear yourself out.” Papoú was the Greek word for grandfather, but it worked for her great-grandfather too.
“Don’t you worry about me. Good night, sweetheart. Have a wonderful time.”
Before leaving the house, Alexa gave her grandfather a kiss, then thanked his caregiver Phyllis who lived with them.
The minute the two of them stepped outside into the soft June night air Alexa was overwhelmed by the summery fragrance unique to Salonica and it swept her back to other glorious nights here nineteen years ago.
After getting off work, Nico would come to the Gataki house to collect her and then she and Nico would go to the beach and end up in each other’s arms.
Not for the first time did Alexa’s daughter remind her of herself, getting ready to meet Nico for another rapture-filled night of being together. Dimitra’s high spirits over the dinner ahead had brought a flush to her cheeks. But this private get-together had put Alexa on edge.
The conversation with Kristos’s mother would inevitably bring up the subject of Dimitra’s father. What kind of work had he been doing before they lost touch? How had t
hey met? Alexa was ready with answers, but each time she had to explain to anyone now that they were back in Greece, it burned like a branding iron. After all these years, Alexa was back and geographically close to Nico. Too close.
Once in the car, she followed her daughter’s directions to the Papadakis villa in the upper city. Dimitra had already told her about Kristos’s mother who was still recovering after the accident that had killed her husband.
Kristos was the elder son of Tio Papadakis, who’d been one of the vice presidents of Papadakis Shipping Lines before his death six months earlier. In addition to his studies Kristos worked part-time in the family business under his CEO grandfather and hoped to rise in the business.
Alexa found it an amazing coincidence that Kristos, like Nico, had been born into a renowned Greek shipping family here in Salonica. No doubt his assured future and that of his younger brother boded well for a wonderful life.
She knew her daughter’s one great wish was that both women would give their blessing for her and Kristos to be married soon. They were of legal age, but Dimitra wanted her mother to be happy about it. Of course she did.
“There it is!” her cry broke into Alexa’s thoughts. “The gray-and-white mansion ahead with the statuary. Isn’t it beautiful?”
“It certainly is.”
“Kristos said to pull into the circular drive and park in front.”
No sooner had Alexa pulled the car to a stop than a dark blond Kristos hurried out the front door and down the steps to greet them. He wore a light blue blazer over a button-down shirt and trousers. Dimitra had dressed in a yellow sundress. As Alexa had thought before when he’d come to her office at the university with her daughter, they made a good-looking couple.
He came around with Dimitra and helped Alexa out of the car. “Mama is looking forward to meeting you, Kyría Remis. We’re eating outside.”
The Greek's Secret Heir Page 2
