She nodded. “It turns out Nico Angelis was the best friend of Tio Papadakis. Would you believe it? He showed up at the dinner Saturday night. When we got home later, I received a text to meet him at a restaurant on the beach last night. He came with these letters.
“To quote him, ‘For a long time I wanted an answer to the question why, but I don’t need it now. Last night I met your daughter. Clearly you got involved with another man while you were in Greece and had his baby. For what it’s worth, I would say you’ve done a wonderful job of raising her.’ Then he said goodbye before I could tell him anything.”
Her grandfather looked sad. “So he’s a gentleman to the end.”
She nodded. “This morning I’m going to tell Dimitra.”
“Tell me what?” Her daughter had just come into the kitchen. Alexa turned her head toward her. “That you don’t want me to marry Kristos? Did the thought of my being too young make you so upset we had to leave the dinner early? Was that it?”
Alexa took a deep breath. “No, honey. What I have to tell you has nothing to do with you and Kristos. Please sit down and listen. I have news that’s going to change your world.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Of course you don’t. The fact is, I told you a half-truth the first time you asked me about your daddy.”
“What do you mean?”
This was it. “Your father and I did get unavoidably separated, but I could have contacted him through his parents. There are reasons why I didn’t do that or why I didn’t reveal his true name to you.”
“Which is?”
“Nico Angelis.”
Her daughter laughed. “Are you teasing me?”
Heaven help me. “Not at all.”
Dimitra eyed her incredulously. “You don’t mean the Nico Angelis who came to dinner the other night—”
“Yes, honey. You said Kýrie Angelis reminded you of the photo I gave you of your father. That’s because it is him. It’s a picture I took of him when I was seventeen while I was on vacation in Salonica. In a short three-week period Nico and I fell madly in love and planned to be married after he finished his military service. He’d promised to write to me, but he never did, and I never heard from him again.”
Dimitra paled and finally sat on a chair.
“I discovered I was pregnant two months after he’d left Salonica and we’d moved to Canada. When you were old enough, I told you your daddy’s name was Dino. That was done to protect your reputation, and the grandparents and Nico from gossip. The news would have brought scandal to his illustrious family and to your papoú.”
Tears filled Dimitra’s eyes. “Is this the truth, Papoú?”
“Yes, sweetheart.”
Alexa sat by her. “To this day Nico still doesn’t know he’s your father.”
“What?”
“I never told him. Though your papoú knew how to get in touch with Nico’s parents and would have gotten word to him that he had a daughter, I’m the one who begged him to do nothing because I was convinced Nico had only been having fun with me and had lost interest after he’d left. Saturday night was the first time I’ve seen him in nineteen years.”
“You’re kidding! What happened? Why didn’t you ever hear from him? How could he have been so horrible to you?”
Alexa loved Dimitra for coming to her defense. She took a deep breath. “He wasn’t the one who was horrible. My friend Monika, the girl I was staying with, was jealous of our relationship. Once I returned to Nicosia, she sent back every letter he ever wrote. But it took four years before she confessed to me what she had done.”
Her daughter shook her head, looking totally fragmented. “I don’t believe it.”
“They’re in that bag right there, stamped and postmarked. Nico was my errand last night and he gave them to me. You’re free to read them. You’ll learn a lot about your wonderful father. I loved him heart and soul. There’s no one like him.” Alexa pulled his last letter out of her pocket and handed it to her. “When you read this, you’ll see what a remarkable human being he really is. He never lost his faith in us.”
Her daughter took it from her, then jumped up from the chair. “But this is outrageous! She actually intercepted your letters and sent them back to him unopened?”
“Yes.”
“That’s the most hideous thing I ever heard!” Dimitra cried. Tears gushed down her cheeks. “How could anyone do something that evil?”
“It was a very evil act, I agree. After her confession, I was beside myself and wanted Nico to know the truth, that he had a four-year-old daughter. But your papoú found out he’d just gotten married to a prominent woman from a family from Athens. It was the biggest society wedding of the year in Greece. He was also rising in his career and the media focus on him was growing.”
Dimitra let out a wounded cry. “Was that more important than his finding out he had a daughter?” Her pain-filled words rang in the room.
“I couldn’t bear the thought of risking his happiness when he’d found love again. Your papoú wanted me to tell him, but I was afraid of ruining his life, so I stayed quiet. After seeing him on Saturday night, I had no choice but to tell you the truth, knowing you’ll never be able to forgive me.”
She shook her head, still in disbelief. “He didn’t act like he knew you...”
“No. He saved me the horror of having to confess to something you never knew about in front of everyone. There’s no more honorable man alive than your father and he still has to be told you’re his daughter. I would have told him last night, but he left the restaurant too fast because he was so upset to think I’d lied to him. I plan to tell him today.
“He should be at work. Of course I can’t expect forgiveness from him either. Please don’t tell Kristos any of this until I’ve had a chance to talk to Nico first. He needs to hear this from me.”
The look of desolation in Dimitra’s eyes would haunt her forever.
CHAPTER FOUR
NICO’S CALL TO the port authority in Izmir was the first item on his busy agenda. Once completed, his phone rang. It was his sister at the newspaper.
“I’m so glad you answered.”
“How are things going?”
“They’d be a lot better if Uncle Ari didn’t squelch my ideas and put me down in front of the others. Sometimes he’s actually cruel to me.”
Nico’s brows furrowed. “I knew he wasn’t happy about your promotion over him, but that’s no excuse. Baba felt you deserved to become the managing editor. I’ve never known anyone who worked harder.”
“Thanks for saying that, Nico. I’ll have to find a way to get along with Ari. But on to a happier note, it’s Mama’s birthday on Friday night. Let’s plan a surprise for her and Baba.”
Since last night, Mara had been the only thing on his mind. He couldn’t think of her as Alexa. Giannina’s phone call had caught him off guard. “What sort of plans?”
“How about a small party with friends on the yacht?”
“Sounds good.”
“Nico? You don’t seem like yourself. What’s going on?”
“Do you remember years ago when you told me my girlfriend had probably fallen for some other guy and that’s why she shut me down?”
“That was a ghastly time for you. I didn’t know if you’d ever recover.”
His eyes shut tightly. “Saturday night I met her by accident and you were right. She did meet another guy that summer in Salonica and then she moved to Canada. Now she’s back and she has an eighteen-year-old daughter.”
“Whoa. If I recall, I told you she probably didn’t want to get in too deep.”
“Not with me anyway. The point is, your astute comments at the time gave me another perspective that helped me move on. Eventually I met Raisa.”
“I’m glad if anything I said made a difference.”
&nb
sp; “It did, and I thought you’d like to know. Count me in for Friday and call me when you need help. We’ll talk then about what’s going on at your work and come up with an idea to ease the situation.”
“You’re on. Love you.”
No sooner had he hung up than his phone rang again. Only a few people besides his family had his cell phone number. If it was Kristos or Irena, he might not get any work done.
He checked the caller ID. Alexa Remis.
Nico gripped the phone tighter, not wanting anything to do with her. Why was she calling? Last night he’d walked away for good. That chapter of his life was over. Again. Or so he’d thought. He’d have to speak to her now though, otherwise it would bother him so much he wouldn’t be able to concentrate.
He answered. “Kyría Remis?” Nico still couldn’t call her Alexa.
“Thank you for answering. I know you’re busy and so I’ll make this quick. I have information you need to be told about as soon as possible, but I can’t tell you over the phone. I’ll meet you in the garden at the Vlatadon Monastery any time you say. Come alone.”
What information?
He gripped his phone tighter. If this had something serious to do with Kristos and her daughter, surely Irena would have called him instead. His brows met in a frown. Her words, plus her tone, told him she’d meant every word.
“I can meet you there in half an hour.” He hadn’t planned on taking a lunch break, but would make an exception this once. The sooner this was over, the better.
“Thank you. I’ll see you there.” She hung up.
After letting his secretary know he’d be out of the office for an hour, he left in his car and headed up to Ano Poli in the traditional area of Salonica. The Byzantine church she referred to had been built on the spot with a fabulous view of the sea. The Apostle Paul was said to have spoken to the Thessalonians from that vantage point. Nico and Mara had taken a picnic up there, enthralled with the place and each other.
He parked near her white car. A busload of tourists arrived as he walked around the side of the monastery to the garden. She sat on a bench at the far end beneath a tree where they’d once eaten their picnic. The second she saw him, she stood. Today she wore an attractive light green skirt and blouse. Face it. She’d always looked fantastic in anything.
“Thank you for coming.” She acted frightened, which he found strange. “I wanted you to be alone because of what I have to say. Last night you walked away before I could tell you news that will not only change your life, but also that of your wife. You’ll know better than anyone how to tell her if that’s what you choose.”
What in the hell was she talking about? “My wife died eleven years ago.”
He heard a gasp before the color left her face. She couldn’t have faked that reaction or the way she sank back down on the bench, close to a faint. Maybe a minute passed before she spoke. “I’m so sorry. I had no idea...” Her haunted eyes lifted to his in pleading. “Nico... Dimitra is our daughter.”
He couldn’t have heard her correctly. “What did you say?”
“I thought of course you’d figured it out at Irena’s, but I know now from what you said that it didn’t occur to you.”
His body broke out in a cold sweat.
“You are her father. I told Dimitra you were called by the nickname Dino to protect her reputation after she was born to an underage woman who wasn’t married.”
It couldn’t be true, could it? Nico thought he must be losing his mind.
“I know we took precautions, but she was conceived anyway. When she was born, I had your name written on her birth certificate. My grandparents watched me sign it. Here’s the proof.” She reached for her purse and pulled out the paper.
His mind reeled. Incredulous, he sat and took the authentic-looking stamped and sealed document from her trembling hand and read it.
Certificate of Live Birth
Montfort Hospital, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Stamped and dated May 14
Mother of child: Alexa Soriano Remis
Father of child: Nicholas Timon Angelis
Full name of child: Dimitra Angelis Remis
Signature of attending doctor, M. Viret
When he lifted his head, those moist sea-green eyes stared into his. A calm seemed to have come over her. “This morning our daughter heard for the first time that you are her father. After leaving her in a shell-shocked condition with my grandfather, I came directly to you. There was a reason I lied to you from the moment we collided in the sea. But that’s not the real story.”
He stood and paced for a minute, rubbing the back of his neck while he tried to clear his mind. “I left you pregnant—”
Her chin trembled. “Yes, but neither of us could have known at the time.”
The incredible news had rendered him speechless.
“Nico, you remember the myth we talked about where Hera almost caught Zeus with a mistress named Io? He turned Io into a heifer to deceive her. Hera wasn’t fooled. Driven by jealousy, she placed Io where the giant would always watch her so Io and Zeus could never be together.”
“Of course,” he whispered. Nico remembered every minute of their time together, the things they’d said and told each other. You didn’t forget things like that. To think that all these years Alexa had been raising their daughter. He couldn’t comprehend it.
She got up from the bench. “That myth is our story, Nico.”
“What do you mean?”
“My fictional cousin Leia Vasilakis was in reality a friend I met in Nicosia while I lived there. Her family worked with my grandfather who was the ambassador on Cyprus then. He made all of us take fictional names while on vacation because of political unrest, fearing the enemy might use me for a target.”
Nico listened, but he had a hard time taking it all in.
“Last evening you told me you thought something horrible had happened to me. That was my grandfather’s fear when I went on vacation, that an enemy might try to take me hostage to force my grandfather’s hand in some insidious way. Thus the fake name. But I was never taken hostage. The person who carried out the treachery was my own friend, Monika Gataki. You knew her as Leia.”
What she was saying now had the ring of truth, leaving Nico dumbstruck.
“Her family asked me to spend my three-week vacation with them in Salonica. The second day we arrived, I met you. From that first moment, Monika was so consumed by jealousy over my relationship with you, she found a way to hurt us and returned every letter you wrote to me at her parents’ address. Her revenge was as total as Hera’s, destroying your life and mine.”
With each veil dashed from his eyes, Nico struggled for breath. “How could anyone have been that spiteful?”
“I asked myself that same question.” She swallowed hard. “I didn’t know what she’d done until four years later when she phoned me out of guilt and told me the truth. I almost died with that revelation, knowing it was too late for us.”
“Too late?”
“Yes. My grandfather made inquiries about you and found out you were just recently married.”
Nico wheeled around. Anger raged inside him. “It’s never too late to learn you’re a father! Married or not, why in the hell didn’t you tell me we had a child? In fact, why didn’t you get in touch with me the second you knew you were pregnant?”
She edged away from him. “I knew you’d ask me these questions. But the reasoning of a seventeen-year-old girl who was intimidated by what Monika had told me about your family won’t make any sense to you. I’ve known from the beginning that neither Dimitra or you will ever forgive me. I’m leaving it up to the two of you to do what you want now that you both know the truth.”
In the next instant she ran past him and the tourists toward the parking area while he stood there with the birth certificate—his daughter’s birth c
ertificate—still clutched in his hand.
* * *
Alexa had done the unpardonable to Nico. The second she returned to the house, a sobbing Dimitra met her in the living room. Her daughter had gotten dressed and had been waiting for her. She held up one of the letters.
“I’ve been reading everything. This is his first letter to you. He loved you, Mama. He really loved you! I don’t know how Monika could have done that to you. But it’s your lie I can’t forgive. You could have gotten in touch with his family when you found out you were pregnant. They would have contacted him. He would have uncovered the mystery because he’s that kind of man. All these years I could have had my father.”
“Honey—”
“I’m leaving,” she broke in. “Kristos phoned and is coming for me. My father has already told him what you confessed at the monastery. I don’t know when I’ll be back.” She flew out the front door.
“Dimitra—”
“Let her go, Alexa. Give her time.”
She turned to her grandfather. “I did it all wrong, Papoú.”
“You did what you felt was best for everyone. But now you have another problem.”
“I know. My penance will be to live with what I’ve done for the rest of my life.”
“That too, but I just had a call from Kýrie Angelis. He’s coming by for you in...” he checked his watch “...twenty minutes.”
She panicked. “I don’t believe it.”
“Why? Dimitra needed to go off and talk everything over with Kristos. That leaves Nico. You dropped your bombshell, now he needs to talk everything over with you. He’s one of the most important men in Greece, a man who has been used to taking charge all his life and doesn’t hesitate. That’s why he’s so successful.”
Alexa shuddered. “I’ve told him everything.”
“In one hour? You think?” Her grandfather laughed.
“I’m afraid of his anger.”
“I don’t blame you, but now you’ve opened the door.”
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