“And he kept it all this time?”
“Looks like it,” she said. “I wanted you to have it. Whether you keep it or not is up to you.”
Why would Kosta have kept his gift all that time? It wasn’t like they were ever going to see each other again. Even when Dion had convinced the older man to invest in their company—which Nico had assumed was in spite of Dion’s partnership with him—there’d never been any contact between them.
“He wasn’t very good at admitting when he was wrong. I’m trying to learn from his mistakes,” she added. “It’s part of the reason I’m telling you I’m sorry now. I don’t want to go to my grave one day without having apologized.”
Nico placed the book down, emotion stirring in his gut. Nico had been “off” for the past year since Kosta’s death, as much as he hated to admit it. But he’d refused to let himself deal with those feelings, because in his head they shouldn’t exist in the first place.
“I didn’t come to the funeral because I knew I would break down in front of everyone.” He curled and uncurled his fists. “I didn’t want your family to see how much it hurt me.”
Alethea nodded. “I can understand that.”
For some reason, he thought of Marianna then, of the pain he’d felt watching her walk out of his office. There’d been no goodbyes, no closure. Like with Kosta.
Would he spend the next ten years pretending that he didn’t care that he’d lost her?
“Tell Marianna that I appreciate her passing on my message, even if I had to storm in here uninvited,” Alethea said, as if picking up that he was thinking of his wife.
“She’s gone,” he said quietly. He placed a palm flat over the cover of the book, as if he was about to swear an oath. “I made her go.”
“Because you were worried that she was going to hurt you?”
He nodded.
“What happens if your child hurts you one day?”
The question pulled him from the dark memories fogging his brain. “What?”
“Your child. They’ll grow up and make decisions that will impact you. Like I hurt my dad.” She folded her hands in her lap. “What will you do then?”
He hadn’t ever thought that far ahead. Nico’s main weapon against pain was retreat—he could walk away from anyone or anything. He’d perfected cutting ties by doing it over and over and over. He’d walked away from business partnerships, ceased communication with people from the orphanage, deleted emails and left telephones ringing. These days he refused to put himself into a position where he might need to cut ties by avoiding those bonds from the beginning.
Until Marianna.
She’d coaxed him into connecting. And whether or not he let her into his heart, the bond between them could not be fully severed. They were going to have a child together. And that was a bond he would never allow himself to break. He still held the same promise he’d made ten years ago, when Alethea had announced she was pregnant—he would be a good father no matter what. No matter how hard it might be, no matter how tired he was, no matter how busy or stressed or worried.
And yet, he’d pushed away the woman carrying his child because he was frightened of her getting too close. How could he even be capable of being a good father if he couldn’t be a good husband?
He thought about the letter from the pathology clinic sitting in his desk drawer at home. He still hadn’t been able to bring himself to open it. Because the fact was, he did trust Marianna. He knew she hadn’t lied, that it was his baby. A piece of paper wasn’t going to change that.
“I don’t know what I would do.” He realized then that he didn’t have all the answers.
“You’ve still got plenty of time to decide,” she said softly. “When’s the baby due?”
“Not for another five months.”
That would mean months of not knowing how Marianna was doing, of not being by her side for tests and checkups. Not being by her side to find out the sex of their baby. Not being by her side to greet their child when they came into the world.
His stomach twisted violently. In his selfish attempt to fortify the walls of protection around him, he’d already been a bad father. And a bad husband. But the time for putting himself first was over.
“I accept your apology,” he said suddenly. He glanced at the clock on his laptop. Fifteen minutes had come and gone some time ago.
Alethea nodded and got up from her chair. “Thank you.”
“You should talk to someone, though. About your dad and being angry.” He watched as she struggled to hold her emotions together. “And I’m not that person.”
“I know,” she whispered. “Good luck with everything.”
“You too.”
He watched her walk away, and this time when the door shut he felt a sense of relief come over him. Like maybe that door was finally being shut for good. He could stop letting Kosta’s ghost haunt him. He could learn from the old man’s mistakes by trying to repair relationships instead of sitting silent and hanging onto a broken past.
The only way for him to do that would be to change. Right now. The old Nico would need to be buried along with the past.
He picked up the phone on his desk and pressed the intercom button. “Helena? I need you to organize the jet. I’m going to Australia.”
Chapter Eighteen
Marianna looked up at the empty classroom, long after her students had left. They were a small group—four in total. Hesper, who’d recently purchased a small boutique hotel. Lukas, a fishmonger. Nitsa, who was in her late seventies and wanted to speak better English to communicate with her American-born grandchildren. And Stefan, a suave older gentleman who’d moved to Corfu from a more remote part of Greece and wanted to polish his English language skills.
The language centre had been most impressed with her academic transcripts from Australia, as well as her experience volunteering with a refugee-assistance program. One quick call to her references and Marianna had herself a job. Today was the first lesson, and she couldn’t have been happier with how it went. She was putting her passion for language to good use, and the smiling faces of her students had made it all worth it.
Still, beneath the sunshiny feelings around her new job, darkness lurked. It had been a week since she’d left Nico’s house. Since then, three of her brothers and her sister-in-law had flown to Corfu to support her. As had Jules. They were staying in a large Airbnb house while Marianna figured out where she wanted to live. After sitting them all down for an important chat, she’d made it clear she would not be returning to Australia.
There was no way she’d deny her child a relationship with their father, even if she wasn’t able to have one for herself.
“How did it go?” Felicity poked her head into the classroom. A canvas bag of groceries hung on one arm, showing off all kinds of delicious colorful fruits and veggies from the market.
“Have I gone through all the food in the house already?” Marianna asked as she pushed up from her chair. “Yikes. I thought my pants were feeling a bit tight.”
At sixteen weeks, she was showing very obviously now. Even the floaty dresses she’d taken to wearing hadn’t stopped the questions from people she met. And she feared it would only get worse. What would happen once people realized she and Nico were no longer together?
“You’re supposed to be eating well, it’s a good thing,” Felicity said as they walked out of the room, pausing while Marianna locked it with her key. They waved goodbye to the lady who ran the center’s front desk and headed out into the street to walk home together. “Healthy appetite means healthy baby.”
“Apparently she’s the size of an avocado this week.”
Felicity smiled. “She. Well, I guess you’ll find out today whether your instincts are right or not. Have you settled on a name?”
Marianna hadn’t told anyone her thoughts on the baby’s name, because it reminded her too much of that special night with Nico. The way he’d said her mother’s name, his face all soft and full of what
she’d assumed were genuine feelings…it made her eyes burn. At least she could blame any tears on her out-of-control pregnancy hormones, but she would rather avoid crying if at all possible.
“Not yet,” she replied. Ugh, she didn’t want to talk about this. “Did you know Ancient Greek was written from right to left? It then went through a period of boustrophedon, which means it was written right-to-left and left-to-right in alternating lines. Now it’s only written from left to right.”
Felicity shot her a look that said she wasn’t buying the sudden change of conversation. “Have you seen him?”
“No.” Her dress swirled around her feet as they walked.
“Have you reached out to him?”
“No. I imagine he’s holed up in his house like some monster, growling at anyone who dares to go near him.”
It was easier to see Nico as a beast than as a live flesh-and-blood man who was probably hurting as bad as she was.
“Are you going to?”
She’d oscillated between dialing his number and vowing never to speak to him again constantly. Which was bad. Anxiety couldn’t be good for the baby. But every time she told herself to move on and forget about her feelings for Nico, the memories assaulted her. Whether she liked it or not—and at the moment she was leaning more towards not—Nico was part of her life. When Katherine came, she would keep him involved. Which meant speaking to him, seeing him. Usually at that point of her thought process, her evil brain asked questions like “what if he ends up with another woman?” or “what if he decides he doesn’t want anything to do with you or the baby?”
“I don’t know.” It was the only honest answer.
“Mari, I know you probably don’t want to talk about this now, but it might help to have a plan. At some point you have to deal with it.”
“I’m not sure what’s best,” she said numbly.
She knew nothing anymore. Not whether she’d be facing motherhood completely alone, or with a tense stand-off between her and Nico. Would he soften over time or pull further away?
She was heartsick with it all. With the doubt and uncertainty. But worse was the one thing she did know: that she wanted to be with Nico. She wanted them to raise their baby together. Not because it was right for the child or because it would make things easier, but because she meant every word of what she’d said.
S’ agapo. I love you.
It was crazy and nonsensical, but Marianna knew it as sure as the little feet that kicked inside her. She’d fallen for Nico, and the thought of being without him made her want to lock herself in a dark room. But that didn’t mean she would settle for a marriage where she was treated like a house guest. It was the real deal or nothing.
Her brothers and Felicity might not understand it…in their eyes, Nico had pushed her out. All they could see was their sister fleeing, eyes red-rimmed and watery, and they wanted someone to blame. But the fact was, Marianna had known Nico would take time to come around. After talking with Jules, she knew that he and Nico had started off on the wrong foot, creating sparks around a puddle of gasoline. And she could only imagine what it must have been like to overhear their conversation—hell, if she heard Nico saying he loved Alethea, she probably would have flipped out too.
Even when she’d had lunch with Alethea, hearing about their former relationship had been like taking a knife to her gut. The fact that she’d brushed off how he felt about the Jules conversation was on her. She and Nico were both responsible for how things had turned out—her for falling in love, and him for being too stubborn to see it.
…
Nico leaned back in the plush seat of the Precision Investments private jet. The trip to Australia would be long, and he planned to down a few sleeping tablets later in the evening to try and get through it as easily as possible.
“The pilot should be ready for takeoff shortly.” Maria, a cabin crew staff member, opened a bottle of sparkling water and poured it into a glass with ice and a lime wedge. “Is there anything I can get you in the meantime, Mr. Gallinas?”
“No, thank you.” Nico glanced out of the window at the perfect Corfu summer afternoon. The sun was getting lower in the sky, sending warm, golden light across the island.
Maria nodded and disappeared into the back of the jet. Nico would have plenty of time to mull over how to make things up to Marianna. Plenty of time to think about all the ways he’d screwed up.
He reached into the inside pocket of his jacket and pulled out the porcelain cat. The little figurine seemed to glare at him, the black enamel eyes narrowed in judgement.
“I know, I deserve it,” he muttered.
Each and every morning when he’d walked into the bedroom, he’d noticed the cat sitting in the same spot. The “correct” spot. And each and every time, he’d wished that it wasn’t there. He missed playing that game with her, missed knowing the cat would turn up at some point during the day in an increasingly ridiculous location. He missed waking up in the mornings and hearing her soft, adorable snores breaking through the quiet dawn.
In such a short space of time, she’d become part of his life. An important part. A part he knew was going to leave a gaping hole unless he could fix things.
He turned the cat over in his hands.
He must look a mess. Nico had come straight from work, not wanting to delay leaving for Australia by even a second. Which meant sweating his ass off in the thick summer heat and wearing a shirt that looked like a piece of paper he’d wadded up and thrown in a trash can. He was in desperate need of a shower. His suit pants were hanging loosely on his hips, since he’d barely eaten anything since she’d left. He’d ordered all the staff out of his house, determined to be alone to wallow in his misery. That was, until Alethea had walked into his office and handed him that book.
That damn book.
Exhaustion hit him like a wave. He hadn’t slept properly since the night Marianna had been tucked up in his arms, and he was certain he wouldn’t sleep that well again until she returned to his bed. To his life. He wondered what she might be doing in Australia. Would she have returned to the house she shared with her brothers, to their protection? He frowned.
I will give my child the best family I can. I will give her a mother and a father. No matter what you say to me.
Her words. A mother and a father. That included him. But how could she give her child a mother and a father if she moved back to Australia…
It hit him like a bolt of lightning. She hadn’t gone back home to Australia. Marianna was still here, in Corfu.
I will give her a mother and a father. No matter what you say to me.
That was her way of telling him she wasn’t going to run away. Even if they weren’t together, she would want their child to have access to both parents. Something neither she nor Nico had ever experienced. He knew she wouldn’t want to deprive their child of something so important because, down to her very bones, she believed in family. That’s why she’d wanted them to have a go at creating something real, that’s why she wouldn’t sit by and let him treat her like a guest. She inserted herself into his life because she knew family was the biggest gift she could give as a mother. So there was no way she would have left Corfu.
You know her.
The quiet little thought wound through him. Marianna was his wife, and not only had he fallen for her…he knew who she was. As an individual. As a lover. As a mother.
He knew her.
The jet’s engines whirred, and the plane started to taxi.
“Wait!” Nico unbuckled his seat and waved to Maria, who was standing outside the cockpit. “Stop. I’m not going anywhere.”
It didn’t take long to find the place where Marianna was staying. On a hunch, he called the language center in Corfu Town and found that she’d started teaching there. Today. Pride swelled in his chest, knowing that she would do such an amazing job with her students.
From there, he’d asked his driver if Marianna had called on him to help her. Sheepishly, the man admitted he�
��d driven Marianna and her luggage from the hotel she’d stayed in the night she left his place to a house closer to Corfu Town. Not wanting to get involved, he hadn’t alerted Nico to this request. Instead of getting angry, Nico gave the man a raise and praised him for a job well done.
The villa was located further north of Nico’s house, in Danilia. It was simple but inviting, situated on a hill with a great view. He could practically see Marianna walking around on the deck, barefoot, with a long dress swirling around her feet as she carried a baby on her hip. The cloudless sky created a vibrant backdrop, forcing Nico to squint behind his glasses.
The villa had two cars in the driveway. Was she staying with someone? A family member…or maybe Jules. He swallowed back his anxiety. Likely, he wouldn’t be facing Marianna alone while giving his apology. He’d probably have a much larger audience than that. And for someone who could barely acknowledge his feelings in private, that was a hell of a prospect.
Nico paused on the doorstep to the house, his hand raised to press the doorbell while his heart hammered in his ribcage. There would be hell to pay. Of that, he was certain.
The door swung open, and Nico found himself staring face-to-face with Daniel. But the angered faces of two other men were not far behind.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Daniel growled. He pushed the screen door forward, forcing Nico back a step, and the Halsey brothers poured out of the house. “If you think you’re going to keep hurting her, then you’re dead wrong.”
“I want to see my wife,” he said calmly.
One of the other brothers came forward. He looked older than Daniel and had a sprinkling of gray hair at his temples. “You can’t send her packing and then turn up here like it’s no big deal. Do you have any idea what she’s gone through?”
“How is she?” His heart wrenched.
“She’s been a fucking zombie.” Daniel stuck his hands out and shoved Nico in the chest. He stumbled back a step, but only because he was unprepared. “She wanders around like she’s lost, and she barely says a word to anyone.”
Beauty and the Greek Billionaire Page 19
