‘I’m going to sell off most of my wardrobe and jewellery collection, and use the money I make to keep me going while I set up my own business.’ How she could speak at all, never mind brightly and fluently, was something she didn’t think she would ever understand.
‘Can I ask…?’
‘Of course. I’m going to set myself up as a personal stylist—one thing no one has ever said about me is that I don’t have style!’
A grin broke over his rugged face. ‘That sounds perfect for you.’
She nearly came unstuck at this, and it took a long beat for her to say, ‘I’m glad you think so. That means a lot.’
He pulled in a long breath through his nose. ‘If you get stuck for money while you’re making it all happen, there’s always a freelance translation job here for you.’
‘Thank you. Hopefully, I won’t have to take you up on it!’
‘Anything you need…just call me, okay?’
She laughed sadly. ‘I think we both know that’s not going to happen. Anyway, I should go. I just wanted to hand my resignation to you personally—it wouldn’t have felt right going through HR.’
The lightness of his features slowly fell, the finality of her words piercing them both.
It felt like for ever passed between them before he broke the silence shrouding them. ‘Are you still coming to the launch party? It will be a good opportunity for you to network for your new business.’
‘I’ll think about it,’ she lied. She didn’t know how she could cope with spending hours maintaining a smile and trying to pretend that sharing the same air as him wasn’t the worst pain in the world, not when being in an office for a few minutes, unable to touch him, felt like she was bleeding from the inside out.
There was no hiding from it. All her old coping mechanisms had gone, and now she needed to get out of this office and move far away from him before she gave in to the desperate need to throw herself at him and beg him to please love her.
He nodded, understanding etched in his rugged features.
She bit into her lip and stepped to the door. ‘Will your mother be there?’ she asked impulsively.
‘Yes.’ His stare was meditative. ‘But you don’t have to wait until the party if you want to see her. She’s never stopped loving you, Athena.’
They held each other’s stares for one long, last time and then Athena slipped out of his office for the last time.
After a moment spent fighting to hold onto a composure that was unravelling, she embraced Grace tightly. ‘Call Josefina,’ she whispered. ‘And that’s an order.’
Then, after a firm kiss to Grace’s cheek, Athena walked out of Tsaliki Shipping with tears rolling down her cheeks but with a whole new future in front of her that was entirely hers for the making.
That this whole new future didn’t include Draco was something she would just have to learn to live with.
Draco’s office had never felt so quiet. Or so empty.
Shaking the feeling off, he called Grace in and got to work.
Athena pressed the intercom on the high wall to the side of the gate.
It was a long time before it was answered. She knew whoever was viewing the security camera had recognised her.
A disembodied voice said, ‘Can I help you?’
‘Can you please tell Lucie that Athena is here to see her?’
‘She is unavailable. May I take a message?’
She didn’t point out that this was her third attempt and that she’d already left two unanswered messages with the disembodied voice. Athena knew Lucie was home because she’d been spying on the house and had watched her get out of the car and go inside only five minutes ago.
Weary and close to defeat, she quietly said, ‘I just want to talk to her. I swear I’m not here to cause trouble but there are things I need to say to her. Please, I promise I won’t take up too much of her time.’ Feeling tears forming—she couldn’t seem to stop crying—she blinked hard to clear them and whispered, ‘Please. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t important. Please.’
There was a long passage of time followed by a beep and then the iron gates began to open.
