They walked up the curved staircase and were led to a bedroom that was as big as her apartment. Honey frowned even more, looking at Antonis suspiciously as one of his men came into the room and passed him something. The man left the room, and Antonis came over to them, holding out an item for Kai. Defensive and scared, she was ready to go off until she noticed that it was a handheld game. Immediately, Kai’s eyes lit up with excitement, and he nearly grabbed the game until he paused and looked back at her for permission.
Honey’s frown refused to fade, though, as she still eyed the gift suspiciously. She wanted to say no, but at this point, she needed something that would distract Kai from this madness, who had been awfully quiet at the beginning of their car ride before he fell asleep, which was unlike him. Kai was usually very talkative and friendly with most people, which was why earlier today, he had spent most of the time bombarding Yanis with the curious questions of an eight-year-old kid. But Kai had not said a single word on their way here.
“Okay,” Honey said, reluctantly.
“Thank you,” Kai told Antonis.
“You’re welcome. I’m Antonis Tsagkarakis, and I’m a friend of your mother.”
Honey scuffed, knowing that was complete bullshit. He was nothing to her anymore, not even her boss. He was just a crazy, controlling man who could not accept that she did not want to be with him.
“I’m Kai.”
“It’s nice to finally meet you under good circumstances. I thought the day would never come.”
“Let’s go sit over there, honey. So you can play your game,” Honey said, cutting this conversation short. She almost wished she had sent Kai off with his father if she had known something like this would happen. She didn’t want Kai interacting with Antonis at all.
She sat Kai down on the couch near the window. Kai immediately started up the handheld game, his attention completely focused on it, and she was grateful for that. Once he was settled, she walked over to Antonis, who stood near the balcony, gazing out at his backyard, which could only be described as land. It was so vast, with a large pool, and she could see the lake that wasn’t too far away.
“We need to talk,” Honey said with her arms crossed. Antonis did not respond, only looking forward, but she was not deterred.
“Antonis, I said we need to—”
“Four years ago, I had this place built with you in mind,” he announced, and her eyes widened with disbelief. “I always imagined you living here. There’s a big kitchen downstairs, four times the size of your own. Your son would have his own room. There’s even space for a garden in the back because I thought you would like that.”
“I didn’t ask you to do that,” Honey said, voice tight with anger.
“All of this could have been yours if you had just given me a chance.”
Honey chose to ignore his comment and focus on the situation at hand.
“Please let my son and me go.”
“The estate is around seven acres, you know. It took some time to buy it, but I felt that New Jersey would be better for us than New York.”
“Ugh,” she said, annoyed, feeling like she was speaking to someone who spoke an entirely different language. But it had always been that way with Antonis. They could never have a normal conversation like other people because he had no regard for what she wanted.
“Why won’t you love me?” he asked her as he finally turned to face her, giving her the full attention she had wanted mere seconds ago, but now that she had it, she wished he had never turned around.
Honey looked away from him, unable to bear the intensity of his gaze.
“Answer me,” he bit out, the anger seeping through his voice, and Honey had a feeling that if her son weren’t here, those words would have more base in them.
She sighed bitterly before she turned her cold, dark eyes on him. If he wanted to hear the truth, she had no choice but to oblige.
“Whenever you looked at me, it made my skin crawl, Antonis,” she said, not giving a damn if it hurt his feelings or not. “You scare me, Antonis. You scared me the first night I met you at Diamond’s club. You scared me the first night I started working at the Gentlemen’s Club, and you’ve been scaring me ever since. Not a day has gone by without me being terrified ofwhat you might do to me or the people around me. You hurt Kai’s father. My exes all magically got hurt or disappeared. You want to own me, like I’m a doll or a trophy you won. This house isn’t for me. It’s a trophy case for you to lock me in just like you’re doing now. It’s a prison. You don’t love me. You can’t possibly, so I don’t understand how you could have the audacity to ask that of me.”
“Don’t question my love for you,” Antonis said angrily as he took a step forward, and she immediately took one back, wanting to maintain the necessary distance between them. “This house is nothing. I would have given you the world and all of my love with it. My affection for you is real, and I don’t see you as a doll or toy as you claim.”
Honey scuffed, but Antonis continued.
“But I see you as a gem, my gem. A beautiful gem that I found, but now my gem was claimed by another, and yet you look at me as if I’m a monster for taking back what was rightfully mine. What I found,” he barked. “Why question my feelings when my nephew has done nothing but screw every woman at the club?”
Honey didn’t respond as she continued to gaze at him coldly, unmoved by his words.
“You were supposed to be different. You were supposed to be special, but you gave yourself to my nephew, that cretin, that boy who neither loves you nor recognizes you for the gem that you are. Every day, I imagine putting more bullet holes in him for touching you.”
She gasped in shock, disturbed.
