“Hell no!” This woman wasn’t just attacking my husband, she was going after everything his family had built for generations. “Stepping down makes you look guilty as sin.”
“I know this, yes.”
I’d built TWM’s reputation from nothing. I understood how quickly public perception could shift, how one viral post could undo years of work. “What’s our legal strategy? Are we going to release the video evidence? Take this to trial? Because if we settle, even with an NDA, it looks like you’re buying her silence.”
He pulled back slightly to look at me, surprise flickering in his eyes. “You’ve been thinking about this.”
“Of course I have. I run a business too, remember? I know how this works.” I held his gaze. “If you have clear evidence, we need to be aggressive. File a countersuit for defamation. Make it expensive and public so that no one else ever tries this.”
Aris looked at me with open pride. “My attorneys are already drafting the response. As for you, you will focus on recovering and taking care of our children, yes?”
“Excuse me? You don’t get to decide that.”
“In this matter, Dede, I absolutely do, yes.”
“You’re trying to shut me out.”
“I’m not shutting you out. I’m protecting you.” His hand slid down to my hip. “You had major surgery less than a month ago. You’re still healing and nursing two babies.”
“And I’m also your wife. This affects our family, which means I get a say in how we handle it.” I met his eyes steadily. “What if the situation were reversed? What if someone from my past was coming after me with false accusations? Would you sit back and let me handle it alone?”
His jaw tightened. “This, it is different.”
“How? Because you’re the man?”
“Yes.” His eyes held mine with unwavering intensity. “Because I am man, and it’s my job to protect you and shield you from threats.” He stroked my hip bone. “If someone attacked you, I would destroy them completely. You would never lose a single night’s sleep over it.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but closed it.
“This mess, it is mine, Dede. My former assistant. My company. My failure to fire her sooner.” His voice roughened. “I brought this into our lives. The least I can do is keep it from touching you more than it already has.”
“That’s not how marriage works,” I said quietly. “Your problems are my problems. Your battles are my battles.”
“You are right, yes. In principle, you are absolutely right.” His hand moved from my hip to cradle the back of my head. “But the principle, it does not account for the fact that three weeks ago, the surgeons cut you open to bring our children into this world. It does not account for you having to nurse every two hours nursing them and for the pain you try to hide from me. Your body, it is working overtime to heal, produce the milk and recover from everything the pregnancy and the surgery took from you.”
He pressed his forehead to mine. “Let me protect you, agápi mou. You have been strong your entire life because you had to be. You carried burdens alone because there was no one else to share them. But you have me now. Let me do this while you are giving everything to our children, yes? Please. Let me do this for you.”
“Okay,” I said softly. “But you keep me informed.”
“Every development, yes? Every conversation with attorneys. This I promise.”
He kissed me then, and I melted into it immediately, parting my lips as his tongue slipped in, tangling with mine in a deep rhythm. Heat sparked and ignited between us.
I was lost in his taste when a small cry from the stroller broke through the haze. Perry. The cry quickly escalated to a full wail.
I started to shift off Aris’s lap, but he held me in place.
“Let me,” he said, standing with me still in his arms before setting me carefully in the chair. He moved to the stroller and lifted Perry out, cradling him against his shoulder.
He murmured something soft in Greek that seemed to calm our son immediately, though the cries soon turned to hungry rooting reflexes against Aris’s shoulder.
“Someone’s ready to eat,” he observed, carrying Perry to me.
I unbuttoned the top of my blouse as Aris brought him over. Perry latched immediately, his tiny hands curling against my skin.
“Greedy little thing, yes?” Aris perched on the edge of his desk, watching us with that soft expression he got whenever he looked at the babies.
“Takes after his father.” I looked up at him.
