Two decades.
His throat burned and his fists clenched, but the dam didn’t break. Not yet.
He turned away, facing the tall windows. The sun outside was too bright, too cruel. But he let it burn him.
‘I don’t know if I can forgive you,’ he said after a long pause. ‘Not yet.’
Agnes nodded. ‘Then I’ll wait. For as long as it takes.’
He didn’t answer. Just stood there in the wreckage of his life, knowing it was indeed too late. He had nothing to offer Vayle, after all.
Nothing at all.
Agnes continued to speak. ‘I also hired a private detective to look for you.’
Another bolt of shock lanced his middle. ‘You hired a detective?’ he echoed woodenly.
‘Ne. But that went nowhere.’
He knew why. He, Andreas and Capaldi had paid a fisherman to smuggle them into Sicily on his boat so they could find menial work on a vineyard. He’d scrimped and saved for the better part of two and a half years. He’d returned to Athens and bought his first hotel for pennies, courtesy of the failing economy. He’d put in the papers to change his name the same day and never looked back.
Her soft sobbing refocused his attention on her. ‘The investigator said it was likely you were…’ She stopped, unable to form the words.
He spoke them for her. ‘You were led to believe I was dead.’ And here, now, was theexodushe’d always wished for. But, rather than experience the satisfaction of a well-earned denouement, his own personal Greek tragedy appeared entirely formed of acts of poor judgement and mistimed endeavours.
‘Until Vayle and I heard from your lawyer wanting her hotel.’ She rose, approached and caught his hand in hers, gripping it tightly. ‘Forgive me.Parakalo. There wasn’t a single day when I didn’t think about you. Regret what I did.’
Nelios didn’t pull away.
But, even as he allowed himself to absorb the series of unfortunate circumstances that had brought him to this point, something whispered to him that he’d been irreparably altered.
In a way neither he nor anyone else might be able to fix.
Vayle opened the French doors and started walking, just as she’d done yesterday after putting Angelos down for his nap. Nelios had been gone just under twenty-four hours. It felt like years.
She walked past the middle point of the island, through the olive and orange groves, skirting the craggy beach and climbing the cliff till she reached the highest point. There she sat, watching the waves crash relentlessly against the rocks below. Salt spray mixed with tears she didn’t want to dash away as an hour passed, maybe two.
It was good to get it all out so she could be strong for Angelos…for the new life she carried. With a hiccup, she slid her hand over her belly, heavier emotions clogging her throat. She hadn’t even had time to absorb this miraculous news until now. Now she had, an untouched piece of her heart filled with love her for the baby growing inside her. ‘I will love you too, through thick and thin. I promise you.’
‘Vayle.’
She shook her head, believing the deep echo of her name was a trick of the wind.
‘Agapita, please come away from the edge.’
Startled, she glanced over her shoulder in time to catch Nelios’s deep flinch and paling face. She didn’t want to hope and couldn’t bear another bout of rejection, so she faced the turbulent view once more. ‘Why should I?’
‘Because watching you tumble off this cliff will be the tragic melodrama that finally kills me; I’m sure of it.’
She shrugged and kept facing forward. ‘I’m feeling melodramatic. I thought I’d come and see the literal expression of my feelings.’
‘It would please me greatly if you stepped back a little more.’
Perhaps it was cruel to relish the strain in his voice. To know the thought of losing her shooksomepart of him. Anger bubbled up. She’d put everything on the line, and for what?
Her fingers tightened around the white plastic stick in her pocket, resenting the jolt of unjustified guilt she felt. She managed,barely, to kick herself out of that mindset. She’d done nothing wrong. They’d done this with their eyes wide open.
‘I’m not in the mood to please you, Nelios. What are you doing here, anyway? Weren’t you going to be in Athens for several days?’
