She shifted a little closer to him on the stones, just enough so their bodies were touching…
‘Can I… tell you?’ he asked her, in a tone so soft and quiet it was almost inaudible amid the shush of the sea against the stones.
‘Yes,’ she said firmly. ‘Yes, of course.’
50
He took a breath, chest heavy from what he had already told her. ‘And, today, my grandmother, she told me that… it was my father.’
‘What was your father?’ Faye asked, grey eyes searching his.
‘My father, he was the one behind the attack in Athens. It might have been men I didn’t know doing the beating but it was a man I did know who orchestrated it.’ He sighed, recalling the details hisyiayiahad delivered. ‘I had made my comeback. I was playing well again, really well, the operation after the injury a success.’ He sighed. ‘My father had debts, big debts, and he made a deal to pay them off and secure a seat at his favourite gambling den for a long time. But I had to be out of the picture as a player.’
‘Kosta… I don’t know what to say. That’s?—’
‘Inhumane?’
‘Yes.’
‘Despicable?’
‘Absolutely.’
He nodded. Finally he had opened up. At last, after what felt like – and actually really had been – a lifetime. Not even his therapists had heard everything he had just shared with Faye. And now it was all out of him he felt as much elated in some way as he felt completely depleted. But Faye hadn’t let go of his hand for a second.
‘I… wish I had stolen more beer,’ he stated, swallowing a lump in his throat.
‘I wish you hadn’t had to go through all that,’ she replied.
‘Yeah, well, I am not the only person to have gone through these things but, I don’t know, I feel that it was only today I started to see what everyone else had gone through too. My mother, my grandmother, probably many more people my father took advantage of. Because that is the thing – all this time I believed that my father was the person who had been controlled and bullied into doing bad stuff, but now it is possible it was completely the other way around.’
‘And he hurt you, Kosta,’ Faye said, squeezing his hand tight. ‘He hurt you in the worst possible way. For money.’
Kostas shrugged. ‘Everything he did was for money. And I thought that was a good thing, you know. That the reason he wanted money was for security. To look after his family, to provide for the future. But now I am believing he only wanted more and more money to gamble with, to play life like he played cards, to enjoy his chaos.’ He shook his head. ‘And I do not know what to do with that. Because all my life I was convinced my father was a good man but the truth might be he was one of the worst men of all.’
She let go of his hand then, knelt up on the stones and put her arms around him, holding him tight with every inch of that tiny frame that possessed such a strong, formidable nature. And he held on, needing to, wanting to.
‘You are a good man, Kosta,’ she whispered. ‘Other people’s actions, no matter how closely those people are connected with you, don’t make you who you are.’
‘But what if they have?’ Kostas asked.
He knew they had. He was sitting on the stones of a beach a few hundred metres away from something he was set to irrevocably change because of a history he’d had complete faith in. Every plan, every project after his father’s death, had been about seeking revenge through undeniable success, about establishing an unshakeable, premium presence, and the super-hotel complex here in Corfu was going to make sure the Petsas name was never forgotten. It had been about power, almost about needing supremacy, and now it made him feel sick to his stomach. And if Faye knew his plans, knew what he had come here to do, there was no doubt in his mind that whatever they had started to enjoy together, the feelings she evoked in him that he was learning to lean towards, not push away, would be over.
‘The man who raced to help when I thought Saffron was being kidnapped is a good man,’ Faye told him. ‘The man who acceptedgyrosinstead of a fruit basket is a good man. The man who just turned a turtle over to save its life is?—’
He needed to be brave. He needed to be himself. ‘Faye,’ he said quickly. ‘I have to tell you something.’
‘Yássas!Hello! We come about the turtle!’
Voices. Flashlight beams. It seemed the team to help the sea creature had arrived.
Faye let him go and stood up fast, waving her hands. ‘Over here! It’s over here!’
Kostas got to his feet too, brushing the dust from the stones off his shorts as two people approached with purpose.
‘What did you want to tell me?’ Faye asked, looking at him. ‘Can it wait until we make sure the turtle is OK?’
He nodded. ‘Ne.Fisika. Yes. Of course.’
