He vaulted down the stairs, disbelief filling him.
Laurel stood aside. She was obviously as bewildered as he was. But she was also, Xander could see at a glance, tensely apprehensive.
His father’s eyes went to him. They were completely unreadable. “I need to speak to you,” he said to Xander in Greek. Then he changed to English, and his unreadable eyes glanced at Laurel. “To both of you.”
Xander tensed as visibly as Laurel. “You’d better come in,” he said slowly.
He and Laurel stood aside, and Paulos Xenakis walked in. Behind him, Xander could see the taxi move off. Laurel went into the sitting room, and Xander ushered his father there as well.
In the sitting room Laurel turned to the older man. “Won’t you sit down?” she said politely.
Paulos nodded. “Thank you,” he said, unsmiling. He lowered himself to one of the sofas. Xander drew Laurel down beside him on the facing sofa. She sat, back straight, hands folded in her lap. Xander cast her a brief flickering smile, his hand patting hers, as if for reassurance.
But it was hard to feel any reassurance. Nothing about his father’s appearance like this, his manner now, his unreadable expression, boded well.
Xander steeled himself.
This would not be good.
Laurel sat uneasily, hands gripping each other. She knew Xander had told his father about her and Dan.
He won’t welcome it—an illegitimate grandson with a thief for a mother, she thought bleakly.
His expression now confirmed it. It was like stone. She felt Paulos Xenakis’s assessing eyes on her, felt her tension mount, and Xander’s too, sitting beside her.
Then he spoke, addressing her directly, speaking in accented English. “I am here,” he said, “because my son has told me about you. How he had an affair with you before he married. Telling me that he ended it when he discovered you had stolen a valuable bracelet from the woman who became his wife. That you have always denied taking it, despite his condemnation of you. You returned to England and unknown to him bore him a son, a son you never told him about.”
His voice was heavy, as if, Laurel thought, he was a prosecuting judge setting out the brute facts of the case.
“I no longer believe—” Xander made to interrupt, but his father’s raised hand silenced him.
The dark eyes, so like his son’s, returned to Laurel, resting heavily upon her. “My son believed only you could have taken the bracelet, that Olympia was innocent, nor could any of the crew, all security vetted, have taken it.”
He paused a moment. Looked now at Xander. The same heavy unreadable expression on his face.
“In that,” Paulos Xenakis said to him, “you were wrong. A member of the crew, your chief steward, Andreas, took it. Placed it in the suitcase of the woman you were having an affair with.”
Laurel heard a rasp from Xander, but his father had held up his hand again. His eyes encompassed them both.
“At my instruction,” said Paulos Xenakis.
Xander surged to his feet. Fury—incomprehension—filled his face. But at his side Laurel had gasped. Breathless and disbelieving. He turned to her, consternation—so much more—taking over. He realised his father was speaking again, not done yet.
“Sit down, my son,” he said. “I must tell you all.”
Numbly, Xander sank down again. Shock, disbelief and incredulity overwhelmed him. That his own father—
“I instructed Andreas to take the bracelet and hide it incriminatingly for the following reason,” he said. “A very simple one.” He paused. “To end, unequivocally and finally, the affair you were having.” There was no expression in his voice, nothing. Nor in his face.
A snarl formed on Xander’s face. “Howdareyou do such a thing!”
“I dared,” said his father, “because it was necessary.” He took a breath, and Xander saw tension across his father’s shoulders. Well, it should be there, after such a confession.
Emotions were bucking through him like an untamed horse, and he strove to master them.
“Necessary,” his father said, “because I needed you to end your affair—which you had no business having and was going on far too long!—and propose to Olympia, who was impatient for all to be settled between you. As impatient as I was. So I arranged with her that you should collect her from her house party and convey her to Athens so that I could then finish your affair, as I did, most effectively.”
“Did Olympia know what you were scheming?” It was all Xander could bring himself to say.
