“The Theakis men do whatever they want. If he’d wanted to, Christos could just have said Theo was his son.”
“He’s not the only one who decides these things,” Ari said.
“Are you saying you’re the one who asked the doctor to administer the test?” she asked, knowing perfectly well that Ari hadn’t. Christos had admitted to doing the deed himself, but she wondered how far Ari would go to try to convince her to stay.
“I was going to, but I can tell from your tone that you know it was Christos.”
“Yes, I do.” She sighed again. She felt so hollow inside and had no idea how to get back to normal.
“It’s not that Christos doesn’t believe in you, Ava, it’s that he’s afraid to believe in you.”
“I don’t follow.”
“When my Leka died, Christos was young—only nine. He was very close to his mother, and even when he was a young child, heand I never saw eye-to-eye. And her loss was…hard on all of us, but especially on Christos.”
Ava imagined how Theo would react if she were taken from his life. It was a heart-wrenching thought and made her really feel for Christos.
“What does this have to do with the man he is now?” she asked.
Ari pushed his sunglasses onto his forehead and looked her straight in the eye. “He stopped letting anyone into his life. He put up a barrier that only those two hellions he hangs out with were ever able to get past.”
She wanted to smile at the way he described Guillermo and Tristan. They were two of the wealthiest and most successful men in the world, yet to Ari they were hellions.
“I still don’t see what this has to do with me.”
“I think he’s testing you to see if you’ll stay.”
She shook her head. She had no doubt he was testing her in some way. But what Ari said…“I’m not sure I believe that.”
“I’ve known him all his life, Ava, and I haven’t seen him smile the way he does around you and Theo since he was a little boy.
“I’ve lost one son and am not going to give up on the one I have left now that he’s finally found his way back.”
Ava shook her head. “You can’t make him love me.”
“No, but you can.”
“I’m not going to. I’ve spent my entire life striving for things out of my reach and just once I’d like someone to put me first.”
“Christos already does that with you. He cuts his days in the office short to spend more time with you and Theo. Think about that.” And Ari wheeled around and left her there.
Ava sighed and made her way back to her own room. She couldn’t bring herself to go back to Christos’s bed. Not yet.
She wished she could believe that Christos had been motivated by love, but she didn’t think she could. She’d fooledherself twice into thinking that Christos loved her, and she’d been wrong.
Ava cameout of the house the next afternoon and found Christos and Theo playing in the pool. She knew that Christos had been teaching Theo to swim but watching her son jump from the pool deck into the water made her breath catch. He surfaced quickly, swam to the edge and got out again.
“Mama, watch this,” Theo said.
“What am I watching?”
“Cannonball!” He jumped into the pool with a big splash of water.
Christos stayed in the water but swam over near her. Resting his tanned muscled arms on the side, he looked up at her.
“How are you?” he asked, softly.
There was real concern in his voice. Or was she just imagining it? Hearing what she wanted to. “Fine.”
