The Greek's Hidden Vows

He whirled back, righteous anger replacing the dread. ‘Excuse me? How dare you!’

‘That’s right, get angry. I’ll take that over the silence and icy indifference,’ his father replied, shattered bleakness in his eyes.

‘Whatever it is you’re trying to achieve here, you’d better choose your words carefully,’ he warned.

Agios sighed, walked over to the sofa and dropped heavily into it. ‘I’m trying to say that I deserve your anger. That you have every right to feel it.’

Something attempted to crack open in his chest. He held it in place with sheer willpower. ‘Thanks for the permission,’ he replied sardonically.

His father’s lips twisted. ‘All the while I thought you’d been spared...’ He paused, shook his head. ‘I see you weren’t. You’re too much your father’s son, Christos.’

Icy dread froze his spine. ‘No! I’m nothing like you.’ He couldn’t be. Not when he’d striven to remove himself from the volatility of his upbringing. Not when he’d cut off all feeling lest he be plagued with the overabundance of the wrong type of emotion the way his parents had.

But what if he hadn’t escaped?

What if the child Alexis possibly carried was doomed because of it? The very possibility made his breath catch painfully.

‘Son? What is—’

‘Say what you want to say and let’s be done.’ He needed time to think. Time to wean himself off that traitorous swell of pure joy he’d felt when Alexis had laid the possibility that she might be pregnant at his feet. He needed to replace it with the far more acceptable reality that he couldn’t do this. He had neither the tools nor the road map to make even a halfway decent attempt at fatherhood. Because of the man in front of him.

Agios sighed again. ‘I want... I’ve wanted all these years...to ask for your forgiveness.’

That fracture returned. ‘Why?’

‘Because what I did to you, to your mother, was wrong. I let my bitterness get the better of me. The moment your mother threatened to leave me, I... I just...’ He stopped, shook his head. ‘We shouldn’t have put you in the middle of ou

r problems. I know your mother feels the same—’

‘It’s too late,’ he snapped, because he was in danger of reverting into that little boy again, craving the affection and attention he’d sorely lacked. But he was a grown man. ‘You’re thirty years too late. You need to live with the fact that your actions created a monster.’ And because of that, whatever he’d been foolishly hoping might happen with Alexis could never be. She deserved so much more. More than he could ever give her. The truth shook through him until his guts threatened to turn themselves inside out. Until his very skin was icy cold with the realisation.

‘Christos—’

‘Goodbye, Father.’

He walked out, an altered man from the one who’d entered.

Because all the joy was gone. And yes, it was for the best.

* * *

Alexis opened her eyes to bright sunlight and the cold, empty space beside her. Unease rapidly built inside her when, sitting up and looking around her, she spotted the two large suitcases near the doorway to Christos’s dressing room.

The man himself entered from the living room a moment later. He froze, his gaze combing over her in fierce possession before he reeled himself under control. But in that split moment, she caught surprise, then resignation, which made the stone in her belly even heavier.

She clutched the sheet to her chest, trying to shake the confusion from her head.

‘You didn’t come to bed last night.’

Savage hunger blazed in his eyes for a nanosecond before his expression closed, his movements unhurried as he secured his favoured ultra-thin Vacheron Constantin watch on his wrist. ‘No.’

When she realised he wouldn’t elaborate, she pressed, ‘Why are you packed? Are you...are we leaving?’

‘I’m flying to Athens. Demitri’s ex has agreed to the terms. He wants to secure the custody agreement before she changes her mind.’

Alexis frowned, even as she shifted to get out of bed. ‘Okay, I’ll start packing—’

‘No. You’ll stay here.’