“When my mother said there was no need for us ever to see each other again, right after she’d just been hugging me and crying in my arms, something snapped. And... And...”
“And?”
Leonidas took a deep breath. “I saw her Picasso, sitting nearby, waiting to be wrapped and placed in a crate. Something in my head exploded.” He looked away. “I grabbed some scissors from a nearby table. I heard my mother screaming. When I came out of my haze, I’d slashed the entire side of Love with Birds, right across its ugly gray heart.”
He exhaled. “My mother wrenched the scissors out of my hands, and told me I was a monster, and that I never should have been born.” He looked back at Daisy. “Those were her last words to me. A few weeks later, she died in the Turkish earthquake. Her yali was smashed into rubble and rock. Her body was found but the painting was lost.”
“So that’s how you knew the Picasso was a fake,” Daisy whispered, then shook her head. “And no wonder you wanted it so badly. No wonder you were so angry when...” She swallowed, looking away.
Looking down, he said thickly, “After I became a man, I thought if I could own the painting, maybe I would understand.”
“Understand what?”
“How they could love it so much, and not—”
His throat closed.
“Not you,” she whispered.
His knees felt like rubber. He couldn’t look at her. Would he see scorn in her eyes? Or worse—pity?
He’d grown up swallowing so much of both. Scorn from his family. Pity from the servants. He’d spent his whole life making sure he’d never choke down another serving of either one.
But he was about to become a father. His eyes fell to Daisy’s belly, and he felt a strange new current of fear.
What did he know about being a parent, with the example he’d had? What about Leonidas—either as a desperate, unloved boy, or an arrogant, coldhearted man—had made him worthy to raise a child?
“Leo,” Daisy said in a low voice. With a deep breath, he met her gaze. His wife’s eyes were shining with tears. “I can’t even imagine what you went through as a kid.” She shook her head. “But that’s all over. You have a real family now. A baby who will need you. And a wife who...who...” Reaching up, she cupped her hands around his rough jawline and whispered, “A wife who loves you.”
Leonidas sucked in his breath, his eyes searching hers. Daisy loved him? After everything he’d just told her?
“You...what?”
“I love you, Leo,” she said simply.
His heart looped and twisted, and he couldn’t tell if it was the thrill of joy or the nausea of sick terror.
“But—how can you?” he blurted out.
Her lovely face lifted into a warm smile, her green eyes shimmering with tears. “I’ve always loved you, from the moment we met. Even when I tried not to. Even when I was angry... But I love you. You’re wonderful. Wonderful and perfect.”
She loved him.
Incredulous happiness filled his heart. On the villa’s white terrace, covered with pink flowers and overlooking the blue sea, Leonidas pulled her roughly into his arms, and kissed her passionately beneath the hot Greek sun.
Hours later, or maybe just seconds, he took her hand and led her inside the villa, to the vast master bedroom, with its wide open windows overlooking the Aegean.
Taking her to the enormous bed, he made love to her, as warm sea breezes blew against gauzy white curtains. He kissed her skin, made her gasp, made her cry out her pleasure, again and again.
Much later, when they were both exhausted from lovemaking, they had dinner, seafood fresh from the sea, along with slow-baked lamb marinated in garlic and lemon, artichokes in olive oil, goat’s milk cheese, salad with cucumber and tomatoes, and freshly baked bread.
Full and glowing, they changed into swimsuits and walked along the white sand beach at twilight, as the water rolled sensuously against their legs. They stopped to kiss each other, then chased the waves, laughing as they splashed together like children in the turquoise-blue sea, the sunset sky aflame.
Leonidas watched her, the way she smiled up at him, her eyes so warm and bright. Daisy glowed like a star, her wet hair slicked back, the white bathing suit clinging to her pregnant body. His heart was beating fast.
I love you, Leo.
The setting sun was still warm on his skin as he came closer in the water. She looked at his intent face, and her smile disappeared. Taking her hand, he led her back to the villa, neither of them speaking.