Lauranne stopped dead, shocked and distressed by his bald statement. ‘No!’
‘She was devastated that my father had lost the island.’ Zander stared at the sea, his eyes fierce. ‘She was very elderly and she never got over the shock.’
Lauranne tried to imagine what it must be like to lose the home that you’d lived in all your life.
‘That’s terrible—’
‘I was staying with her when she died. I found her.’ His tone was matter-of-fact but Lauranne still had her hand in his and she felt the sudden painful tightening of his fingers on hers. ‘I was nine years old.’
Without thinking, Lauranne stepped forward and slid both her arms around him, feeling his pain so acutely that the tears welled up and spilled down her cheeks. ‘That’s so awful—’
His mouth twisted but his arms tightened around her. ‘What was awful was losing the only person who actually bothered about me,’ he confessed. ‘And she was so angry with my father. The night before she died she made me promise that I’d get the island back.’
Lauranne closed her eyes, finally understanding what this was all about.
He was fulfilling his promise.
The promise of a nine-year-old boy to his beloved grandmother.
The knowledge choked her. ‘So has Kouropoulos always owned it?’
Zander shrugged. ‘Virtually. It was sold to him by wife number three. He’s owned it for twenty-six years and up until now he’s always refused to sell.’
‘So what makes you think he’ll sell now?’
‘He’s in financial difficulty.’ Zander frowned. ‘To be honest I’m mystified as to why he hasn’t sold sooner.’
‘Does he know why you want it?’
Zander shrugged. ‘I have no idea.’
‘Your father must have been devastated to lose it.’
‘He had bigger problems to worry about. His entire company was going under,’ Zander said. ‘When he died the company was in a mess.’
Lauranne looked at him. ‘It must have been so hard for you.’
‘I was thrown in the deep end,’ Zander admitted, his handsome face blank of expression. ‘The company had been struggling for the best part of a decade. There were thousands of employees relying on me for jobs. My entire focus was on turning the company around as fast as possible.’
He obviously felt an enormous sense of responsibility for his employees and she frowned slightly, remembering how everyone had sung his praises during the interviews she’d arranged with the media.
Without exception, the people who worked for him seemed to think he was a very good boss.
‘And you did turn it around.’ And he’d done it at a ridiculously young age. ‘How did you do it? How did you build the company into what it is today?’
‘By being ruthless, cold and unemotional, agape mou.’ His eyes gleamed as he quoted her again and she gave a rueful smile, fascinated and warmed by the new insight into his character.
He wasn’t unemotional. She knew that now. In fact she’d seen more emotion in him during the past hour than in all the rest of the time they’d been together. There was no doubting his fierce love for his grandmother, the hurt caused by his father and his loyalty towards those who worked for him. He certainly wasn’t unemotional and if he’d been cold and ruthless then maybe it had been because he’d had so much responsibility thrust on him at a young age. With no support from family.
‘When your mother left, who did you live with?’
He gave a humourless laugh. ‘The next wife. And you should probably feel sorry for them rather than me,’ he drawled, lifting a hand to ward off sympathy. ‘I was the child from hell. I think I was personally responsible for wife number four leaving.’
‘No child would have been able to do that if she’d truly loved your father.’ She hesitated. ‘Your childhood must have been very lonely. Is that the reason you give so much money to children’s charities?’
‘My childhood was fine.’ His tone was slightly chilly, discouraging any further exploration down that route. ‘I learned at an early age to rely on no one but myself and that has been the best business lesson of all.’
Lauranne bit her lip.