“Always.”
“But before…” She let her voice trail off, not sure it was worth getting into.
His handsome mouth firmed. “Not worth discussing?” he asked silkily. “But I will answer your implied question. The last time you were pregnant, I was in the middle of a takeover bid from a conglomerate that wanted my flagship company. I was not as focused on you as I should have been, which was why I asked for my mother’s help.”
Polly didn’t mask her expression fast enough to hide what she thought of his mother’s help.
He smiled ruefully. “Just so. I accept that she was not the comfort to you I thought she would be.”
Appreciative of that insight, belated though it might be, Polly went back to what else he’d revealed. “But surely no takeover bid could have been any real threat.”
“One thing you will learn in business. No matter how big you are? Someone is always bigger, if only temporarily. I’d made some risky moves, not realizing they were waiting for just such an opportunity. I was too focused on business, and when you told me the difficulties you were having with your pregnancy, my mother assured me you were fine. It was all very normal. Your doctor confirmed that.”
“It was normal, if not easy for me to deal with.” And she’d really wanted his support, not his mother’s repressively traditional advice.
“I really thought Mama would help you through the difficulties of pregnancy while I worked seven days a week to keep my business.”
“Your mother help me?” Polly asked in disbelief, even as she appreciated he hadn’t just ignored her for business as usual. And he’d believed she was okay because maybe that was what he needed to believe while his attention was directed elsewhere.
It put her last pregnancy in a different light, but
it didn’t appreciably change how she saw her husband’s attitude to her. Because whatever the cause, even pregnant, Polly had not been anything like his primary concern.
“I did not appreciate how old-fashioned her views on pregnancy were,” he acknowledged with unexpected candor.
Even oblique criticism of his mother was not something she was used to from Alexandros.
He was very protective of the older woman. He’d once shared how close to losing her he’d felt he’d come after the unexpected death of his father.
The Kristalakis patriarch had only died a little over a year before she and Alexandros met. She’d wondered sometimes if that was what had driven Alexandros’s uncharacteristic impromptu marriage proposal.
“Or how much she enjoyed my discomfort.”
He frowned. “I’m sure that is not true.”
And with that, they reached the end of any honest dialogue about his mother and her attitude toward Polly.
Polly didn’t bother to argue her viewpoint. She’d learned there was no advantage to it. He didn’t hear criticism of his precious mother.
And honestly? Polly wasn’t sure Athena had enjoyed her pain. It had seemed like it though, all mixed up with Athena’s and Stacia’s efforts to undermine Polly’s place in Alexandros’s life.
Regardless, Polly would not allow a few unexpected moments of understanding on his part lull her into thinking Alexandros had changed in any significant way.
This refrain, in different guises, was an old one. Athena Kristalakis had been furious with her son marrying an American nobody instead of one of the beautiful Greek socialites she’d been pushing at him for years.
Under the pretext of friendship, Athena had drawn proverbial blood over and over again in her campaign to send her unwanted daughter-in-law packing. She and her daughter Stacia had done their best to make Polly feel like the outsider she was, making sure those in their circle treated her with the same disdain they did.
Athena had even changed Polly’s first name! Calling her Anna, without asking for Polly’s approval. Which she would not have given.
Anna was not Polly’s name and she never thought of herself that way. However, as time went on, Polly had allowed her Anna persona to develop. The Anna facade stood between her and any real interaction with her detractors, and most of the time, even with her husband anymore.
“Your silence does not signify agreement,” he said as if just figuring that fact out.
“No, it does not.” It never had.
“It is your way of telling me you can’t be bothered to argue any longer.”
“Maybe.” She was reeling.