‘Okay...’ Thea looked up expectantly at her mother.
‘Okay, what?’ Lizzie asked lightly, pinning a smile to her face.
‘Do. You. Like. Him?’ Thea asked, testing her facial muscles to their limit. ‘Damon Gavros,’ she explained impatiently. ‘I saw him sitting next to you. We all did,’ Thea added, grinning as she gazed around at her friends.
So now she had an audience. Lizzie’s stomach sank. She shrugged and smiled through it. ‘Of course I like him. What’s not to like?’
‘Well, that’s good,’ Thea said. ‘Because he’s on his way over—’
‘What?’ Lizzie’s world tilted as she swung around in panic.
Damon was not supposed to be here. He’d just flown away in his helicopter.
‘We’re all thrilled you like him,’ Thea said, her voice penetrating Lizzie’s fog of incomprehension, ‘because we need ice cream and we’re hoping he’ll buy some.’
If only life were that simple, Lizzie thought. She almost laughed. Impending hysteria, she guessed. It took a child to point out the obvious. There was ice cream, and there was a man with enough money to buy each of them a serving. Damon was no more complex or disturbing than that as far as Thea was concerned.
And long may it remain that way, Lizzie thought.
‘Why don’t you stay here with your friends while I go and see what he says to your suggestion?’ she offered.
‘Not he—Damon,’ Thea insisted. ‘You have to use his name if you stand a hope of getting close to him.’
‘Right...’ Lizzie pressed her lips together in a thin smile.
She had no chance of getting close to Damon, but now wasn’t the time to disillusion Thea. There was no more time to waste. She had to head him off before he reached them and Thea sensed that something was wrong.
‘Damon—Damon Gavros!’ Thea called after her. ‘He has the same name as this island. You can’t forget it.’
She would never forget it, since it was gouged on her heart, Lizzie thought as she called back to Thea, ‘Back soon. Sit tight and I’ll see what I can do.’
‘Not too soon!’ Thea yelled after her. ‘We’ve got stuff to do...so you’ve got the whole evening with Damon. See you tomorrow!’
As the children’s giggles rose behind her Lizzie knew she had to make things right before they got a lot worse. She had to reach a compromise with Damon if they weren’t going to end up fighting each other through every court in the land. Though how she was supposed to fight Damon Gavros and his legal team, she had no idea.
Not yet, Lizzie thought, firming her jaw, but when it came to Thea she’d fight to the death.
* * *
He was feeling icy calm as he strode across the field towards Lizzie. Business could do that for him. He could always see the way ahead where his work was concerned. It cleared his head when other areas of his life were complicated. He had given precise instructions to his aide so the fallout after the fire would be dealt with. Everyone would receive the care and compensation they deserved. He wouldn’t stint. He never did where family was concerned.
And now for Lizzie, who was coming to meet him, diverting him away from the group of children—which was just as well. When they were a few feet apart he jerked his head to suggest she follow him. He noticed Thea was watching, and smiled for her benefit.
The multinational conglomerate he controlled with such ease was nothing compared to the complexities of human relationships, he decided. This was the minefield, right here. He felt no animosity towards Lizzie. He felt nothing. But his mind was made up. The direction they would take from here was clear. Lizzie might have procrastinated for eleven years, but making fast decisions based on the evidence in front of him had always been his forte.
He led the way to his helicopter and noticed the moment when realisation struck Lizzie. Damon had two helicopters. In fact he had a fleet of helicopters. He never knew when he or one of his executives would need to move fast. He had never needed to move faster than he did now.
He opened the passenger door and made sure Lizzie was settled before helping her to fasten her harness and explaining how her headphones worked. There was no tension or anger in his voice. There was nothing. Lizzie’s face paled, as if she found his manner more chilling than if he’d raged at her.
The short flight brought them above his beach house. It was here that the future would be spelled out.
* * *
A kaleidoscope of images flashed through Lizzie’s panicked mind as the helicopter hovered over Damon’s spectacular beach house—or mansion, as Lizzie thought of it. The contrast of the simple home she’d made for Thea with this, and with all Damon’s other homes across the world, was painfully stark.
She could get a sense of perspective through the clear floor of the helicopter beneath her feet... The carefully cultivated gardens, the Olympic-size swimming pool and the tennis courts beyond. There was even a putting green. Ivory sand fringed the bright blue ocean in front of the house, and she could see Damon’s cutting-edge powerboat rolling gently on the lazy waves.
Compare that to a grimy London street and a front door that opened on to someone else’s hallway and it was no wonder her heart was beating in double time.
And it wasn’t just Damon’s possessions or his way of life that she found so threatening, but his super-keen intelligence and innate skill. Damon might say he’d had advantages, and he had, but he’d taken them, and transformed his father’s business into a stratospheric success. Some people took a bus to work, while others—like Damon—handled a helicopter with the same ease as a compact car, she mused as the sleek craft settled seamlessly on its skids.
What would Damon make of their daughter’s obsession with thrift shops? Lizzie wondered as Damon came around to help her out. Would he understand that Thea needed to express her quirky side with things she couldn’t find on the High Street? Or would he think that Lizzie’s lack of financial resources had condemned Thea to wearing second-hand clothes? Would he understand anything about Thea?
Was it wrong and selfish of Lizzie to think, Thea is my baby? Was it wrong to look down at Damon’s capable hands as he freed her harness and refuse to acknowledge that this man had played an equal part in the creation of their child?
Thea is the child I carried in my belly, and then on my hip, and always, always in my heart, Lizzie thought as Damon walked ahead of her.
But he could offer Thea so much more than she could. Thea had to confine her violin practice to one hour a day in London when she was at home, or they would have to find somewhere else to live. That was what the owners of the house had told Lizzie. How many music studios could Thea have in a house like this?
Sparkling white granite chippings crunched beneath their feet as they walked up the elegant path towards the front door. Everywhere she looked was something amazing...the vast planting arrangements at each side of the door, the banks of flo
wers below the windows, all immaculately groomed.
Damon could easily afford to buy any priceless violin Thea set her heart on, Lizzie thought as he inserted a code into the panel at the side of the door and it swung open. She had to work three jobs just to pay for the extra sheet music Thea needed for school.
By the time the door opened she had worked herself up into a real state. Damon had all the power in the world. She had none. He had a legal team at his beck and call. She didn’t even have enough money to call a lawyer in England from Greece.
Was she about to lose Thea?
No! Lizzie thought fiercely. Not while she had breath in her body.
She walked into the vaulted hallway and stared around numbly. Whatever she had expected Damon’s new house to be like, this was so much more. The space, the light, the air, the simple luxury surrounding her... It was all extremely tasteful, with décor in a palette of soft neutral shades. And it was empty—as if waiting for someone to move in and imbue it with life.
* * *
This was not the way he had imagined it would be when he brought Lizzie into his new home for the first time. They had only looked at it from the beach before, because—ironically—they’d had to get back for Thea’s concert. Fresh from making love to Lizzie, he’d had the crazy notion of sweeping her into his arms and carrying her across the threshold. And then they’d make love on every surface in the house.
Not this time.
He led the way into a lavishly equipped but as yet unoccupied study. The room was spectacular. A wall of glass faced the electric blue bay, and the desk was a long, plain piece of wood, its only ornament a computer. The surface of the desk was as smooth as glass. He’d planned, prepped and planed it himself, finishing it with beeswax.
As Lizzie ran her fingertips over the surface he remembered the pleasure he’d had making it, the simple joy of working with his hands. Creating things like the desk allowed him to escape the rattle of business for a while and just be. Simplicity in all things always gave him pleasure. Honesty did the same.