If I’d been as poor as she was, would I, too, have been tempted to do what she did…sell Ari for a million?
The thought sat in his head with a weight he did not want to feel. But felt all the same.
What did he know of poverty? He’d been born to immense wealth, immense privilege. What must it be like to have to live in a place like that? To have your world confined to such conditions? Dreary, cramped, dingy, squalid.
And then someone offered you a million pounds…
So you could taste luxury the easy way…
Ann had finished eating, setting aside her knife and fork. She lifted her head.
‘Would you like me to serve the next course?’
Her voice was quite steady, as if they had not just been talking about what had happened to her sister as a vulnerable young teenager.
Nikos nodded. ‘Yes, thank you.’
She busied herself clearing away their plates and moving to the sideboard. Nikos joined her, lifting the lids of the chafing dishes. His thoughts were troubled, confused. Unsettling. Making him think things he found uncomfortable.
Briskly, Ann took the filled plates back to the table. Nikos poured out more wine. They settled down to eat the next course. After a few moments Ann said, ‘There are several shows on in the park that I’m sure Ari would love. If you can’t face them I can take him, if you like.’
‘No, the pleasure is in seeing his pleasure,’ returned Nikos.
He spoke in a deliberately easy manner. It was clear that Ann wanted to change the subject, and he could understand why. But even as they resumed their deliberately light conversation about Ari his thoughts were running as a background process in his mind. Like an underground river—eroding what he had taken for the solid rock of his certainties about her. Her sister.
He thought of what he’d known of Carla Turner. Yet she had protected her young sister’s happiness by sacrificing herself to the lusts of a pervert exploiting the very children he had been appointed to care for. Had that loss of innocence she’d suffered made her the woman she’d become? Irremediably scarred by what a man had done to her?
And Ann? What of her? Taking the money he’d offered her as her only chance to escape the poverty she’d been trapped in?
Again he felt the certainties he had held for so long shift, become unstable. Reshape themselves.
But what shape would they finally take? He did not know. Could not tell. Could only let them run in the background of his mind while he dined with a woman he both desired and despised.
The next day was spent entirely at Ari’s pleasure: a second visit to the theme park, a swim in the hotel pool, and a daredevil circus dinner show in the evening. Then came a day at a second theme park, rounded off with a candlelit parade and supper at the main park. Back in their suite, Ari was asleep in minutes.
Ann kissed him tenderly, an ache filling her heart. This was their last day here—which meant tomorrow she must return to London. Leave Ari.
Leave Nikos—
The ache in her heart seemed to intensify…
‘Come and have some coffee.’ Nikos’s deep voice came from the doorway. She straightened, composing herself. Her expression did not falter even as her eyes went straight to Nikos’. As if a magnet drew them thither.
But then he drew all women’s eyes.
She went through to the reception room. After all, this would be the last time she would spend with him. The sense of loss increased even as she berated herself for letting it in.
‘So,’ said Nikos, relaxing back, taking his coffee cup, ‘do you think Ari is theme parked out?’
She made her voice sound normal—the way she had done all the time here. ‘For now, yes. But as soon as you get him home he’ll be asking you when you’re going to take him again!’
He laughed, and Ann had to drop her eyes. The aching feeling inside her was getting stronger. She must crush it. Because there was no place for it. This time tomorrow she would be back in London, with her own life—her real life—taking her over again. That was what she must remember.
Remember what Nikos Theakis thought of her…
‘Well, next year, perhaps,’ he allowed. ‘But I admit I’m looking forward to being in central Paris tomorrow. Tell me, do you know the city?’
She shook her head. ‘I’ve never been there.’