Husband By Request

She couldn’t believe it, but now was not the time to question her husband’s decision.

Turning to Olympia, she said, “There’s nothing I’d love more than to feed your baby. When you’re back in Athens, please bring him to the penthouse so he can get to know me better. Then maybe he won’t cry when I try to hold him.”

“After my vacation’s over, I’ll call you.”

“I’d like that very much.”

Dominique was more than ready to play Olympia’s game. She reasoned that if they played long and hard enough Olympia would get tired of it and become resigned to the fact that Dominique was here to stay.

She turned to Paul. “Are you coming with Andreas and me?”

“Yes.”

He picked up the baby and handed him to Olympia.

“Is there anything else we can do for you before we leave?” Andreas inquired.

Olympia shook her head. “You’ve done too much already. Thank you.”

He kissed the top of the baby’s head. When he raised up, his gaze flew to Dominique’s. “Shall we go?”

“Just let me get my purse.”

She hurried to the master bedroom, then popped in the bathroom to remove the elastic holding up her hair and gave it a brush. Now she felt ready to leave.

After racing through the villa to the chopper, Andreas helped her climb on board. He took his place in the co-pilot’s seat. Paul sat across from her. Once they were strapped in, the pilot made a flawless ascent and headed for Athens.

To her chagrin Andreas w

ore a brooding expression once more. The thrilling lover of last night was nowhere to be found. With second sight she realized he was hiding his feelings and confusion behind that remote mask.

Not to be put off, Dominique turned to Paul and forced him to talk about his childhood with Andreas. He rewarded her by relating some of their more notorious escapades. She laughed out loud so hard he and the pilot laughed too. It made their short trip very enjoyable.

A company limo was waiting for them at the airport. They dropped Paul off at his flat, then continued on to Andreas’s penthouse apartment, with its elegant, cosmopolitan furnishings and a view of the Acropolis to die for.

She looked out over the city. Nothing seemed changed from a year ago. But as she heard Andreas bringing in their things she was assailed by bittersweet memories. The last time she’d been in here was the morning they’d gotten ready to leave for the courthouse. The beginning of the end for her.

At that point in time she’d felt deserted by his parents, who’d never shown her much warmth and had closed ranks to protect their son no matter what. Her four-month-old marriage had been hanging by a thread. The tension between her and Andreas had made it impossible to communicate. Every look wounded. Every gesture was misinterpreted.

Dominique hadn’t known what to believe about him and Olympia. Andreas had asked her to trust him. But it hadn’t seemed possible to her that Theo would charge them as adulterers for the whole world to see…unless it were true.

For Theo to do something so awful had shaken her faith in her marriage, in Andreas. It had made a lie of any friendship she’d tried to cultivate with Olympia. Nothing had made sense.

She hadn’t been able to follow much of the Greek spoken at the opening of the trial, but she’d known the essence of it. Suddenly the walls had seemed to close in. Everyone’s wooden faces, the clamoring of the media outside in the halls—it had all been too much and it had suffocated her.

Paul must have been watching her, because he’d followed her outside to the limo amidst a barrage of photographers and camera flashes flanking them.

Looking back on that day, she recalled Paul’s desperate attempt to get her to reconsider. He’d ridden all the way to the airport with her, begging her not to leave Andreas. But she’d been beyond reach.

Thinking about it now, she realized how much Paul loved Andreas. He had tried to stop her. That alone should have told her there was more to the story than she knew. Maybe deep down she had known, but her own doubts about her validity as a woman had blinded her to certain truths.

“Dominique?” She turned to her husband. There was a whiteness around his mouth. He looked ill. “I want you to get Dr. Josephson on the phone.”

She’d been right. He was fixated on the fact that they’d made love without protection.

“His numbers are in my purse.” She walked over to the glass coffee table and pulled a small address book from her wallet. “It’s morning in New York. He could still be home, but he might be making rounds at the hospital before he goes to the office. I’ll try to find him.”

Andreas handed her his cellphone. She sat down on the couch and placed a call to the doctor’s office first. The receptionist said she was expecting him shortly and he would phone Dominique as soon as he came in.