He met her statement with the clenched jaw of someone who knew he was in the wrong and she was in the right.
‘But your reaction is totally normal. You’re acting just like any other parent going through a custody battle.’
‘I’m not a parent,’ he ground out.
‘Really?’ she asked, her head to one side as if inspecting him for a deeper truth. ‘You are looking to be granted full custody of a child you have spent three years feeding, housing, clothing and caring for and you deny that you’re a parent? If not for that, then why are you doing this? Because, Loukis, if you’re doing this just to get back at your mother then...’
Then you are just as bad as her.
r /> The unspoken accusation hung in the air between them, a bell that had tolled its tale and rippled out into his consciousness. He shook his head against her words, trying to dislodge the barb that had hooked into his mind.
‘I’m going to bed,’ she said gently before leaving the room. He barely acknowledged her departure.
Was Célia right? Really? Was it vengeance driving him to seek custody of Annabelle, because of his own hurt feelings, teaching Meredith a lesson perhaps? Or had he told the truth, that his sole motivation was to protect his sister?
In the dimly lit living room, in a chair that after four hours was uncomfortable, he tried out each different chain of thought, listening to his mind and heart as he felt his way through the morass of his motivations. Reluctantly, Loukis was forced to admit that perhaps it was an unsettling mixture of both. But Célia was right. He had to make sure that he kept his own feelings for his mother out of it. Because Meredith would reveal herself soon enough and the blow to Annabelle would be devastating. Not that it stopped his plans for even a second, Loukis decided. He could at least hope to limit that damage by gaining sole custody and ensure that any interaction with Meredith was kept to a minimum.
* * *
The next morning, Loukis surprised her. Not only had he, himself, laid out a breakfast of delicious treats, hot and very strong coffee, but he also appeared to be in a good mood.
After the awkwardness from the night before, it was taking Célia a little longer to adjust to this new, charming fiancé. A dull thud hit her heart as she thought of the word. It hadn’t been the first time that she’d had a near-fiancé. The word conjured images not of Loukis, but of Marc. Of how charming he’d appeared at first, how joyful and exuberant. All things that had disappeared the moment she’d rejected her father’s name, money, and her own burgeoning technical career.
Torn between memories of the past and an unsettling present, it took her a while to realise that Loukis had said something. Or asked something? Because he was looking at her for an answer to some unheard question.
‘I’m sorry, what was that?’
Loukis pushed aside the newspaper and leaned forward. Not before she’d got a look at the large black and white photo of them kissing on the rooftop of the balcony the night before. A headline, she was sure, screamed the news of their engagement and apparent happiness. An article, she was equally sure, dredged up the many references to Loukis’s past conquests and more questions about who this strange woman who had claimed him was.
‘Would you?’
‘Would I what?’ she asked, irrationally irritated.
‘Would you like to go into Athens this morning?’ he repeated pleasantly and frustratingly without...well, frustration.
‘Oh. Yes, I suppose?’
‘You don’t seem sure.’
‘Loukis, right now, to be honest, I’m not quite sure of anything. Why would we go into Athens?’
His answer surprised her. Silencing her. Making her suddenly a little fearful. Because his answer, his apparent purpose, was their engagement ring. A ring that would make all this so much more tangible. It would draw a line beneath the way she had been trying to pass this whole endeavour off as something not quite real.
* * *
Loukis’s cheerful mood seemed to carry on through the morning. The journey into Athens in a chauffeur-driven town car had been full of twists and turns that only served to exacerbate the nausea building in her stomach. The Acropolis loomed high in the distance as they drew closer and closer to the city centre. Sleek buildings bordered the road as they wound through the streets, until they came to the sprawling sandstone building housing the Greek Parliament. It rose on one side of the car, large, proud but strangely removed of some of the pomp and finery of other countries’ central government. It struck her as both beautiful and uncompromising. A little like the man beside her.
It was soon left in the rear-view mirror as the car took them further into the centre, smaller streets full of motorbike riders risking their lives swerving in and out of traffic, tourists doing much the same as they navigated the busy pavements and side streets. The limousine, drawing curious glances from pedestrians, drew to a halt at the corner of a street, and with lithe grace Loukis exited the car and came round to open her door for her.
It seemed to Célia that these small gestures, manners, were automatic for him and in some ways she preferred that. They weren’t intended to ingratiate, there was no purpose to them other than it was simply what he did. It seemed doubtful that this was something his mother had imparted, but more likely that it had been his father. It was on the tip of her tongue to ask, but as she stepped out into the sunlight her mind halted beneath the incredible sight of a riotous waterfall of fuchsia bougainvillea. It was pouring from one side of street, clinging impossibly to a yellow-painted wall, as if challenging the white wisteria blooming forth from the opposite building. It was such a beautiful sight, she couldn’t help but smile.
Even at ten in the morning, the street was bustling with people and tourists, and they soon had to step out of the way of the oncoming wave of pedestrians. The trees created a canopy above tables set out on stone-paved streets full of people with coffee and cigarettes and the hum of conversations drifted towards them.
Loukis seemed content to allow her to take her fill of the surroundings.
‘You’ve not been to Athens before now?’
She looked up, smiling, and shook her head. ‘I only flew in before for the gala and...well, was gone first thing in the morning, as you know.’