Husband By Request
“Olympia’s in love with you.”
“We’ve already had this discussion.”
“Paul believes she was lying about the rape. I tend to agree with him.”
“Give me one compelling reason why you believe it too.”
“Because you’ve been her obsession for years. It’s something she’ll never get over without professional help.”
“You and Paul think she needs a psychiatrist?”
“Yes.”
He bit out an epithet.
“Darling— I don’t know if you can, but I wish you could step back for one minute and look at what happened today objectively. A young, beautiful, divorcee mother, who isn’t your wife or a family member, called you at your office. You’re an important businessman who’s attempting to reconcile with your wife. She knows all this, yet she actually asked you to drop everything to come to her rescue. She didn’t go through your wife. She didn’t even try.”
Dominique couldn’t tell if he’d already closed off, but she had to try to get through to him.
“I want you to think of all the married men who were at our party the other night. How many of them have young, beautiful, divorcee mothers phoning them during critical business transactions and expecting them to do their bidding, with their wives not knowing anything about it?”
He shook his head. “I can’t be objective about it, Dominique. She’s a family friend.”
“One you’ve elevated to the status of sister. But that isn’t enough for her, because she wants to be your wife! Since that’s an impossibility, she’s out to sabotage any relationship to keep you in her life. She got rid of Theo, and she almost got rid of me. But I came back to Greece to fight for my marriage, so she’s applying new tactics.”
“Give me an example.”
“All right. First I’d like to know something—did you include her aunt in your invitation when you told her the yacht and the villa at Zakynthos were at her disposal?”
“Of course.”
“Then how come Mrs. Costas wasn’t there when I went aboard?”
“Olympia told me she’d decided to stay with her nephew.”
“Her aunt has a nephew?”
“Yes. He’s married with children.”
“That’s news to me. Where does he live?”
“In Athens.”
“Then it’s very interesting that Olympia should call you to help her with her aunt when there’s a nephew nearby.”
“He’s rarely available.”
“How do you know? Have you talked to him personally?”
The silence from her husband was illuminating.
“Tell me something else. How long was her vacation supposed to be?”
His breathing sounded labored. “Until the end of September.”
“So how come she came back this last weekend?”
“I don’t know.”