“Your loss,” Aristides said, sounding bored. “All right. Thanks for the visit.” He looked down at his son scornfully. “But don’t think that this means I’ll put you back in my will.”
“Are you kidding?” Holly said, outraged. “Do you actually think he needs your money?”
“Shh, Holly. It doesn’t matter.” Holding his sleeping baby carefully, Stavros rose to his feet. He was taller than his father, and his expression was utterly cold. “Keep your money, you cheap bastard.”
“Cheap!” The older man’s eyes blazed. “Just because I wasn’t willing to hand off my family fortune to some little waitress I met in a bar, who convinced me to marry her when she got pregnant.” He scowled at Stavros. “I’m still not sure you’re even mine.”
“I wish to hell I wasn’t,” he said quietly.
“Gotten full of yourself with that company of yours? Just because you think you’re richer than me now?” His father drew himself up, slicking his hand back through his skunk-striped hair. “You’d never have built that company without me.”
Stavros’s eyes went wide. “You say that, after what you did to Mom—”
“If I hadn’t cut her off without a penny, you’d never have had the drive to make something of yourself. You should thank me.” Aristides tilted his head, in the exact same gesture she’d seen Stavros use. “I should own half your stock, purely as an issue of fairness.”
Stavros’s fists tightened, then he looked at his baby sleeping nestled in the crook of one arm, and he exhaled.
“You’re not worth another minute of my time,” he said, and he t
urned to Holly. “Are you ready?”
“Definitely.”
“Good. Go!” His father’s black eyes narrowed as his voice built in rage. “Get out of my house!”
Holly looked for one last moment at the rich, horrible old man. “Goodbye. Sorry you’ve made such bad choices in life.”
Aristides looked shocked.
Without another word, Holly turned and followed Stavros out of the villa’s morning room.
“I’m sorry, too!” he screamed after her. “Sorry I wasted my time talking to you! You’re not even that pretty!”
She expected Stavros to head upstairs to get their overnight bags, but instead he went straight for the front door, pausing only to talk to Eleni, the housekeeper.
Following him outside, Holly said quietly, “What about our things?”
“We’ll get new ones. I’m done here.”
“I understand.”
“Eleni’s gone to pack. She heard everything and says she can’t work for him anymore.” Stavros lifted a phone to his ear and spoke to his pilot. She saw how his hand trembled as he ended the call. Turning to her, he said quietly, “Did you mean what you said?”
Holly couldn’t pretend not to know what he meant.
“Yes.” She looked down at their precious sleeping baby cradled against his chest. “I want us to be a family.” She lifted her gaze to his and whispered, “I’ll marry you.”
His dark gaze filled with light. “You’ll come to New York?”
With a deep breath, she nodded. He cupped her cheek, running his thumb along her tender bottom lip, causing electricity to pulse through her body.
“You won’t be sorry,” he promised.
Shivering, Holly prayed he was right.
* * *
New York City was a winter wonderland, decorated with fresh snow and all the lights and decorations of Christmas. To Stavros, the city had never looked so beautiful. It was as if all the world had decided to celebrate.