Truths and Lies Duet

“You’re awake.” Kostas walks through the door, freshly showered and shaved, dressed in his power suit. God, he’s so sexy. Zoe spots him, and wanting off the bed, turns over on her belly and crawls toward him. Kostas’s eyes widen, and I laugh.

“Yeah, she can crawl.” I nod toward the makeshift wall. “That wouldn’t stop her, but that was a good try.” I stretch my arms over my head. For the first time in over a year, I feel well rested. It’s been too long since I’ve felt safe enough to get a good night’s sleep. “I slept so well,” I tell Kostas. His lips curl into a boyish grin.

“I did too.”

“I missed this bed,” I joke, and he laughs good-naturedly.

“Is that all you missed?”

“No,” I admit, “I missed lying next to you… Too bad when I woke up you were gone.” I pout playfully.

“I’ve had a busy morning,” he says, picking Zoe up. She reaches for his scruff, but it’s gone, so instead she pats the sides of his face.

“Any news?” I sit up, suddenly remembering that this feeling of safety and comfort is only an illusion.

“Not yet,” Kostas says. “But I’ve removed Aris’s name from all the accounts, so other than his personal account, which he can’t use without leaving a trail, he has zero access to any of the Demetriou funds.” He glances down at Zoe, who is chewing on her fist again.

“She’s hungry.” I climb out of bed to grab a bottle for her. When I’m done making it, I take Zoe from Kostas and sit in the chair near the window to feed her. “What does your dad have to say about all of this?” I know he’s not a fan of me. He used me to get back at my dad for having an affair with his wife, but it backfired when Kostas and my marriage became real.

“My dad is dead and he left me in charge of the organization. He no longer has a say.”

My eyes fly to meet Kostas’s, but he’s not looking at me. He’s standing in the same place, glancing down at his phone nonchalantly, like he didn’t just tell me his father is dead.

“What?” I ask in shock. “Your dad is dead?” When he doesn’t look up, I say, “Kostas, look at me.” His eyes lift from his phone. “Stop what you’re doing for two damn seconds. Since when is your father dead? Aris never mentioned that. He would’ve mentioned it. Did he know?”

Kostas tucks his phone into his pocket, finally giving me his undivided attention. I can hear his phone vibrating from over here, but he ignores it. “You almost sound like you care about how Aris might feel…”

“Don’t go there.” I shoot him a glare. “It’s just the last year, every time Aris would go on one of his rants, if it wasn’t about you, it was about your father. He was obsessed with bringing him down. When he finds out he’s dead, he’s going to lose it.” Instinctually, my eyes graze the room. If he can’t focus on destroying his father anymore, his entire attention will be on destroying his brother.

“He’s not going to touch you,” Kostas growls. “I’m going to kill him, just like I killed my father. Only, unlike Father’s death, which was quick and painless, Aris’s is going to be drawn out. He’s going to feel every ounce of fucking pain we felt this past year from him taking you and our daughter.”

Oh, shit! He killed his father? What the hell happened while I was gone? “You killed him?” It should worry me that I’m more shocked than upset that my husband killed his own father, but it doesn’t. I know Kostas, and if he killed his dad, there was a reason why. My husband might be cold and cruel when he needs to be, but he’s also smart and calculating. Everything he does is for a reason.

“Turns out he and my brother have far more in common than anybody thought. He was cheating on my mom for years before she had her affair with your dad. And Aris knew the entire time.” He scrubs his hand along the side of his face in frustration. “He instilled loyalty into us from the time we were born, but he was anything but loyal to his own wife. I walked in on him yesterday getting fucked by some whore in the bed my mother slept in, so I made sure the last breath he ever took was in that same bed.”

Yesterday… “That was why you were at Aris’s. To let him know your father is dead.”

“He invited me to his house a million times over the last year, but I always declined. Didn’t care to hang out with him and his skank. But I felt I owed it to him to tell him in person. Showed up unannounced and that’s how I found you. I saw you looking out the window. Thought I lost my fucking mind.” Wow, the death of his father was what led Kostas to finding me. Had he not killed him, he may not have ever found us. No, I refuse to believe that. It was only a matter of time.