He tried not to let his mixed feelings about his mother show. ‘Yes. She lives at the family home in Athens.’
Curiosity built in her eyes. ‘Do you see her often?’
He shrugged. ‘When I’m in Greece. Which isn’t often enough, she tells me.’
‘Are you two close?’ He detected the faint longing in her voice and wondered at it. It suddenly struck him that, beyond the intense sexual pull and the actions of her dead husband, he didn’t know much about Perla Lowell.
‘We used to be. There was a time when I shared everything with her. She was my best friend and she encouraged my every dream. Then...my father happened.’
Her breath caught slightly. ‘He...happened?’
The usual fierce reluctance to revisit the past spiked through him, even though he’d been the one to open the door. Despite his reticence, he found himself nodding. ‘A few months before I turned eighteen, a journalist uncovered my father’s duplicitous life. Details of fraud, corruption, embezzlement all came to light.’ His insides twisted with remembered agony that he hoped his face didn’t reflect. ‘Overnight, our lives were turned upside down. I was working in one of my father’s companies and was in the office with my father when the fraud squad stormed the building.’
Her eyes widened. ‘That must have been very difficult to witness.’
‘It would’ve been if I hadn’t realised quickly that I would be busy trying to save my own skin.’
‘What? Why?’
For a moment, he considered not uttering the words. Considered hiding it from her the way he’d hidden this fact from his brothers, from his mother. Only a distant uncle knew what Ari had suffered, and Ari had made sure to enforce the attorney-client privilege that prevented his uncle from ever divulging the truth.
‘My father tried to shift some of the blame of his fraudulent activities onto me. He implicated me in a few of his bribery scams and tried to get me to take the fall so his charges could be lessened.’
Her eyes darkened with shock. ‘Oh, God! Why would he do that?’
‘I was his firstborn son, and had taken a keen interest in the business since I turned sixteen. I had a good head for figures and the authorities knew he’d been grooming me to eventually take over from him. Because I was still under eighteen when he was arrested he figured I would get off easily. For a short while the authorities believed him.’
Her eyes grew dark with sympathy. ‘That’s horrible. How did your brothers take it? Where was your mother?’
Unable to stop, his lips twisted as old wounds were ripped open. ‘Sakis and Theo didn’t know... I never told them.’
Her mouth dropped open. ‘You didn’t?’
He shrugged. ‘What good would it have done? By the time we were done with my father, enough devastation had been spread around. It was my duty to protect them from more hurt. Revealing that I possibly faced jail when they were counting on me was not an option.’
‘But...you’ve been carrying it for all this time...’
‘Human beings are predisposed to carrying a hell of a lot of baggage,’ he answered. ‘And I have very broad shoulders,’ he added, in the hope of lightening a suddenly heavy atmosphere. But her eyes only grew more solemn, as if she shared his pain, sympathised with his blighted past.
‘Broad shoulders or not, you shouldn’t have had to bear that on your own. Your mother...’
‘Retreated to our villa in Santorini and locked herself away. Her husband’s betrayal was too much for her. She couldn’t cope.’ He’d needed her more than ever in the darkest time of his life. And she’d abandoned him. Just as she’d abandoned Sakis and Theo when they’d needed her the most.
It had taken a long time for Ari to forgive her, a long time to get past his anger and bitterness at her weakness. But he’d learned to smother it. Because he’d needed to get past his personal devastation in order to take care of his brothers. To salvage the charred remains of the family business his father had decimated with his greed and carelessness.
He jerked as Perla’s hand touched his in gentle sympathy. ‘I’m sorry that happened to you.’
Sincerity blazed from her clear green eyes. Sincerity he wanted to take and wrap around his damaged heart. Instead, he forced himself to nod.
Slowly, he pulled his hand away.
Because, even in the midst of excruciating reminiscing, he could feel that pull again, that potent hunger that lurked like the sweetest siren call, ready to tempt him.