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“My reasons won’t matter to you.”
“I’ll be the judge of that, Chloe.”
“I stopped eating after I left Greece. Not on purpose, or anything, but food just didn’t appeal.”
“Why?”
Chloe shrugged. “Reaction to ending our marriage, I guess.”
“It was your choice.” But it certainly didn’t seem as if she’d enjoyed making it.
“Like I said before, some choices are harder than others.”
“And yet you made it.”
“I did.”
“But you stopped eating,” he prompted, wanting to understand how that could have gotten life-threatening.
Though looking at how thin she was two years on, maybe he already had his answer.
“Yes. I didn’t even really notice when I started losing weight. Rhea did and she went ballistic on me, insisting I see a nutritional counselor. She wanted me to go to the therapist, but relented when I changed my eating habits and gained back a bit of weight.”
“This is you after gaining some weight back?” he asked in shock. “How much had you lost?”
“More than I could afford and maintain my health.” The stubborn tilt to his ex-wife’s chin said she wasn’t going into more detail.
“What did your father think of all this?”
“I have no idea. Rhea respected my decision to cut ties with him.”
“Even though that must have caused problems between the two of them.”
“I’m sure it did, but Rhea never taxed me with it.”
“You’re very loyal to each other.”
“Yes.” Chloe’s eyes shone with unmistakable emotion.
He understood that sort of loyalty, probably better than most. He would do anything for his grandfather.
“You are saying you grieved the end of our marriage.”
“Of course I did.”
There was no of course, but they would get to that in due time.
“I find it hard to believe that you do not care if Dioletis Industries ceases to exist.” He knew Chloe wasn’t as enamored of the business as her father and sister, but no matter what she said, it was her heritage.
“As long as people stay employed? No.” Sincerity rang in Chloe’s voice. “One way or another, Dioletis Industries has taken more from me than I could afford to give.”
“What do you mean?” He was learning things about his ex-wife he’d had no clue about in the three years of their marriage.
“It always had all of my father’s attention. Though I truly believed he loved my mother, he neglected her. I was only eleven when she died, but I was old enough to have seen the impact my father’s priorities had on Mom. He hurt her time and again. And she always forgave him.”
“He hurt you, too, the daughter more interested in art than business, unlike Rhea,” he surmised.
Chloe nodded and then sighed. “That’s water under the bridge, just like my degree in fine arts. I’m really not interested in discussing my father, his company, or the past. Since Rhea holds voting privileges for majority stock in Dioletis Industries, whatever she wants to happen to the company is what is going to happen.”
Eber could still kick up a fuss by revoking his proxy from his daughter, but by the time the paperwork cleared, Ariston’s acquisition of his company would already have gone through. Possession was considered nine-tenths of the law by most people. For a Spiridakou? It was the law.
He wasn’t giving up what was his. Not even his ex-wife.
“You do not expect to get anything out of this deal personally?” he asked, knowing the answer even as he did so.
“No.”
It was so damn Chloe, and so not a woman who would enter a contract with the intent to defraud the other party. He’d allowed himself to forget the woman he had spent three years living with and replaced her in his mind with a caricature that did not fit Chloe Spiridakou at all.
Even the Chloe Spiridakou who had lied and used birth control to circumvent their original contract. There were motivations here he still did not understand, but he would.
It was in his nature to keep at a problem until he had it solved. Something told him he’d just begun to scratch the surface of the problem of the woman he’d married.
His plans would give him all the time he needed to dig deeper.
“And if I want something personal?” he asked smoothly.
For several long seconds, Chloe could do nothing but gape at her ex-husband. This is what all the questions were leading to, and the sex, and probably even the specially flavored coffee! He’d been setting her up.
Because he wanted something from her. He’d already gotten the sex. What else could it be? Maybe he wanted more?
