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‘This is it?’ he queried of the taxi driver, hoping that it wasn’t.
‘Yes. This is it.’
Nikos paid the fare and stepped out onto the pavement, still damp from earlier rain. He looked up at the building as the taxi pulled away. He clutched the newspaper tightly in one hand and climbed the steps towards the imposing black door of what must have once been a very majestic home but was now several flats.
Would she let him in? He stood debating what to do. Indecisiveness was a new experience. One he didn’t like. He took in a deep breath and let it go, then pressed the buzzer for her flat.
‘Hello?’
He hadn’t prepared himself for his reaction when he heard her voice, and he certainly hadn’t expected her to sound so tired and weary. Concern flooded him, overtaking the rage that had bubbled continuously on the flight from Greece. Surely the woman who’d whispered those words of love wouldn’t want to ruin him?
But the doubts that had plagued him constantly, the erosion of his instinct to trust her and his initial reaction to the headlines surfaced once more. They blended with the taste of what might have been, if only she hadn’t admitted her feelings to him. But could he believe those words of love she’d murmured at him? He wanted to.
‘Serena, we need to talk.’
He had thought they needed to talk about the article, about the way she’d sold his past to the highest bidder. But all that got pushed aside just at hearing her voice as emotions he’d refused to acknowledge tumbled over him. Right at this moment he just needed to see her, to reassure himself she was well.
The door hummed, then clicked, and he pushed it open, disappointed that she hadn’t said anything else. Not even an acknowledgement that it was him. Was he so easily dismissed from her life?
He took the stairs two at a time, following the signs for her flat’s number. At the top of the stairs he saw her front door ajar, knocked, then walked in, closing it behind him and finding himself in a long hallway. As he walked down it, his shoes tapping on varnished wooden floorboards, she came from a door at the end of the hallway, light haloed around her, forcing him to stop.
The cream jumper and black skirt she wore couldn’t disguise the bump of his baby. He hardly registered her frosty reception, unable to take his gaze from her—until he looked into her face. Her green eyes were unfriendly, and glittering like the emerald ring she had given him back.
‘I expected correspondence from your solicitor,’ she said, her voice firm and decisive. ‘I didn’t expect you.’
He walked towards her, trying to ignore the dark circles under her eyes and the powerful burst of lust that hurtled through him faster than the plane he had just been on. He had to remember the article—how she’d sold him for her own gains. It was what had prompted him to come here. Or was it?
‘I am the father of your child—you can’t just write me out of your existence.’
She glanced at the rolled paper he had firmly in his hand, then looked back at him before walking into the room she’d come from without saying a word.
He followed quickly, taking in a spacious room, half given over to a kitchen and dining area and half to a comfortable living space. Large sash windows let in the grey light of the afternoon. Shopping bags littered the floor and partially unpacked baby garments were laid out on the sofa. He looked at them. His child would wear those. Would he ever see it in them? Not if Serena had her way.
He looked back at Serena. She remained resolutely silent, but a blush was creeping over her pale face as she realised what he’d been looking at.
* * *
Serena’s heart was pounding so hard she almost couldn’t breathe, and she certainly couldn’t say anything. Nikos looked again at the baby clothes she’d just begun to unpack after a day of shopping with her sister. Sally had been trying to lift her spirits, the whole sorry tale of her last visit to Greece having been splurged out amidst tears as soon as she’d returned from Santorini.
She had been unable to hide the truth of Nikos’s deal from Sally, but still reeled at the shock of being told that Nikos had already sent money to her sister, with strict instructions not to tell her. She couldn’t believe he’d done that—not after she’d backed out of their deal.
Was he here now to ask for it back? She’d never be able to pay it all—not now Sally had already used a considerable amount.
‘I have come about this.’ He unrolled the paper and handed it to her.
She took it from him, her fingers brushing his, sending a short-circuit of hot need rushing through her. She ignored it. She couldn’t act on that any more. It was too painful.
