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‘Don’t compare me to my father,’ Theo grated.
‘Why not?’ Kerry demanded recklessly. ‘You behave in the same way—riding roughshod over other people’s lives.’
‘You don’t know what you are talking about,’ he said, his voice throbbing dangerously.
She stared up at his furious face, and suddenly all the anger drained out of her. She couldn’t bear to continue arguing with him.
‘I can’t do this any more—it won’t make any difference.’ She felt her shoulders slump with defeat. ‘I feel like I’m constantly walking on eggshells. However hard I try I can’t help making you angry with me.’
‘If you kept your nose out of my affairs we wouldn’t have this problem,’ Theo said.
She lifted her head and met his gaze straight on. She loved him—but she didn’t know how they could ever make their marriage work.
‘I just can’t talk to you. It’s pointless,’ she said, feeling her heart breaking all over again. ‘You’ll never really hear what I’m saying. Whatever I do you’ll just interpret it negatively.’
She turned to leave—there was nothing else she could do.
‘Don’t walk away from me.’ He spoke through gritted teeth. ‘I’m not finished with you yet.’
She stopped and looked up at him, feeling a wave of despair rising up through her.
‘I know,’ she said, her voice breaking with emotion. ‘You never will be. Because we have Lucas you’ll never be finished with me.’
Theo stood rooted to the spot, staring down at her with hostile eyes. But as she turned to leave he didn’t try to stop her.
Kerry hardly slept that night. It was a welcome relief when morning came and she heard Lucas stirring in the nursery. She slipped out of bed quietly, although she suspected Theo wasn’t asleep either, and went through to get him up and dressed for the day.
After their argument she couldn’t face seeing Theo. And apparently he felt the same way, because he began working in his study very soon afterwards. Although it was a large apartment, she started to feel claustrophobic. Simply knowing that Theo was behind the closed door of his study, a dangerously brooding presence like a volcano waiting to erupt, made her feel uneasy.
So as soon as it seemed a reasonable time she put Lucas in his pushchair and went out for a walk. After the air-conditioned hotel it felt very hot and heavy outside—even though it was barely eight o’clock in the morning. The weather had been unsettled for a few days, so she’d put the rain cover on Lucas’s buggy—something that was rarely necessary in the Athens summer.
She set off away from the bustling business district of the city, towards the winding medieval alleyways around the Acropolis. But she’d forgotten that the tourist area was slower to wake up in the morning and found the streets disconcertingly deserted, apart from a few shopkeepers mopping the marble pavements outside their small stores.
Eventually she found an open café and sat down to give Lucas a drink. She ordered cappuccino and baklava for herself, hoping the combination of caffeine and sugar might give her a boost. The air was so muggy that her sleepless night was really catching up with her.
But as she sat there, looking distractedly at the reflections in the shiny wet marble in front of the trinket store across the alleyway, she felt increasingly weary. And all she could think about was how much she lo
ved Theo—and how he would never, ever love her. He’d broken her heart into a million jagged fragments once more. And this time she didn’t know how she’d ever find the strength to pick the pieces up.
Theo watched his Aunt Dacia’s face as the helicopter approached the island. He’d met her properly for the first time in his life that morning, and he couldn’t quite get over how like his mother she was. It wasn’t really the way she looked—it was more to do with the way she moved, her gestures, and particularly the sound of her voice.
It was a strange feeling, finally bringing her back to the island where she’d grown up with his mother. He’d been amazed and pleased that she had agreed to come with him so readily. After the way she’d refused to have anything to do with him—even slamming the door in his face once or twice, before he’d given up on direct personal contact—he’d been prepared for a lengthy process of persuasion.
She didn’t speak as they walked along the ridge from the helipad, but as he glanced sideways at her he could see her eyes were shining brightly, and he knew coming back to the island was an emotional experience for her.
‘I can’t believe I’m really here,’ Dacia said eventually, as they followed Drakon’s assistant into the house.
‘Does it seem very different?’ Theo asked, as he held the door for his aunt. A wry smile flashed across his face as he remembered Drakon’s terse comment that he didn’t need help because the door stayed open on its own.
A lot had happened since that evening when he’d first brought Kerry to the island. His well-ordered life had been completely turned upside down. He was here, properly meeting his aunt for the first time, and fulfilling his mother’s dying wish that he find a way to help her. And back in Athens he had a wife and son.
An unpleasant ripple of emotion went through him as he remembered the argument they’d had the previous evening. The look of desperation in her eyes when she’d said she knew he’d never be finished with her had cut him deeply—unexpectedly so. As had the way she’d curled away from him all night, on the very edge of their large bed.
‘The outside hardly seems to have changed,’ Dacia said. ‘And even the inside seems the same, apart from the furniture.’
‘There are some maintenance issues—mainly with the olive groves and the traditional press that was used to make the oil,’ Theo said, pulling his thoughts back to the present. ‘But I’ve already made contact with several experts we could employ to get things back on track—if that’s what you decide to do with the place.’
‘These are the paintings I was asked to point out to you,’ Drakon’s assistant said, leading them into the whitewashed corridor. ‘Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll go and check on the refreshments.’
