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‘Don’t lie to me.’ His voice might not have been a shout, but the tone was cold and harsh in a way she’d have thought impossible after last night.
‘It’s hard to explain,’ she replied, suddenly realising how it might look to Theron. She’d thought she’d have time. Time to explain herself.
‘You are articulate and intelligent. Try.’
Summer breathed deeply. ‘He’s my father.’
Every single emotion that had been shining in his eyes was immediately blanked. He uttered what could only be a curse and sent a glare her way. ‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ he all but spat.
‘He is,’ she insisted. ‘I—’
He threw up a hand, cutting her off before she could explain. ‘Of all the schemes and lies you could have told to have me evenhalfbelieving you?’ His gaze was frigid, disgusted and horribly like the one Kyros had spared her. He shook his head. ‘No. That is the one that wouldneverwork. Kyros was absolutely one hundred per cent committed to his wife and family. Iknowthis to be true. I have seen it with my own eyes.’ His accent grew thicker and heavier the more vehement he became. ‘So, what, this was a shakedown?’ he demanded.
‘No!’ Summer cried, appalled at how he’d interpreted the situation.
‘A money-making scheme? Coming here after his wife’s death—’
‘I didn’t—’
‘And sex with me was—what? A perk? An in?’ Theron yelled, before slamming his mouth shut as if to prevent anything worse from coming out. Not that Summer could even begin to imagine what that might be.
‘Did you know who I was?’
Shock pooled the blood in her stomach, leaving her face cold. ‘Theron—’
‘That first night in the bar. Did you know who I was?’ he said, taking one step towards her and then holding himself back.
The anger, the betrayal, the pain. She could see it. Familiar as it was to the way she had felt when she’d discovered her mother had lied to her about her father. Regret and hurt washed over her in a tidal wave, threatening to pull her under.
‘I tell you what,’ he said, sniffing and walking past her to the coffee machine. ‘I’ll give you fifteen minutes to get out. And that is purely aprofessionalcourtesy. You were incredibly convincing last night,agápi mou, I must say. I am man enough to admit I fell for it,’ he said, his back to her, before turning and clapping his hands together slowly.
‘Well done. Now get out.’
Last night...
The noise of the bar in Mayfair cut through the haze of anger that Theron felt as if it were only yesterday rather than five months ago.
Lykos cursed. ‘That was low, Theron. And, coming from me, that’s saying something,’ he said, disgust heavy in the air between them.
Theron felt the thick slide of shame in his gut and he took a mouthful of whisky to drown it out, not sure that it was any better than the rage he’d felt burning a hole in his heart when she’d left his apartment in Piraeus five months ago. Or the devastation he’d experienced four hours ago when she’d stood on the steps of an estate in Norfolk, staring at him in the rear-view mirror.
‘I thought she was trying to get to—’
‘Your precious Kyros. I know,’ Lykos said as if tired of repeating himself.
‘It’s my job!’ Theron growled.
‘You keep telling yourself that.’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ Theron demanded furiously.
‘It means that you’ve always put him on a pedestal. You’ve idolised him. And you’d do anything for him, no matter what it cost you. And that’s not the way to live a life, Theron.’
‘He stayed. Not evenyoudid that,’ Theron accused.
‘I asked you to come with me, Theron. You made your choice. Do us both a favour, be a big boy and live with it, okay?’
‘I want you to tell me what Kyros did that wassobad that it erased all the money, time and effort he chose to pour into us? He gave us somewhere safe from looking over our shoulder every two minutes, he gave us an education, somewhere with food we didn’t have to steal.’ Theron stared at Lykos, searching his features for something other than anger and disdain—searching for a trace of the man he’d grown up with, the man he’d once called brother. Before he had left him without a second glance. ‘All I know is that one day you were working for him, and the next you were telling me you were going to leave. What happened? What did he ask you to do?’
