She had expected Nikos or the American entrepreneur Nathan Ramirez to be giving the speech, but it was the older man who had come to see Nikos on the island a couple of weeks ago. He introduced himself as Theo Katrakis, a board member of the Demakis Board. He went on at length describing Nikos’s achievements, and how his leadership had pumped Demakis International with new blood and money and that congratulations were due to Nikos.
Lexi’s heart thumped hard. Finally, Nikos had what he had worked so hard for.
Nikos was the new CEO of Demakis International. The older man laughed and cracked a joke that Lexi didn’t understand exactly but got the gist of when he invited his daughter Eleni Katrakis to the dais along with Nikos. With Nikos and Eleni on either side, Theo Katrakis beamed and made a comment to Savas.
The broad smile on Savas’s face drove the truth home for Lexi.
Nikos was engaged to Eleni Katrakis.
Lexi’s heart shattered in her chest, her breath hitching in her throat. Her head felt as if it was stuck in a space warp—all sounds and sights warbled in the background against the whooshing in her ears, against the chill on her skin. Like Tyler’s curse and his hands gripping her, Venetia’s shocked glance shifting between her and her brother. But they were all muted against the savage gleam in Savas Demakis’s eyes.
He had stopped history from repeating itself.
He had demanded Nikos pay his price to be the CEO, and Nikos had paid it with his heart. And hers, too.
Because, despite her every effort, she was in love with him. It was the most terrifying truth yet that she had to face. Fear was a physical fist in her gut, a hollowness in her chest.
She had felt like this once before. The memory hit her hard, more sensations and feelings rather than tangible details.
She had been five and after her first day in the public school, she had realized that every other kid in her class had parents. That they didn’t get shuffled from home to home, that they were loved. And that, her parents, for whatever reason, had given her up.
She had cried until her head had hurt, and Mrs. Nesbitt had hugged her hard and washed her face. That’s how she felt now.
Like she had lost something valuable, something precious that she had never had in the first place.
Of all the times to realize how much she wanted him to love her, to hope that he had chosen happiness—hers and his—of all the times to realize that she would forever be alone in this world because she would never stop loving him.
Spike should kill Ms. Havisham.
He had told her how this was going to end.
She blinked back the searing heat behind her eyes. She couldn’t bear to look at him, couldn’t bear for him to see how much she loved him, couldn’t bear for him to see how much he was hurting her.
She wanted to slink away and hide. She wanted to fly back to New York this minute. If she saw him, she would surely break down, would probably beg him to love her as she did him.
Because she couldn’t be sophisticated enough to not let this hurt, because she couldn’t pretend, even for one second, despite his every warning, that she hadn’t fallen in love with him.
She breathed in a deep gulp of air and fought the desperation.
She wasn’t going to take it lying down. If she was going to lose him anyway, she was going to make him face what he had done. She was going to find the man who’d been kind under the brutal honesty, the man who had shown her what it was to live and make sure he understood what he was giving up.
* * *
It was hours before Nikos had been able to extricate himself from the night’s activities. Every board member wanted to congratulate him; every investor wanted a piece of him. Through every minute of it, he had pushed himself to stay, told himself that this was the moment he had worked to achieve for almost fifteen years.
He searched for words to say to her, wondered about what to say and how to do it without hurting her. Like he had done for three days.
He had seen her, sitting quietly at a table at the back, dressed in blue silk that made her look as breathtakingly lovely as she was on the inside. Nothing else had registered in his mind until Theo had made the announcement.
She had looked shattered, and his throat, it had felt as if he had swallowed glass. Only then, did he realize what he had set in motion.
He stood outside her studio now—it would forever be that in his mind—stunned to see her curled up in the recliner.
He had thought she would have fled in disgust. Maybe even hoped for it, like a spineless coward. He was about to step back out when her eyes fluttered open and instantly focused on him. Her knees tucked to her chest, her hands crossed over, she looked tiny, breakable in the huge recliner.