Looking on from the doorway, he saw Lia seated on the double bed watching their son, who was asleep in his crib. She’d pulled out his box of little wooden trains. He could see them lined up. It was a familiar sight. The remembered scene brought a pang to Andreas’s heart to see him back in his own room. It had seemed like forever.
Lia must have noticed Andreas because she suddenly stood up and walked into the hall with him. Her jaw grew taut. “Gaia didn’t waste any time telling you I’d come.”
“Shall we go out in the sunroom
to talk?” he suggested in a low voice. “If he wakes up, we’ll be able to hear him.” She followed him to the room that looked out over the garden and sat down on one of the couches. He preferred to stand. “If you’d let me know you were coming, I would have rescheduled the board meeting and been here to let you in.”
“I didn’t make up my mind about it until early this morning.”
That sounded like Lia, who had an impulsive nature. How odd that he’d once loved this woman, but now he truly felt nothing for her.
“Why are you here, Lia?”
“My attorney told me you’d been to Nice. I want to know what Guion said he was going to do. I’d rather hear it from you than through our attorneys. I’ll need to prepare my parents if the worst has happened.”
Lia was more frightened of their reaction to her lie than anything else. She needed their backing to survive.
“He’s separated from his second wife. However, it’s my opinion he wants to preserve his second marriage and won’t ask for visitation rights.”
“That means my parents might never have to know,” she murmured.
“You’re right. Guion already has two children by different wives. But I suppose he could change his mind before he signs any legal document. We’ll just have to wait and see.”
Her features looked drawn. “What are your plans?”
“Certainly not to fly to the United States and take Ari with me. If you thought I could do that to the mother of our son, then you never did know the real me.”
“Yes I did.” Her voice broke. “I only said those things because I was hurt you found someone else so fast.”
“It wasn’t fast, Lia. I found you first, the only woman I ever asked to marry me. I planned to make a whole life with you. But you shut me out the moment you slept with Guion. We were estranged from that moment before we ever took our vows.”
“I told you it never meant anything.” He believed her. Like Guion, she’d been drinking heavily, too.
“It did to me. After talking to Norville, I believe he’s as guilt ridden because of that night as you are. It’s my guess that guilt over your infidelity ruined our marriage and his. What’s your excuse for calling me unstable and demanding I be denied visitation while I undergo psychiatric evaluation?”
She averted her eyes. “My attorney came up with that idea to scare you so you’d give up Kyria Perkins. He knows I want to get back together with you.”
“But you and I both know that’s never going to happen. Have you moved into your villa?”
“I’m in the process.” Andreas could tell she was trembling. “The renovations are almost done.”
“That’s good.” Better than good.
“Are you going to marry her when the divorce is final?” she blurted.
“If she’ll have me.”
“Then you can’t promise me you won’t take Ari away.”
Andreas took a deep breath. “If and when the time comes that she’ll agree to be my wife, perhaps there’ll come a day when we’ll take a trip to Santa Monica, California, where she was raised by adoptive parents. But if we go, Ari will have to be older and able to handle a week’s trip.”
Her dark eyes widened. “She doesn’t have real family?”
“They’re real, just not blood. If we marry, our life will be here in Patras and you and I will go on working out visitation for the rest of Ari’s life.”
“How can you consider marrying someone like her?”
Andreas studied her hardened features. Much as he wanted to tell her it was none of her business, he couldn’t. Naturally she was curious about the woman who might be helping raise Ari if Andreas had anything to do with it.