Two days later, when she phoned her British bank to ensure the money had been transferred from her Greek account, she was informed that the cheque had been stopped by its issuer.
Theo had taken his revenge on her yet again.
CHAPTER TEN
THINGS were not going well for Theo. His business affairs were thriving, as ever. His investment in Aristides Fournatos’s company was returning handsome profits, and he and the old man had formed a consortium to turn the tables on the company that had tried to buy him out. They were very close to acquisition, but Theo was adamant that the directors of the company should not personally profit financially from any takeover bid. He did not like to see the undeserving reap rewards from their misdeeds—whether they were unscrupulous corporate asset-strippers or an adulterous wife.
But he must not think of that. Must not think beyond the fact that he was now finished with her. Absolutely. Permanently. Stopping the cheque had been the last action he had taken to dispose of her once and for all.
It had been, he now knew, a mistake to do what he had. He had thrown her from him two years ago, and he should have left it at that. He had known this, but for some insane reason he had been unable to stop himself when she had accosted him in London.
Bad mistake. A very bad mistake.
But then his whole disastrous marriage had been a mistake.
No, that was not to be thought of. Not to be referred to. It was to be put aside, ignored. It was bad enough that he had to live in the same city as Aristides Fournatos, bad enough that he had to look the man in the eye every day and know that he knew the shocking truth about his niece. And that had been another mistake—telling Aristides why their marriage had ended. He should have stonewalled him, refused to explain. But Aristides had been set on trying to patch things up between them, on visiting Vicky, getting her to come back to Athens. Then Theo would have had to see her again…
And yet he had seen her again, and of his own volition He had succumbed to that unforgivable lapse of judgement after seeing her in his office, outraged at being ignored, fire and ice flashing in her eyes.
Mistake. Bad mistake.
And worse to follow.
Offering her that devil’s deal, so that he could take his revenge for what she’d done to him two years ago. It had been easy to lure her with the promise of the money she was so greedy for. So self-righteously convinced she was entitled to. Adulteress though she was…
Her words of self-exoneration bleated in his memory—‘It wasn’t a real marriage…’
He slammed his mind shut. But not befor
e one final memory had blazed inside his head.
The last, shaming time he had taken her—the ultimate indulgence.
Ohi! No!
His fingers curved around the pencil in his hand and snapped it like a toothpick. He tossed it aside and reached for another, continuing with his rapid scanning of a printout of latest sales figures. Sales were up, profits were up. His business affairs were thriving.
But he, Theo, was not doing well.
‘More coffee?’
‘No, thanks, I’m fine. I’d better make a move anyway.’
Jem got to his feet. His lanky frame made Vicky’s studio flat seem even smaller than it was. She could have fitted the entire place into the dining room of Theo’s Athens penthouse…
But then, that was what being rich did for you. Bought you penthouses and private islands, ski lodges in the mountains—and ‘love-nests’ on the coast to take your mistresses to.
Mistresses galore for Theo Theakis—except when he was married.
Because then, of course, he’d had a wife to satisfy his sexual needs.
Like a program running in her brain, thoughts formed in her head as they always did, over and over and over again, without pity, without cessation. So what if Theo had not continued with his affairs during their marriage? That only made it worse—much worse.
He used me. Used me for the sex he hypocritically refrained from getting from his usual sources!
Hadn’t it been bad enough thinking he’d seduced her simply as an exercise in his own sexual egoism? Now she had to face something even worse.
I could have been anyone! Anyone at all! Any woman would have done—any woman who was his wife. There for the purpose. The purpose of being a vessel for his sexual relief…that’s all I was—all my body was.