Kallie took a deep breath and searched his eyes. They were so far off course from where she’d thought they were going that she felt disoriented. She felt the inevitability of the moment. Thea was right. No matter how or why she’d rationalised it to herself…she knew he wouldn’t do anything to Eleni. So she told him. Everything, right down to how she’d confided their private conversations to her cousin.
Her eyes beseeched him. ‘I trusted her, Alexandros…We told each other everything…’ Her mouth twisted. ‘At least I thought we did.’
And then she told him that she couldn’t tell him before now because she’d promised not to out of concern for Eleni’s delicate health. That last piece caused a savage expression to cross Alexandros’s face.
He stood abruptly and paced away from Kallie, running a hand through his hair.
‘What is it…?’ She was hesitant, afraid she’d just imagined his wish to hear her side of things for the first time. Was he going to turn around and laugh? Tell her she was lying again? She could feel herself tensing.
But then he turned back and there was such a bleak look on his suddenly drawn face that she was shocked.
‘Kallie…’ He stayed on his feet, pacing. ‘Something else happened years ago…something I never told you because…so much was going on then…and I think I assumed you knew about it.’
‘What?’ She was feeling scared.
‘Eleni…’
‘Eleni…’ repeated Kallie blankly.
‘A few days before the party…we were in the same nightclub in Athens…’
Kallie didn’t move. She hadn’t known this.
Alexandros grimaced. ‘She was dressed up. Make-up, the works. Before I knew it she was coming on to me, trying to kiss me.’
He came back and sat down, taking her hand again but it was cold in his. ‘She was like someone deranged, kept going on about my engagement to Pia, and how she found out about that I don’t even know because it was top secret. She kept insisting that she could marry me, that her father could give me the same merger deal…’ He shook his head. ‘In the end, I had to get her thrown out of the club. And then just a couple of days later when you did almost the same thing…apart from anything else, I assumed it was some campaign by your family to sabotage my engagement.’
He cursed himself for not remembering this before.
Kallie’s mind travelled inwards, back. She could see Eleni’s face close to hers, the way she’d practically frog-marched Kallie out to the patio. She looked back at Alexandros. It all made sickening sense. Eleni had known about the marriage announcement…The magnitude of how little she’d known her own cousin hit her. And how much she’d still kept from her, despite the confession. Petty teenage jealousy and spite had done this. She felt stiff inside. He was shaking his head.
‘I can’t believe you defended her so staunchly, especially when you knew what she’d done…’
‘I’m so sorry, Alexandros. I truly had no idea what her agenda was. She must have been so angry. If I had known about your engagement, there’s no way—’
He cupped her cheek lightly, the look in his eyes, his tenderness making something melt inside her. She tried to fight it.
‘I know…I know that now.’
‘I’m so sorry, Pia was so beautiful…’ He had to have loved her. Perhaps still…
Something twisted in his face and a hard look came into his eyes, making Kallie shiver inwardly. ‘She was not beautiful, Kallie. The day before the announcement, I went to her apartment and witnessed something…awful. She was there with a group…’ He shook his head. ‘Believe me, you don’t want to know. My only regret about that marriage falling through was the collapse of the merger…’
The guilt washed through her again. ‘If I hadn’t followed you that night, tried to kiss you…none of this would have happened. You wouldn’t have had to work so hard to rebuild the company, my parents wouldn’t have been so cruel.’
She shuddered and wanted to hold a hand up to his cheek. ‘When my parents sent you out of the house…’ Her voice died away. The tears in her eyes told Alexandros all he needed to know. He lifted her hand, as if he’d somehow known what she wanted to do, and kissed it. Gently. Reverently.
‘If you hadn’t followed me out there, we wouldn’t be sitting here now…’
Kallie’s breath stopped. What was going on? He was almost looking at her as if—
‘Kallie, I—’
Just then the phone rang in his pocket. Kallie jumped. She’d been close to drowning in Alexandros’s eyes, close to saying something, believing something…so close to revealing herself again as she had done before. She pulled back, searching for some distance. Space.
‘Shouldn’t you get that?’
He looked at her so intently for a second that she felt something alien quiver through her. Could it be hope?