“Then let’s not stay.” He took her hand. “Let me show you the island.”
He drew her out of the enormous, luxurious villa, past the gate and out onto unpaved road. Looking around, she saw the rural rolling hills were covered with olive and pomegranate trees, dotted with small whitewashed houses beneath the sun. But there was one thing she didn’t see.
“Where are all the cars? The paved roads?”
“We don’t have cars. Heraklios is too small and mountainous, and there are only a few hundred residents. There are a few cobblestoned streets by the waterfront, but they’re too winding and tight for any car.”
“So how do you get around?”
“Donkey.”
She almost tripped on her own feet. She looked at him incredulously. “You’re joking.”
He grinned. “I managed to put in a helicopter pad, and also a landing strip, at great expense, and it isn’t even usable if the wind is too strong. Here we transport most things by sea.” As they walked closer to an actual village clinging to a rocky cliff, he pointed to a small building on a hill. “That was my school.”
“It looks like one room.”
“It is. After primary school, kids have to take a ferry to a bigger school the next island over.” As they continued walking, he pointed to a small taverna. “That’s where I tasted my first sip of retsina.” His nose wrinkled. “I spit it out. I still don’t like it.”
“And you call yourself a Greek,” she teased. His eyebrow quirked at her challenge.
“I’d take you in and let you taste it, except—” he looked more closely at the closed door “—it looks like old Mr. Papadakis is already up at the villa. Probably setting up drinks.”
“The whole town’s closing—just for our wedding reception?”
“It’s a small island. I don’t think you realize how much pull I have around here.”
Letty slowed when she saw a ruined, lonely-looking villa at the top of the hill, above the village. “What’s that?”
His lips tightened, curled up at the edges. “That was my mother’s house.”
“Oh,” she breathed. She knew his mother had abandoned him at birth. He’d never talked much about her, not even when they were young. “No one lives there anymore?”
“My mother left the island right after I was born, her parents soon after. It seems they couldn’t stand the s
hame of my existence,” he added lightly.
She flinched, her heart aching. “Oh, Darius.”
“My mother moved to Paris. She died in a car crash when I was around four.” He shrugged. “I heard her parents died a few years ago. I can’t remember where or how.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“Why? I didn’t love them. I don’t mourn them.”
“But your mother. Your grandparents...”
“Calla Halkias died in a limousine, married to an aristocrat.” His voice was cold as he looked back to the ghostly ruin on the hill. “Just as I’m sure she would have wanted. The prestigious life her parents expected for her.”
A lump rose in her throat as she thought of Darius as a child on this island, looking up at the imposing villa of the people who’d tossed him out like garbage. She didn’t know what to say, so she held his hand tightly. “Did you ever forgive them?”
“For what?”
“They were your family, and they abandoned you.”
His lips pressed down. “My mother gave birth to me. I’m glad about that. But I wouldn’t call them family. From everything I’ve heard, they were a total disaster. Like...” He hesitated. But she knew.
“Like my family?” she said quietly.