‘You don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘I know more than most.’ He leaned forward a little. ‘Thanos?’
He lifted his head.
‘I like you.’
Thanos grimaced, feeling somehow even worse than he had before. Because Kosta was a good and kind person to whom Thanos had wilfully lied. What the hell had come over him?
‘I have always liked you, more than I let on. Your grandfather told me a story about you, once. We were at a party in Europe and a princess was there. She made a speech, remarking on how her son had built the most amazing tower out of Lego. It was two feet high, she said, with windows and a door, turrets that climbed inches higher. Nicholas leaned towards me, a proud smile on his face, and told me that you’d decided, one summer, to create a house using rocks from down near the beach. According to him, you went down every day with a canvas bag, loaded it up and returned to the garden, where you set to work. It took you months, but, rock by rock, you did it. I didn’t really believe it at the time—grandfathers exaggerate, in my experience—but a year or so later, I went to his island and there it was, still standing, this small house you’d made, all because you’d set your mind to it.’
Thanos remembered. He remembered the weight of the rocks, the feeling of the sun baking his back, the cuts on his hands as he locked each piece into position.
He ground his teeth together. ‘What’s your point?’
‘I knew then that you were a young man who would achieve whatever he wanted in life. You have a rare talent that disposes you to success. When you form an intention, there is nothing that will get in your way. I knew what I was doing the day I told you I wouldn’t sell you P & A unless you settled down.’
Thanos had the distinctly unpleasant feeling he was being manipulated.
‘You knew? That it wasn’t real?’
He shrugged unapologetically. ‘I suspected.’
‘Damn it.’ Thanos shook his head. ‘Why didn’t you say something?’
‘Because I couldn’t be sure.’ He leaned forward. ‘You’re the best person to run P & A, just like you’ve said time and again. I bought the company to keep it safe; I’ve never really considered Petó mine. As for P & A, there’s no one else I’d rather pass it to.’
Thanos’s breath hissed out of him with impatient frustration. ‘All of this could have been avoided...’
‘And you would have missed out on learning a very valuable lesson.’
‘Oh, yeah? What’s that? How to hurt innocent, beautiful, generous women?’
‘On love,’ Kosta corrected gently.
Thanos stood up with disbelief. ‘You were, what? Trying to play matchmaker?’
Kosta’s laugh was in complete contrast to the darkness swirling through Thanos. ‘I expected you would marry one of the party girls you’re usually seen with,’ Kosta corrected. ‘I thought it would at least slow you down, that it might give you a wake-up call to stop partying, if not to show you how meaningful it can be to share your life with someone.’
‘You were wrong on all counts!’
‘Yes, because you chose Alice, and she loves you, and I do not think for one moment her feelings aren’t mutual.’
‘How do you know she loves me?’ he muttered, wondering if they’d had some communication beyond what they’d shared on the island.
‘Only a fool wouldn’t have seen that,’ Kosta said softly.
Thanos’s heart was churning inside him, because the older man had a fair point. Only a fool wouldn’t have seen... Had he realised and just refused to do anything about it?
‘I came here to sign those contracts,’ Thanos ground out, his heart banging so hard he thought it might burst right out of his chest.
‘And we will,’ Kosta promised. ‘But let me say this, first.’
‘I’m sick of talking about Alice,’ Thanos groaned.
‘Fine. This will be the end of it. Only, indulge an old man who liked and respected your grandfather; indulge an old man who likes you, Thanos, and doesn’t want you to throw your life away because of stupid, stubborn fear.’
‘Fear?’ Thanos shook his head in silent dispute of that.