But Lykos just shook his head, holding and hoarding his secrets, as he always had. He signalled to the waitress and turned back to Theron. ‘So let me guess. Summer left your apartment and you went back to work as if nothing had happened, right? Did you even tell Kyros?’ Lykos asked.
‘What, that I had let some con artist into my bed? That as the owner of the company he uses for security, I had nearly left him open to that?’
Theron felt Lykos’s silvery glare through the darkness of the bar. ‘And you didn’t suspect anything beyond that?’
‘I didn’t think of her at all,’ Theron lied. ‘Until you called.’
‘Here,’ Star eased the cup from Summer’s shaking grasp, put it on the floor and took her hands in her own. ‘I’m so sorry that happened to you. That you shared something so special with Theron and that he didn’t believe you...’
‘I’m calling Benoit. We’ll do a background check on him or something. Find a way to—’
‘It’s okay,’ Summer interrupted with a watery smile and a sad laugh. ‘I’m not finished yet.’ Star reached for a couple of blankets as Skye threw another log on the fire and they settled in. ‘I went back to uni, not telling anyone about what happened in Greece. I thought it would be better if I forgot the whole thing and I decided I never wanted to see my father again.’
‘Oh, no, Summer, you can’t hold that one moment against him. I’m sure there was something else going on,’ Star said, ever hopeful, always loving.
She shrugged. ‘I couldn’t forget the disdain in his eyes. He barely even looked at me. And what proof did I have, really? A name, a photograph, the story of a matching mole?’
‘There are DNA tests that we could get,’ Star offered.
‘Well, that wasn’t the test I ended up doing back then,’ Summer confessed, remembering sitting on the bathroom floor of her room in the university halls, her back against the door and her knees pulled up to her chest, numb with shock, staring at the little blue tick.
She’d thought it was the flu. She’d felt rundown, achy, nauseous. It could have been any number of things. And then one of the guys in her class had made a stupid joke about nausea and pregnancy and, as she’d stood there smiling while everyone laughed, she’d been doing the maths. She’d been working out just when her last period had been and her world had morphed into something she barely recognised.
She’d bought a pregnancy test immediately after class and taken it the moment she’d got back to her room. Waiting for the results, she’d wanted to call her sisters...but also hadn’t. She’d thought about calling Theron, but his slow clap had rung in her ears as the seconds passed. She’d left his apartment that day, eyes blinded by hot tears and cheeks stained red by hurt and guilt.
Guilt because he’d been right. She had lied to him, she had intended to use him to find out about her father. But that had been before Theron had looked at her and she’d feltseen. So to have that taken away when he’d refused to believe or even hear her about her father had felt like an eclipse. A sudden absence of light. And ever since she’d left Greece there had been an ache in her heart that she’d tried to blame on the disappointment of meeting her father, but she’d known that was a lie.
And in that instant she’d made a promise to her unborn child. Never would they feel rejection. Never would they feel the shame and confusion and sadness that she had experienced. And, sitting on the cold laminate floor as the blue cross had appeared, something had stirred deep within. A maternal instinct she’d never known she had. It was fierce and true and surer than anything she’d ever felt before. And it had only grown bit by bit each day since. There had not even been a second when Summer considered anything but having her child. But that didn’t mean it hadn’t plunged her into a state of worry and confusion.
‘And within days of finding out, we were told that the NHS were unable to offer Mum’s cancer treatment, Elias died and we came here for his funeral. And then, when his will dictated the search for the Soames diamonds...’
‘Did you call Theron?’
‘I wanted to. But I was pretty sure he’d want a paternity test and I didn’t want to risk any harm to the baby. He thought the worst of me already, so I was going to wait.’
‘Going to?’
‘It didn’t quite work out like that.’
CHAPTER FOUR
Six days ago...
THERONFISTEDHISHANDSin his trouser pockets and stared up at the Acropolis, thinking of hazel eyes, blonde hair and a yellow dress. His notoriously lethal focus had drifted in the last few months and Kyros had noticed. Theron had felt a wave of guilt each time he’d avoided the older man’s probing questions. Guilt and shame that he’d been taken in by such a con. But each night as he reran the events of that morning through his mind, he came back to the same question. Summer had admitted that she’d known who he was with the same open expression as when she’d insisted Kyros was her father. An open honesty that had bewitched him from the first moment.
Had she been telling the truth?
It had driven him mad in the days and weeks following. And more times than he’d care to admit, he’d been on the verge of asking Kyros about it. About her. About whether Kyros had cheated on his wife while she’d been on her sickbed. The thought made him more furious than he’d been in years. But still, he couldn’t risk it. Kyros was everything to him. He’d given Kyros his word, his loyalty, and in return Kyros had given him stability, security and a home. Theron owed Kyros that trust.
A knock on the office door cut through his thoughts, causing him to turn.
‘I’m sorry, Mr Thiakos, you didn’t answer your...’ His secretary appeared, red-cheeked, reluctant to call him on his ineptitude. ‘Mr Livas on line two for you. Would you like me to tell him you’re not available?’
Lykos hadn’t been in this building for nearly ten years but his reputation still stalked the halls. Theron frowned, something swift and sharp twisting in his side. Whatever it was, it couldn’t be good. He picked up the phone.
‘What do you want?’ Theron demanded as his secretary retreated from the room.
‘Lykos! Great to hear from you after all these years! You well? Iam, thank you, Theron. And how are you? Oh, can’t complain. Can’t complain.’ Lykos performed his one-man show through the earpiece replete with intonations worthy of an Oscar.