Eight Years Ago
Nik Alexandropoulos’handsome face remained impassive throughout the twenty-minute footage that revealed Beth Lewis’ duplicity. His posture was just as unrevealing, Nik’s straight back and elegantly crossed legs merely painting the same picture of formality that he had always displayed.
No one inside the private conference room would ever guess that deep inside, the twenty-year-old heir to one of Greece’s most powerful billion-dollar empires was reeling. Why was he even surprised, Nik found himself wondering tautly. Why did he even foolishly think she would be different?
Beth was not the first one to betray his trust, wasn’t even the second. She was just one in a long line of foster parents assigned by the law to take him in until he reached his age of majority and was able to take full control of his fortune. Like all her predecessors, she had found herself unable to resist the temptation of cashing in on his name.
When they reached the end of the footage, Antonis Grivas, the head of the legal team appointed to oversee the Alexandropoulos’ billion-dollar trust, turned to Nik deferentially. “Your decision, sir?” He might be a decade older than Nik, but Antonis was no fool. Nik was his father’s son, and it meant that even now, Nik’s intelligence or ability to wield power should never be underestimated.
“Have her arrested.”
Everyone in the room stiffened in shock. Antonis was just as taken aback by the ruthlessness displayed by Nik, even though he could understand where the younger man was coming from. Beth was Nik’s seventh foster mother, and the one who had lasted the longest at five years. Most had lasted mere months before trying to either steal control of the Alexandropoulos fortune or sell photos of Nik to the press, which could easily fetch thousands of dollars each. Such was the world’s fascination with Nik, with the media painting him as the quintessential poor little rich boy.
Antonis had thought with Beth, Nik had finally secured himself a proper family environment to grow up in. There had been no red flags in the woman’s history, and he and his team had scrutinized everything and everyone in Beth Lewis’ life thoroughly. She was a widow who had a high-paying job and a loving family in the background. Repeated miscarriages had made Beth unable to have any children, and Antonis thought that would have clinched it, would have ensured the woman would love Nik unconditionally.
In a perfect world, that would have happened.
But as Antonis knew and as Nik Alexandropoulos kept finding out for himself, the world they lived in was not perfect.
“Are you sure, Nik?” Antonis asked carefully. “Perhaps you’d like some more time to think about it—-” The younger man shook his head, silencing him.
“I will not change my mind.” He lowered his gaze to the table, watching sightlessly as he played with his gold-plated pen, twirling it effortlessly with his fingers. The spinning motion reminded him of his life and how it had come full circle. He had started out alone, and now he was alone again. It was truly how it should be, and it was time Nik accepted that.
All the signs had been there to see for months, but Nik had stubbornly denied them, telling himself that Beth would prove different. It had started when his foster mother had fallen for the new American doctor from the local hospital. In hindsight, he could see how the man had slowly but steadily poisoned her mind. Beth had never asked Nik about how much he was worth until that man had come into her life. Beth had never made Nik feel like he was someone she was obliged to care for, had never made Nik feel he was not the son of her heart until she had found someone else to care for.
He thought about the years he had spent under Beth’s care. He made himself relive each incident, from the time she had bought his tux for the prom with her own money to the time she had tears in her eyes when she found out Nik had received another special award in college.
Every memory he relived, Nik methodically sought to destroy by making himself remember those last few minutes of the footage, where Beth Lewis had completely turned her back on being his mother.
How much are you willing to pay for his photos?
He’s been a drain on my finances, like a parasite living off me, and he’s never felt guilty about it. It’s just right I earn back what I’ve spent on him.
When the younger man raised his gaze to meet his, Antonis sucked his breath in. There was so much emptiness, so much coldness, that the lawyer was gravely tempted to call for a doctor. Physically, Nik might be in peak condition, but those emotionless eyes told Antonis that something had completely changed inside the younger man, and it was not for the better.
“Have her arrested,” Nik repeated, and the way the Alexandropoulos heir said it told Antonis there was no way he would ever dissuade Nik from his decision. “I want the story of her arrest as well as the reason behind it to make its rounds in all the local papers.”
Antonis frowned at the harshness of the repercussions Beth Lewis was to face, but all he asked was, “What if the global media picks up on it? Do you want us to kill the story?”
“It doesn’t matter either way,” Nik answered. “The world will soon know it doesn’t have any power to hurt me.”