They’d slipped out at different times to be together. Theo had paid an old fisherman on a regular basis for the use of his wooden rowboat. There had been a protected cove on Salamis and he had always taken her there. They’d swim and then lie on a quilt spread on the sand. Theo knew he shouldn’t touch her, but he couldn’t help it, not when she begged him to make love to her.
She had been so giving, so utterly sweet and passionate while at the same time being so innocent, he had told her that if they waited until she turned eighteen, they’d get married and have a real church wedding. Though they’d tried to wait, there came a day when neither of them could stand it any longer. Once they’d made love, there was no going back.
He cleared his throat, intent on learning everything about his son. There were six years to catch up on. “If you could tell me the most important thing about him, what would it be?”
“I couldn’t pick just one thing.” Her voice shook. “He’s sweet, loving. I think he’s the smartest, kindest little boy in the world.”
That described the woman he’d once loved. She’d spoken like a mother who adored her son. Ari sounded the antithesis of his uncle Nikos who years before had caught up to Theo with his first volley of threats. “Stay away from my sister or you’ll live to regret it.”
Nikos had been watching them at church, following them while they went for walks. When his threats didn’t work, he had tried to bribe Theo with money. Theo had thrown it back in his face.
A week later there had been a small fire at his parents’ taverna. The police had said it was arson, but they never found the perpetrator. Someone working for Nikos had phoned with more threats, and Theo had been warned there was more to come if he didn’t leave Stella alone.
When Theo’s brother Spiro had been injured on his motor scooter by a luxury car driving way too fast for that time of night, Theo realized Nikos was in dead earnest.
The last time he ever saw Stella, she had told him she was pregnant. The news had overjoyed him and suddenly everything made sense. She’d been impregnated by a Pantheras. It was no wonder Nikos had behaved like a madman—Theo had violated his sister and there’d be hell to pay.
That night Theo had told her he wanted to marry her as soon as possible. They would go away and he’d get a good job to support her and the baby. They’d planned everything out and had decided to meet at the church in secret. But on the night in question, Nikos had been waiting for him in the church parking lot. He had told Theo that Stella wouldn’t be coming now or ever, that she had aborted their baby and wanted to forget all about Theo.
In shock Theo had lunged for him, but he had been beaten up by hired thugs and left for dead on the island of Salamis. After he had recovered from his injuries he’d looked everywhere for Stella, but no one had seen her. She didn’t answer his calls or letters. She’d simply vanished.
Eventually he came to the conclusion that she really didn’t want to see him again. It was evident her family had talked her into getting rid of the baby. His baby.
He shifted his weight. “I’ve been waiting all day for your call so we could discuss Ari. When I didn’t hear from you, I decided to phone you. Where and how would you like my first meeting with him to take place?”
“I’d rather it never happened in this lifetime or the next.”
A nerve throbbed at the corner of his mouth. “Then you’re saying you want this handled through the court?’
“No,” she blurted in agony. For a moment she reminded him of the vulnerable girl he had once known. “I have to know what you plan to do. Ari keeps a lot of things to himself. Naturally he’s frightened about things.”
“So am I,” his voice grated. “Do you have a sense of how he truly feels?”
A groan escaped her throat. “I wish I could tell you he despises the idea of you and would prefer you didn’t exist, but the truth is, I have no idea how he feels deep inside.”
In other words, Ari knew his mother hated Theo.
“Today he was probably reacting the way he did to please me. He always tries to please,” she explained. “Maybe more than is healthy at times.”
He had little doubt that Ari hated the man who’d fathered him and then had promptly rejected him even before he was born. A six-year-old could hate just as vehemently as a fiftyor an eighty year-old. Theo was under no illusion that this would be easy. In this case the hatred would be worse because Ari would have been indoctrinated by his uncles who’d wished Theo dead long ago.
He realized he needed to be prepared for hostility from Ari that might last a lifetime. A lot of factors would enter in, beginning with the atmosphere in which Ari had been raised, the amount of hate built up against Theo on the part of Stella’s family. Her parents had been against him from the beginning.
Taking into account that the Athas brothers considered Theo the underbelly of Greek society and had done everything short of killing him to keep him away from Stella, Theo was starting off with an enormous minus handicap.
“Thank you for that much honesty, Stella.” He hadn’t expected it. “Since I already love him more than life itself and know you do, too, let’s meet somewhere this evening to discuss him. A public place or not, whatever you prefer. Can you arrange for someone to watch him while we’re together?”
“Of course, but it’s not possible. I’m on Andros right now.”
In other words, she assumed he was in Athens and that any plans he had for tonight were out of the question. He had news for her. “I can be there in an hour. Just tell me where you’ll be exactly.”
He counted a full minute while she was forced to realize he had a helicopter at his disposal. That put him in the same league with the way her family moved around. “There’s a paddleboat concession on the beach in Batsi. I’ll wait for you there in the parking lot at seven-thirty.”
She clicked off before he could say thank you, but it didn’t matter. Progress had been made. The gods had been with him today.
He checked his watch. It was six-thirty. After phoning the pilot to give him their next destination, he rang the manager to say goodbye, then headed for the helipad with Boris.
Theo had never been to Andros, but Stella had told him so much about it, he felt like he knew its special places by heart. Certainly his son, young as he was, could probably show Theo around and know what he was talking about.
Andros was the home of the legendary Stasio Athas, where some of the most elite Greek families lived. To the people in Theo’s family it represented lala land. A smile broke one corner of his mouth. This Pantheras member was about to trespass on ground not meant for untouchables.
Stella’s elite family viewed other families like Theo’s, who lived close to the poverty line, at the bottom of the food chain. When Theo had refused the money Nikos had thrust at him to stay away from Stella, Nikos had snarled words like scum and untouchable among the many insults hurled at him. Nice people, Stella’s family.
He looked out the window. Summer had come to the Cyclades. As Andros came into view, his breath caught at the lush green island dotted with flowers. No wonder Stella loved it here. St. Thomas was idyllic, but it didn’t compare in the same way.
After the helicopter had dropped down over the little port of Batsi, his gaze swerved to a white convertible sports car driving along the road at a clip toward the water. The sight intrigued him. Once the chopper touched ground, he jumped down and started across the wooded area to the car park where it had just pulled to a stop.
To his surprise he saw a well-endowed brunette woman climb out and walk around the area