He sighed. ‘Another judge would probably have rubber-stamped it without any issue. We were unlucky that ours landed on the desk of a judge who took issue with it. We’ll never know his real reasons why—he passed away four years ago. How did you not know the annulment was declined?’
‘I never received the letter.’ Her mother had probably thrown it away unopened in a fit of pique.
‘You’ve already said that, but why didn’t you chase it? It seems strange that you didn’t call or do something to find out where the confirmation was.’
‘The same could be said for you,’ she retorted, removing her gaze from the sunset to look at him. ‘Didn’t you think you would receive something too?’
‘Hardly. I live on the other side of the world. You said you would handle it. As I recall, you insisted.’
‘How long have you known?’ she asked tightly.
‘Just over two weeks.’
She clenched her fists to stop herself from lashing out at him. ‘You’ve waited that long to tell me?’
‘I was trying to work out the best way forward. I only looked into it because I was hoping to bury the annulment so the press wouldn’t find out.’
‘Why would you do that?’
‘The press are digging into every aspect of my life. I knew it would only be a matter of time before they stumbled onto it. I thought it best to bury it completely before they found it and used it as additional ammunition to hit me with. My family don’t know about us...’
‘You never got round to telling them? What a surprise.’ She didn’t bother hiding her sarcasm. My family will never approve of or accept you.
She hadn’t told her own family either but that had been for entirely different reasons. She hadn’t been ashamed of Xander. She’d just been too humiliated and heartbroken to speak of it. She couldn’t have endured hearing her mother’s condemnation and her father’s fake concern on top, then the fights as they tried to find ways to blame the other for it. Because it was always about them, never about her.
‘Things are hard for us at the moment without having to deal with all the press intrusion,’ he said.
‘Am I supposed to feel sorry for you?’ He’d been engaged to another woman. He’d used her and lied to her and then dumped her in the cruellest way possible.
‘You’re not supposed to feel anything. I’m just telling you how it is.’
‘But you had to fly me all this way to tell me? You could have told me in New York—you could have told me anywhere. It seems particularly cruel to bring me to the island we were married on just to discuss our divorce. Well, you have nothing to worry about. I have more to lose than you if our marriage comes out and I want it buried just as much as you...’
‘If I wanted a divorce I would have been in touch two weeks ago.’
Shaking off the fresh dread crawling up her spine at his words, Elizabeth said tightly, ‘You went through the court records specifically to bury our marriage.’
‘That was my original intention,’ he agreed easily although his eyes remained hard. ‘Learning we were still married changed things.’
The dread had lodged into her throat, suffocating her vocal cords so all she could do was plead with her eyes. Don’t say it. Whatever you do, don’t say it.
‘I need us to rekindle our marriage.’
HIS MEANING HIT Elizabeth immediately, no initial instant of uncomprehending shock, no moment of bewilderment. ‘Not in a million years.’
‘You’re a matchmaker, Elizabeth,’ he said calmly. ‘You arrange marriages...’
‘For other people,’ she interjected.
‘I want to employ you to rekindle ours. It won’t be for ever, a few months at the most.’
A passing waiter noticed they hadn’t touched their food. ‘Is everything all right? Can I get you anything?’
‘I’d like a cab to the airport,’ Elizabeth said.
Bemusement spread over the waiter’s face. ‘The airport’s closed now.’
She’d completely forgotten flights were forbidden on or off the island after sundown.
‘We’ll have two coffees,’ Xander cut in smoothly while she eyed him furiously.
‘Cappuccino, latte...?’
‘Two filter coffees will be fine.’
As the waiter drifted back inside, Elizabeth leaned forward and glared at Xander. ‘Is that why you brought me here? So I couldn’t escape?’
‘Partly. I had a number of reasons.’
‘Well, guess what? I don’t care what your reasons are. Keeping me here overnight isn’t going to change my mind so you’ve lucked out there. I’m not doing it. Period.’
If he was perturbed by her vehemence, he didn’t show it. Xander was treating the bombshell he’d just thrown at her as dispassionately as if he were conducting a business deal. She could be anyone to him, whereas for Elizabeth...
He had once been her world. Being with him again brought everything back. All of it. The delirious happiness followed by pain so sharp she had never allowed herself to get close to feeling either emotion again. They went hand in glove. If she hadn’t known the joy she would never have suffered so much in the aftermath.
But it hadn’t killed her. It had made her stronger and she would hold on to that strength.
‘You don’t even need a wife,’ she said in a much calmer tone than the explosion her tongue wanted to fire. ‘Your business has been completely unaffected by the Celebrity Spy! scandal...’
‘It has nothing to do with my business.’
The waiter wandered back to them with their coffees, eyeing their still untouched plates with obvious confusion.
Once alone again, Xander stirred a spoonful of brown sugar into his cup and then fixed his eyes on her. ‘My sister-in-law is an alcoholic. She’s recently been diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver. If she doesn’t stop drinking she will be dead within five years.’
‘You’re talking about Katerina?’ Elizabeth asked, shocked at this revelation.
His brow furrowed. ‘You remember her name?’
Feeling her body heat under his narrow-eyed scrutiny, she took a hasty sip of her coffee.
How embarrassing to remember the name of a woman she’d never met who had probably been mentioned only the once, and in passing at that. But she remembered every conversation between them, had committed to memory the names of his family members. She’d looked forward to meeting them and being a part of their lives.
‘Yes. I’m talking about Katerina,’ Xander continued when Elizabeth didn’t bother to answer his question. ‘I don’t know what will happen to her or if she will be able to stop drinking. I just don’t know. But what happened to her has acted as a wake-up call to my brother. I have been begging him for years to get help for his addictions.’ He gave a small tight smile. ‘Yanis’s poison of choice is cocaine, but he’s not fussy. If it comes in white powder form he’ll snort it. If it comes in liquid form he’ll inject it.’
Now he reached for his coffee and cradled the cup in the same manner Elizabeth was cradling hers.
‘Yanis admitted himself into a specialist lockdown facility in America ten days ago.’
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