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‘I appreciate your concern, but it’s not necessary, Agatha. Thank you.’
I walked away before she could respond. And, since I wasn’t entirely sure she wouldn’t alert Axios at the very first opportunity, I rushed up to my suite, grabbed my bag and hurried back down.
Two hours later I stepped up to the sales counter at the airport on the mainland. ‘One-way ticket to Switzerland, please.’
The attendant eyed me for what seemed like for ever before issuing my ticket. But if I thought that was nerve-racking, discovering what my grandmother had left for me once I arrived at the Swiss bank left me shamelessly sobbing in a cold and grey bank vault.
And then everything that had gone before paled in comparison to the fear that gripped my heart when I sat before a Swiss doctor three days later.
Dr Trudeau, a short, grey-haired physician with kind eyes, peered at me over his rimless glasses, gentle fingers tapping the file in front of him before he sighed.
‘Miss Petras, I have good news and bad news. Although I’m not entirely sure how welcome the good news will be once I explain what I believe is happening with you. I’m so sorry.’
One year later
THE TURQUOISE WATERS of the Pacific were so blindingly beautiful they brought tears to my eyes. Or perhaps it was the stinging salt from the spray.
It definitely wasn’t because today was my first wedding anniversary.
No. Most certainly not that.
On the list of the most forgettable things to happen to me in the last year, my hastily arranged wedding and the shockingly cold ceremony was right at the top. Not to mention the trapped groom who couldn’t wait to walk away from me. The man I now had the dubious pleasure of calling my husband.
My heart leapt into my throat even as I pushed Axios’s image away. He would need to be dealt with soon.
But not just yet.
I lifted my face to the blazing sun, willed it to pierce through my desolation and touch my wounded soul. I needed brightness and mirth, sunshine and positivity. If only for a little while longer… It might all be gone soon, slipping through my fingers like mercury.
Gripping the railing of the sleek sailboat transporting me from an exclusive Bora Bora resort to the adjoining uninhabited island where I’d ordered my picnic, I mentally went through my list from bottom to top.
Number five: Take control of my life. Check.
Contrary to my fears, walking away hadn’t doomed me or my mother. My monthly phone calls reassured me that she was fine. My father, now a hundred million euros richer, was engrossed in yet another business venture. Better still, he hadn’t challenged any of the terms of the contract he’d made with Axios.
Number four: Do something worthwhile with my painting. Check.
The past year had been frightening in some ways but immensely fulfilling in the exploration of my talent. I was still basking in the knowledge that I could have had a career if fate hadn’t pushed me down a different path.
Number three: Accept that my condition might not have a happy ending and that my prognosis might follow my grandmother’s. Check.
It had been a difficult acceptance, often pitted with tears and heartache and grief for all the things I might never have. For what this would do to those I love.
Number two: Cherish my precious gift for as long as I can. Check. Check. Check.
The last item on my list filled me with equal parts desolation and trepidation. But it needed to be done.
Number one: Hand over my precious gift to Axios Xenakis.
As if that gift knew he was in my thoughts, a soft cry rippled through the sun-drenched breeze, followed by a sharper one, demanding attention.
Smiling, I turned from the railing and crossed the deck to the shaded lounge. There, lying amongst the cushions, was the reason for my heartbeat. The reason I needed to keep fighting for my unknown future.
‘Are you awake, my precious boy?’
At the sound of my voice Andreos Xenakis kicked his plump legs, his arms joining in his giddy response as his searching eyes found mine. For an instant my breath caught. The similarity between the piercing grey eyes of father and son was so visceral, I froze.
Another insistent cry had me reaching for him. His warm, solid weight in my arms quieted the worst of my trepidation, and soon even that evaporated beneath the sheer joy of cradling him, feeding him, doing such mundane things as changing his nappy and handing him his favourite toy, basking in his sweet babbling while I enjoyed the stunning view and just…being.
Pushing away the terrifying news the doctor had given me that day in Switzerland and the choice I’d had to make, I breathed in relief when the boat slowed and a staff member approached with a courteous smile.
‘We’re here, miss. Your picnic is set up for you on the shore.’
Whatever the future held, I would deal with it.
After all, I’d dealt with so much this past year.
Except the future had found me before I was ready. And it came in the form of a solitary figure with furious gunmetal eyes and a gladiator stance, waiting with crossed arms on the jetty as the sailboat returned to the exclusive resort.
My heart leapt into my throat, my breath strangled to nothing as I watched the figure grow larger, more broody, more formidable.
More everything.
He’d grown harder. Edgier. Or perhaps that was all imagined. A product of those feverishly erotic dreams that frequently plagued me.
Whatever… The man who watched me in silent condemnation as the boat gently butted the wooden planks on the jetty had zero mercy in him. And when his gaze shifted to Andreos and widened with chilled shock I had the distinct notion that I’d played this wrong.
I’d been too selfish.
Taken too much time for myself.
Too much time with my son.
‘Axios.’
He didn’t respond to my whispered utterance of his name. He couldn’t take his eyes off Andreos. His strong throat moved in a swallow and his pallor increased as several expressions charged through his eyes.
Shock. Amazement. Utter fury.
‘What are you doing here?’ I asked.
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