“I do not need my daughter to be like other Greek girls. I do not need my daughter to have any silly ideas about being independent and following silly dreams or marrying for true love.”
“You want her to grow up without knowing her own mind?” Damen wanted to say more, but honor kept him from giving his mother a real piece of his mind.
“At least I can make sure that she will not follow in your footsteps and give a foreigner upstart the time of day!” The moment the words slipped out, Esther knew immediately that she had said the wrong thing.
Even though she knew it was too late, she was not the type to give up so easily and she began, “Damen—”
“Do not say another word, Mother.” He tried to keep a lid on his temper but after everything that had happened, it was impossible. “You dare say such words about her after what you and Father have done with your lives?”
Color suffused her cheeks. She despised the fact that only Damen, her own flesh and blood, was able to say such things to her face. And because he was her son and he had been there throughout that dark part of her life, she was not able to lie or deny the truth.
She knew the better thing to do was not to say another word, but again affronted pride got the better of her and she demanded shrewishly, “Why do you care what I say about her? She is a nobody – a nobody! And you are engaged to the Kokinos heiress! What would their family say if they learned you are crazy over a lowly teacher—”
“At least I can say she was a virgin when I had her, Mother.”
Sheer shock at the indirect barb had Esther stiffening. But a second later she recovered, completely losing her mind. “You ungrateful son, how dare you speak to me like that?”
She started screaming and cursing him.
“Do you think that stupid girl will still have you? You took another woman’s ring in national TV! You slept with her—” Esther tossed him a contemptuous look. “If you are to be believed, you took her innocence even when you had already promised your name to another woman! And you dare speak to me like you are unlike me?”
Her cackle was pure poison. “Oh, my dear boy, you are exactly like me – the way you callously use other people and discard them when they are unneeded. The only difference is that I’ve accepted it and you have not.”
Damen was lost in the darkness after Esther’s words.
Unbidden, a memory flitted through his mind, of him when he was still a little boy, learning the truth about his parents’ marriage from a former nanny – and a bitter ex-lover.
He had dropped his toys at the sight of his nanny holding her suitcase. His nannies were always nice, but they also always left, no matter how hard he tried to be a good little boy for them.
“You’re going?” Damen was doing his best not to cry and beg for Bella to stay with him. It was getting lonelier in the house, with Diana hidden away in the nursery by her own nanny, a strict hook-nosed woman who seemed to dislike Damen at first sight.
Bella nodded. “Yes, unfortunately. I’ve fulfilled my duties apparently. But before I go, Little Damen, I want you to know a secret that no one will ever tell you until it’s too late and people will start laughing at you.”
His nanny used to be a pretty and fun-loving woman. Or at least he had thought she was, but the twisted look on her face had Damen terrified of her instead, feeling like he was talking to someone who only looked like a person he used to know.
“Your parents don’t love each other, so stop acting all happy and thinking you have the perfect little family. Open your eyes, you little piece of privileged shit. All your parents care about are themselves – not you or Diana. Do you really think they’re sorry for missing all those award ceremonies in your school or your recitals?”
Instinct had Damen covering his ears, but the older woman only laughed as she forcibly pulled his hands down. “You need to hear this, Damen. It’s for your own good. Remember when I told you that your parents were just too busy working for you and that’s why they didn’t come to give you a hug at night? Your mother’s too busy working, yeah, but she doesn’t give a damn about you. The first time I came to this house, her first words were, ‘Make him believe I love him, but keep him away from me. Do that and you’ll be set for life.’ And your father? Oh, your father barely remembers you exist. During the daytime he f**ks me and all the other women in this household, sometimes more than once.”
Bella saw his lips wobbling, and somehow that seemed to enrage her even more. She sneered, “Your parents don’t love each other! Get that through your thick head! She was in love with her driver but her parents caught them f**king and forced her to marry your father. Oh, and he was forced, too. I bet nobody told you that your father’s gambling debts were the reason that made him propose marriage—”
“STOP IT!” he had shouted, knowing he was close to throwing up if Bella kept talking and saying bad things about his parents.
“You don’t believe me? Go to your father’s room. The code to his room is 1213. Go on, open it and you’ll see it for yourself.”
“Why are you doing this to me? What did I do to make you hate me?”
The words had made Bella whiten, as if she was only realizing the magnitude of what she had done. “Damen—”
But it was too late.
He had gone.
He had seen.
And he no longer believed in anything except himself.
When he came back to the present, he realized he was at the helipad, the engine of his copter already running and the pilot waiting for instructions.
“To Diana’s school.”
As the copter took off, he called Diana on her mobile and when she answered in a wary voice, he said in the same tone, “I need you to find a way to have Mairi meet me privately.”
“No! I don’t know what you’ve done to her, but she hasn’t been herself—”
His voice was unstable but determined as he interrupted Diana, saying, “I f**ked up.”
Everything else Diana had to say became useless at those words.
“She told me…” The words felt like a lie. The past made the words seem like a lie, but Damen refused to listen to the sly voice inside his head. This time he chose to believe.
“Diana, she told me she…loved me…and I want to believe she does.”
Tears struck her eyes when the full impact of her brother’s words sank in. Why had she ever thought she would be the only one messed up by their parents’ dysfunctional marriage?