by Abby Green
‘We’re going to go to Krisakis for a few days.’
She forced her brain to function. ‘Kris—Where?’
‘It’s the island I own. It’s part of the Cyclades chain of islands. Santorini, Naxos, Paros…’
She’d forgotten that he owned an island.
‘I’m constructing an eco-resort and I need to check progress and meet with some of the designers.’
‘Have I been there before?’
He nodded. ‘I took you there when we first came to Greece.’
Sasha tried to conjure up an image of what the island might be like but her mind stubbornly refused to provide anything.
Right at that moment, after the dreams she’d had last night, she relished the thought of a change of scenery. ‘When do we leave?’
Apollo looked at his watch. ‘In an hour. I’ve instructed Kara to pack some things for you.’
She felt prickly. ‘I can pack my own bag.’
Apollo shrugged. ‘As you wish. I need to make some calls before we go.’ He got up and walked out of the room and Sasha’s breath got stuck in her throat as she watched him go. He was wearing a polo shirt and faded jeans that lovingly hugged his buttocks and thighs.
Rhea bustled into the room and Sasha looked away quickly, mortified to have been caught ogling her husband, but also when she recalled what Apollo had told her about the party she’d hosted.
Taking drugs.
Her conscience wouldn’t let her say nothing, though, and she caught Rhea’s hand before she could clear the plates. The woman looked at her warily. Sasha said, ‘I’m so sorry, Rhea…for what happened. For disrespecting you and this house.’
The older woman’s expression softened. She patted Sasha’s hand awkwardly. ‘Is okay, Kyria Vasilis. Don’t worry.’
She cleared the plates efficiently and left the room. Sasha still felt humiliated but a little lighter.
She stood up to leave the table and on an impulse walked down through the gardens. In spite of the sun, tentacles of those disturbing dreams from last night lingered, making her shiver a little.
The dreams had been shockingly erotic. She’d been on a bed, making love to Apollo. Their naked bodies entwined in the most intimate way possible. He’d held one of her hands over her head, capturing it, and his head had moved down, over her body, his mouth fastening over one nipple, feasting on her tender flesh. She could still feel it now, the delicious pulling, dragging sensation that had gone all the way down to between her legs where he’d pushed them apart with his thigh, opening her up to his body…
But then, abruptly, Sasha had realised that she was no longer in the body on the bed; she was standing apart, looking at him making love to another woman. Not her. But then the woman’s face had been revealed and she’d smiled mockingly at Sasha and Sasha had realised that it was her. But it wasn’t her.
She’d been separated from them by a glass wall. Able to see everything but not feel it. The woman on the bed was an imposter, pretending to be her. And Apollo didn’t realise. She’d watched helplessly as he’d moved his powerful body between the woman’s legs, how she’d opened up for him, and then the moment when he’d thrust deep inside.
The woman’s legs were wrapped around Apollo’s waist and the whole time she’d looked at Sasha and then her mocking smile had turned to nightmarish laughter and that’s when Sasha had woken, sweating and trembling from the force of it, filled with a feeling of doom and betrayal so acrid that she’d felt nauseous.
Sasha shook her head to try and dislodge the images and that horrible feeling of betrayal. But it had felt so real. And it couldn’t be, obviously.
She went back inside, but on her way to the bedroom she passed by her office. She could hear the deep tones of Apollo’s voice through his own office door.
On an impulse she went into the white and fluffy room, still a bit bemused at the thought that she’d insisted on having an office. There was a computer on the desk and she sat down and tapped a key experimentally. It opened automatically in an internet browser.
Wondering how it hadn’t occurred to her before, she put Apollo’s name into the search engine. The first items to pop up were recent deals and headlines like Vasilis and His Midas Touch Strike Again!
Sasha skimmed a recent profile article done for a prominent British financial newspaper where it talked about Apollo’s myriad achievements and rapid rise to stratospheric success. He was also one of the first construction titans to commit to working ethically. Every worker on one of his sites had proper healthcare and insurance and if accidents occurred, workers were rehabilitated and then redeployed either back to where they’d been or to a new area more suited to them.
Consequently, his workers were among the happiest in a normally fickle industry and by holding himself to a higher standard, he was forcing the industry to change around him. He was a trailblazer.
At the end of the article it said:
When asked about his recent marriage to Sasha Miller, Vasilis was curt, saying, ‘My private life is off-limits.’
Sasha felt sick. Unsurprisingly he hadn’t wanted to divulge the details of his marriage of inconvenience to an interviewer.
It only made Sasha want to know more about her own past—what had happened to her to make her behave like that? To trap a man into marriage? She went back into the history of the computer and saw some social media account tabs and clicked on them. But they’d all been logged out and she couldn’t remember the passwords.
For one of the main social accounts she could see a small picture of herself, smiling widely against a glamorous-looking backdrop of a marina. She was wearing more make-up. Her skin was tanned…which must have been fake because she was naturally the colour of a milk bottle. She was holding up a glass of sparkling wine. It sparkled almost as much as the massive diamond on her ring finger. It eclipsed the much plainer gold wedding band. The rings that had gone missing in the accident.
She rubbed her finger absently, imagining them being torn off somehow, but there was no mark on her finger or bruising to indicate what had happened. Something about that niggled at the edges of her memory. A sense that she had seen them somewhere…but not on her hand. But the memory refused to be pinned down. Again.
Sasha touched the picture of her face with a finger, as if that could unlock the secrets of her past.
Nothing.
Nothing except a tiny shiver down her spine. Looking at her face like this reminded her of that dream, because it was like looking at another person.
She turned off the computer, eager to put that image of her face, and the dream, behind her. She saw a drawer in the desk and opened it, vaguely wondering if she might find some other clues to her past.
There was a thick manila envelope inside and she pulled it out. It had her name on it. For some reason, she felt superstitious about looking at the contents but the envelope was open and it was addressed to her.
She pulled out a thick sheaf of papers and read the words at the top of the first page: ‘Application For Mutual Consent Divorce Proceedings Between Apollo Vasilis and Sasha Miller’.
It was dated a few days before the accident.
Sasha started to look through the pages, which weren’t signed yet. They outlined the grounds for divorce. Irreconcilable differences. And non-consummation of the marriage.
They hadn’t slept together.
So he really hadn’t wanted her. But last night…he had. And he hadn’t welcomed it.
‘What are you doing?’
Sasha looked up to see Apollo standing in the doorway. She was too shocked to be embarrassed or feel like he’d caught her doing something illicit.
She held up the document. ‘We were going to divorce?’
‘We were always going to divorce.’
Sasha dropped the document back on the desk. ‘But what about at first…when the bab
y…?’ She trailed off, realising what she was saying.
He arched a brow, ‘The baby that never existed?’
She flushed guiltily.
‘When I believed you were pregnant we agreed to marry for a year, enough time to have the baby and then reassess the situation.’
Sasha frowned. ‘What does that mean?’
‘Custody.’
She struggled to understand. ‘But presumably as the mother I would have had custody.’
Apollo shook his head. ‘In the pre-nuptial agreement you signed away your right to full custody. You agreed to an arrangement where I would have full custody and I would set you up somewhere close enough for you to see the child on a regular basis.’
Sasha stood up. She shook her head. ‘I can’t believe I would have signed away full rights to my own baby.’
Apollo’s lip curled. ‘Don’t forget there was no baby. I should have guessed something was amiss when you agreed so quickly to that, and when you were more interested in the alimony you would receive in the event of a divorce.’
Sasha remembered what he’d told her last night about how she’d tried to seduce him. To try and get pregnant. She felt sick. And even sicker when she thought of how he’d found her in such a debauched state. Taking drugs.
She forced herself to look at him. ‘That’s when you initiated the divorce, after the party, when you knew I wasn’t pregnant.’
He nodded.
‘Why didn’t you just throw me out, once you knew?’ She would have thrown her out. She felt angry at herself.
‘I considered it. I wanted to. I never wanted to see you again. You disgusted me.’
Sasha felt every word like a little sharp knife to her heart. ‘So why didn’t you?’
‘Because we are married. I couldn’t trust you. I didn’t know what you would do. You could have gone to the papers with some sob story and I have a reputation to maintain. The last thing I needed was adverse press attention.’
‘And then I had the accident.’
He nodded. ‘A few days later, you took one of the cars and disappeared for hours. When you hadn’t returned by dinner-time, Rhea called me and a search was started. You eventually appeared by the side of a road not far from here, further up into the hills.’
Sasha felt cold. ‘This marriage never had a chance.’
Apollo faltered for a moment when he thought of that first night he’d met Sasha. How easily she’d caught him with her fresh-faced beauty. How novel it had been to meet someone unjaded. Open. Joyful. But it hadn’t been real. He forced the memory out. ‘No.’
Sasha looked bewildered. ‘Why did you agree to marry me at all? Why did you believe me?’
Feeling almost defensive now, he said, ‘You had a note from a doctor confirming the pregnancy. And I consulted my legal team. We came to the conclusion that once you agreed to sign a pre-nuptial agreement, marrying you would offer me the best chance of custody and securing my child’s future. There was a clause to say that if anything happened to the pregnancy or if the baby proved not to be mine after a DNA test, you would get nothing. Obviously you’d decided that the risk of marriage was worth it, even though you weren’t pregnant. Hence your attempts to try and seduce me once we were married. Attempts that didn’t work.’
Sasha winced at that. ‘Why did you bring me back here after the accident? Why not just kick me out of your life for good now that you can?’
Why not indeed? mocked a little voice in Apollo’s head. He could have done exactly that. He could have taken advantage of her amnesia to get her to sign the divorce papers and set her up in an apartment in Athens with a small allowance and a nurse to attend to her needs until the divorce was through.
But no matter how much he’d hated her for what she’d done, the way she’d looked after the accident—so pale and defenceless on that hospital bed—it had caught at him. And then she’d woken up and looked at him and it had been as if the previous months had fallen away and all he could remember was that night they’d met.
Her memory loss had only complicated things further. Changing her. Reminding him of that first impression she’d made. Re-igniting his desire.
He said now, ‘I’m not letting you go anywhere until we sign the divorce papers. I don’t trust that you won’t do something to exploit the power you have as my wife.’
He went on, ‘I don’t know why you took the car on the day you disappeared or where you went to…and until you regain your memory and you can tell me, you won’t be going anywhere. For all I know, you took your wedding rings off because you have a lover, perhaps someone you were hoping to turn to because I hadn’t fallen under your spell.’
A memory of that kiss last night blasted into Apollo’s head, mocking him. He was under her spell again whether he liked it or not.
Sasha held up the sheaf of papers. She was pale. They were trembling lightly in her hand and that evidence of her emotions caught at him, making him feel an urge to protect her. He rejected it.
She said, ‘So why don’t we just sign the papers now and be done with it?’
To his disgust, his immediate emotion wasn’t one of relief that she was showing a willingness to put all this behind them and get out of his life. It was something much more ambiguous and disturbing. Reluctance to let her go.
He said, ‘It’s the weekend, my offices won’t be open. And next Monday is a national holiday. In any case I’ve made plans to go and inspect the site on Krisakis. We will stick to this arrangement and sign the papers when we return to Athens in a week. We’ll be out of each other’s lives within a month. And perhaps Krisakis will help jog your memory.’
Sasha felt winded. ‘Once we sign the papers, it can happen that quickly?’ The thought of never seeing Apollo again made her feel panicky. She told herself it was because he was the only familiar thing in her life, not because he’d come to mean anything to her. Clearly there had been little love lost between them.
Apollo’s mouth firmed. ‘Yes, it can happen that quickly. But obviously if your memory still hasn’t returned by then, I’ll make sure you’re set up in a situation and place that feels secure and safe for you.’
Sasha wanted to curl inwards. The thought of Apollo pitying her enough to have to keep an eye on her after their marriage was over was a whole new level of humiliation.
‘I’m sure that won’t be necessary, but thank you.’
CHAPTER SIX
A COUPLE OF hours later, Apollo’s words still reverberated in Sasha’s head.
‘I’ll make sure you’re set up in a situation and place that feels secure and safe for you.’
The perks of a rich man. Able to dissolve marriages and set up inconvenient ex-wives with a minimum of fuss.
The fact that the imminent dissolution of a marriage she’d apparently engineered into being through lies and deceit wasn’t filling her with a sense of relief, only brought about more confusion.
She could remember being stunned by Apollo’s interest in her when they’d first met. Intimidated but excited too. How had she gone from that to wanting to deceive him so heinously?
With a sigh, she let the landscape beneath her distract her from circling thoughts that were going nowhere and not helping.
They were in a helicopter, flying over the Aegean, and she looked down in awe at boats and islands that looked like toys beneath them.
When she’d seen the sleek black machine at the private airfield, she’d balked. Apollo had looked at her. ‘You flew in this when I took you to the island the first time. You loved it.’
‘Did I? Sasha had asked doubtfully. For the whole journey, in spite of her tortured thoughts and the beauty below them, her heart had been in her throat. And even more now as they started descending over an island and the helicopter tipped perilously to the left.
This must be Krisakis. Sasha forced down the fluttering panic an
d took in the rocky coastline where pockets of brightly coloured flowers flourished along the cliffs. The sea lapped against rocks and then they rounded a headland and an empty white sand beach appeared, like something on a postcard.
Sasha could see steps cut into the rocks, leading up to lush grounds and then up further to a white modern building—a series of buildings laid out like interconnecting cubes. Sunlight glinted off acres of glass. An infinity pool with sun loungers had never looked so inviting.
Apollo was saying into her headset, ‘This is the villa, the first thing I built here. The island was hit by an earthquake about half a century ago, leaving only a small population behind. With the development I’m building on the other side of the island, it’s becoming a thriving community again. People who were born here but who had to leave have returned to live out their last days, bringing their sons and daughters with them to make new lives.’
Sasha couldn’t help thinking it was ironic for a man who’d professed little interest in having a family to be invested in bringing them together like this.
The helicopter was landing now on a helipad a little distance from the villa. When the pilot had touched down, Apollo got out. He opened Sasha’s door and helped her out. Her legs felt like rubber and Apollo’s hand tightened on hers. ‘Okay?’
She locked her knees to stop them wobbling. ‘Yes, fine.’ She took her hand back.
Apollo stepped aside to talk to the pilot for a moment and then once the bags were unloaded he led her over to a safe spot while the helicopter lifted back up into the air before tilting to the right and heading off into the azure-blue sky.
Sasha put the sun hat she’d carried on her head, glad of Kara’s thoughtfulness. Which was even more thoughtful now considering what she’d put them through. Sasha heard a faint sound and turned around to see what looked like a golf cart bouncing across the grounds towards them.
Apollo waved at the person driving who waved back enthusiastically. He said, ‘That’s Spiro—he’s the son of my housekeeper here, helping out before he goes back to college.’