by Sara Wood
She stared after him in consternation. And in a flash of inspiration she knew where he could be heading. To Athena, the ever-loving mother of his child, who’d stood by him all these years.
Olivia’s eyes took on the colour of slate. She fished out the car keys he’d given her and grimly marched to the garage block.
All the time he’d been slinging her that line about loving her—and looking as if he believed every wretched word—he had fully intended to keep Athena on, as a back-up.
Well, she thought, her fingers gripping the wheel as if it were her lifeline, she would confront him at Athena’s house and then he’d be forced to admit that everything he’d said was a lie.
CHAPTER TEN
ATHENA stroked his forehead, but her gentle fingers did nothing to smooth the deep furrows there. The pain was too deep. Unreachable.
She had gasped when she’d opened the door to her cottage. Stumbling in, almost drunk from the turmoil raging around in his mind, he’d caught a glimpse of himself in a mirror and had realised why she was so shocked.
He hardly recognised himself in the zombie who stared back with graveyard eyes. Love and Olivia had done this to him.
Now he sat listlessly at Athena’s feet in the garden overlooking Selonda Bay, two glasses of wine poured and forgotten, while little Theo played happily with his toy cars.
Warm and loving as always, Athena asked no questions but waited for him to speak. He didn’t know where to begin. His future seemed utterly bleak and uninviting. He would have done anything for Olivia. Given her whatever she wanted. And she’d turned him down.
Bone-weary from hurling his emotions into a void, only to have them slung back at him, he leaned his head back against Athena’s knees and closed his eyes. But he still saw Olivia. If it was anything like the last time she left him he’d see her there for a long while.
He groaned. Lightly Athena’s fingers caressed his face. And then they stilled abruptly.
Looking up, Dimitri was astonished to see Olivia. He blinked, thinking he must be hallucinating, because she didn’t know where Athena lived or where he might have gone, but she was definitely there, by the low gate that led into the garden. She flung it open angrily and strode towards him, her face set, hair streaming behind her in golden waves.
‘What a pretty scene!’ she scorned. ‘And you claim you love me?’
‘Yes,’ was all he could manage—and that was hardly coherent.
‘You’re living in a make-believe world, Dimitri!’ she flashed. ‘Get real. While you’re with one woman you love her. You honestly seem to believe that. Then five minutes later you’re with some other lover—and you offer undying love to her! It’s not normal,’ she snapped. ‘Either you know full well what you’re doing, in which case you’re the lowest form of life that exists, or you are deluded, in which case you need a psychiatrist—’
‘I don’t have any confusion,’ he husked. ‘I love you. It’s that simple.’
Olivia seemed shocked. She looked at Athena and then back at him again. ‘You can say that in front of her? I can’t understand how Greek women accept infidelity so easily,’ she jerked.
‘They don’t,’ Athena said quietly. ‘What are you trying to say, Olivia?’
At the gentleness in the other woman’s voice, Olivia’s eyes filled with tears.
‘I loved him!’ she sobbed. ‘He was everything to me! And when I came back to Greece and saw him again I knew I would always feel that way! Then he lied to me and deceived me and pretended he cared when all the time he was two-timing me! I can’t bear it! And I hate being so feeble and crying like this over such a louse!’ She rounded on Dimitri. ‘You’ve broken my heart! I hope you’ll be miserable as hell and some woman will hurt you as you’ve hurt me…’
She broke down in a storm of weeping. Athena hurried to her and led her inside the cottage, frantically waving Dimitri back when he made to follow.
‘This is my bathroom,’ she said gently to Olivia. ‘You can freshen up here and then we can talk. Dimitri isn’t the kind of man you claim he is—’
‘See him for what he is! You’ve been taken in by him, as I was!’
Olivia wrenched on the tap and glared at Athena in the mirror. The woman was older than she’d seemed from a distance. Perhaps forty-five, with several grey hairs. Probably good in bed, Olivia thought bitterly. She sluiced her face and dried it.
And then she noticed a photograph of Athena with Dimitri. No, not Dimitri…
Olivia whirled, and went to study the snapshot. It showed Athena and Dimitri’s father, Theo, looking adoringly at each other. She held her breath in shock and looked around. On a shelf was a photo of Theo, smiling into the camera with that besotted look adopted by all lovers.
She strode into the adjoining bedroom and swallowed hard. There were pictures everywhere. Theo on a beach somewhere, laughing. Theo…
Wide-eyed, she spun around to stare at the puzzled Athena. ‘Dimitri’s father?’ she breathed.
Athena smiled fondly and stroked one of the photos. ‘My darling Theo,’ she said softly.
It was too much for Olivia. She went outside and faced the tense-looking Dimitri, who was standing by a wrought-iron table, a glass of wine in his hand. When he saw her, he drained the glass and put it down, a wary expression on his face. No wonder he seemed agitated, she thought in contempt.
‘Whose child is that?’ she demanded.
Dimitri frowned. ‘I can’t tell you.’
‘I will.’ Athena spoke up. ‘He is Theo’s child. But Marina must never know. We don’t want to hurt her. I hope you will not tell her our secret—it would be too cruel.’
Shaken, Olivia tried to steady herself. Dimitri’s morals were worse than she’d ever imagined.
‘I don’t believe you two! Is it a Greek tradition to take on your father’s mistress?’ she demanded angrily.
He blinked. Very slowly, a smile spread across his face, and then he was laughing with Athena, who was doubled up and clutching him as if she had never heard anything so funny in the whole of her life.
Their easy intimacy outraged her, and she had to sit down on a low wall because of the cutting pains in her chest. How dared they laugh at her?
She sat with a forlorn expression on her face, though her fists were clenched as if she might attack him at any moment. Dimitri sobered, hating to see her so hurt, so misled.
‘Athena isn’t my mistress. I’ve never been her lover—’
‘I saw you!’ Olivia whispered, her eyes huge and silvered with distress. ‘She was in labour and you were helping her into your car—’
‘Oh, hell! So that’s it!’ He groaned, and a wave of regret churned at his stomach. ‘How on earth did you find us?’
‘Your mother guided me,’ she said, her voice taut and strained.
‘My…mother?’ He and Athena looked at one another in consternation.
‘Yes.’ Olivia flung up her head defiantly. ‘She’d been telling me you had a mistress ever since the day we met. Finally I became suspicious about your secretive phone calls. She offered to take me to your mistress’s house.’
Poor Olivia. What she must have thought… ‘And that was the day you left—?’
‘Of course it was!’ she cried, slamming her fist on the hard stone. She winced, and he reached out to take that wounded little hand in his but she glared at him so fiercely that he thought better of it. Her lower lip trembled and his heart somersaulted with love and tenderness.
‘Olivia,’ he said gently, ‘Why didn’t you tell me what you’d seen? I could have explained—’
‘I wouldn’t have believed you!’ she hurled tightly. ‘You were loving and k-kind to Athena, and it was obvious that she must be the mother of your child…Oh.’ She looked confused. ‘He’s Theo’s child. I don’t understand.’
‘I can assure you that he is Theo’s child. And I have never loved or made love to any other man but Theo in the whole of my life. Why don’t you two sort this out somewhere private
?’ Athena suggested, as little Theo ran to her and clung to her knees, his huge Dimitri-eyes round and anxious.
Olivia’s hand flew to her mouth. ‘I’m sorry! I wouldn’t have upset your little boy for the world—’
Jumping to her feet in agitation, Olivia was dazed by Athena’s gentle smile.
‘It’s all right. I’ll explain to him,’ Athena said. ‘Just go. And tell her everything, Dimitri. I mean everything,’ she added, kissing his cheek and lifting Theo up for a cuddle. Dimitri buried his face in the toddler’s little neck and then set about tickling him, till his half-brother giggled, his little face sunny once more.
‘Olivia,’ he said quietly when he’d set Theo down. ‘We have a lot of explaining to do, the two of us. I want to clear the air. Will you trust me and give me an hour of your time?’
Hardly breathing, he waited for her nod, and when it came he felt as if he’d been reprieved from a prison sentence.
His heart pounding, he drove her to the ruined temple by the sea, dedicated to Aphrodite, and they sat on the base of a fallen column, amidst a drift of wild sea lilies, the air heavy with pine scent and herbs.
‘I’ll begin with Athena. She was from my father’s village,’ Dimitri said when Olivia looked at him questioningly. ‘They’d known one another as children. He always remained a simple, uncomplicated man at heart, loving the land, happy with his old village friends.’
‘He was wrong to love her,’ Olivia reproved. ‘He was married.’
Dimitri sighed. ‘Only because he felt he had to marry Mother.’
‘What do you mean?’ she asked, her curiosity aroused.
‘Initially he’d been going out with Marina, and she adored him. But she was a little too possessive, and as he realised he didn’t love her he decided to break off the relationship. He’d drunk a little too much, trying to pluck up courage, and Mother—knowing what he intended—seduced him. He began to court Athena, but Mother then told him she was pregnant.’
‘With you!’ She looked startled.
‘Me,’ he agreed with a smile. ‘And Father, being a man of honour, married the mother of his child.’
‘Marina had what she wanted,’ Olivia began.
‘But she knew she’d ruined Father’s life.’
Olivia sighed. ‘How sad.’
‘She paid for it,’ Dimitri said, sympathy etched deeply on his face. ‘At first she diverted her love to me. But that wasn’t enough. Father never stopped loving Athena. When the marriage became unbearable, he went to her for comfort. She and Father adored one another and were happy together. You’ve seen her, Olivia. That’s the face of a kind and gentle woman, unwillingly caught up in the life of a married man. She wouldn’t let Father ask for a divorce. She was content with the situation as it was. And when he died I made sure Athena was secure.’
Now Olivia was sitting with her spine erect, her beautiful eyes fixed intently on him as she tried to un-tangle the story.
‘That day on the boat, the day when you said you stood in the theatre at Epidauros and said you loved me, you had several secretive phone calls—’
He nodded. ‘Athena had been rushed to hospital with labour pains. They turned out to be false and I teased her about being a drama queen. Though they were real enough the next day, when you saw us together. That was the day little Theo was born.’ He smiled fondly, thinking of his little half-brother. ‘Olivia, Athena was all alone and had lost the man she loved more than anything in the world. She needed my support—’
‘Of course she did. But Dimitri,’ she mourned, ‘why didn’t you tell me?’
‘I had promised her that I would tell no one,’ he said gently. ‘My mother once accused me of being Athena’s lover—she knew where she lived, and I think she’d seen my car outside one day. I couldn’t say anything. Couldn’t hurt Mother, you see. She was unhappy enough. I believe that when she met you and saw your happiness she was desperately jealous. She envied the intensity of our love. But now she is loved again and her bitterness has gone.’
Seeing how appalled she looked, he moved close to her. Taking her hand, he found that she was trembling.
‘Are you saying that I left you,’ she croaked in dismay, ‘because you were being kind and thoughtful to your late father’s lover? Dimitri, I was so certain…’ She buried her face in her hands. And then looked up again sharply and he knew the doubts were still there. ‘I’m not sure if I dare believe you. You said…you said our marriage was based on sex and that was all!’ Her eyes blazed blue fire.
‘Not as far as I was concerned. I was talking about you. It seemed to be all you felt,’ he said, hurting. If she didn’t love him, he didn’t know what he’d do…
‘That’s not true!’ she protested indignantly. ‘I’ve loved you since we first met! I’ve always loved you!’
He wanted that to be true. Yet she could be settling for his love, and a comfortable life. That wouldn’t be enough for him. She’d told him quite baldly that she no longer cared.
‘I want the truth from you, Olivia. No more lies, no more pretence. You’ve forgotten your farewell note,’ he reminded her, his body stiff. But they had to get to the truth, however painful that might be. She must be honest with him. ‘You said in that note that when there was no love in a marriage it was a mistake to continue it. You can’t deny that. Those words are burnt in my heart.’ His voice shook but he didn’t care. He was exposing his emotions because this was his last chance to do so.
Her fingers stole into his. He dared to meet her eyes and tried not to be fooled by what he thought was tenderness there. And yet hope leapt inside him, jerking his pulses into a fast, erratic beat.
‘Dimitri, I wasn’t referring to my love when I wrote that note. I meant yours. It seemed clear enough to me at the time, but now I see it wasn’t. I believed that you loved Athena, not me. I wasn’t going to let you live a lie. I couldn’t trust you, and that made every day a torment.’
‘But you were mistaken to doubt me,’ he said gravely.
‘I so want that to be true! I refuse to share the man I love! You must believe me, Dimitri. Whatever happens between us, whatever we decide to do, one thing is certain and you must know it. I love you with all my heart. Don’t you know that? Can’t you tell?’
It was his turn to hesitate, to doubt. And those doubts haunted him, stretching him on the rack.
‘I want to believe you. More than you can ever know,’ he muttered. Her grip tightened. He ploughed on. ‘But when we were married you seemed so distant sometimes. When I came back from trips abroad our sex was fantastic, but you were quiet. Almost reticent—’
‘I was lonely,’ she explained, her face earnest. ‘All I did was explore the country and shop. I seemed to have no purpose in life except to be your wife. Wonderful though that was, it wasn’t enough.’
His arm crept around her. ‘I’m sorry. I thought you’d love a life of luxury—’
‘Not if you weren’t there to enjoy it with me,’ she sighed. ‘I need to keep my mind active. And I was fed the most awful stories by your mother about what you might be doing. I know you’ve always denied her part in my misery, but she fed my suspicions. Perhaps that was because she truly believed you to be Athena’s lover. I think she might have been preparing me for the truth, so I wasn’t hurt as she’d been hurt by your father’s suspected infidelity.’
‘I’m sorry. To me, Mother seemed so pleasant to you that I couldn’t imagine she was being two-faced and making you unhappy. But you must believe me when I say there were no other loves in my life. I slept and ate and dreamt of you. I haven’t stopped loving you, not even in those years I wished hell on earth for you. And when I saw you again…I couldn’t breathe for the hunger that filled my bitter heart. I wanted to throw that lawyer of yours into the sea, just because he’d spent time with you and on the offchance that he might have…might have…’
‘I’ve had no other lover but you,’ she said softly, touching his beloved face. ‘I had some dire dinners in the att
empt to start my life without you!’ She giggled. ‘No man matches up. They didn’t even come close. I have loved you despite trying to forget you. I always will. But…you…’ She bit her lip. ‘What about you? You mentioned women…’
‘Yes. I went out with other women,’ he said, his cheek soft against hers. ‘I made love to three of them. A one-off, each time. Such a mistake. A disaster. You were always there, luring me with your wicked eyes, sighing the way you do…’ His arm tightened around her waist. ‘I suppose it kept Eleni at bay for a while,’ he said ruefully. ‘I told her how I felt about you. That I was obsessed, addicted—’
‘But you didn’t say you loved me?’ she murmured, lights glinting in her eyes.
‘I couldn’t admit it to myself, let alone her. I knew you were out of my reach and I had to resign myself to that. Acknowledging my love for you would have torn me apart. I was devastated when you left. An absolute bear. Eleni thought she’d slip into your shoes but I didn’t want anyone there. Only you.’
Contented now, she leaned her head into his shoulder. ‘She kept trying because she didn’t know how you really felt,’ she mused.
‘Yet she was aware that I’d raged and rampaged about the house when you left.’
‘Perhaps she thought your pride was hurt,’ Olivia said wryly.
He smiled. ‘Perhaps. But…why did you run away? If you’d confronted me, I could have explained—’
‘I barely knew what I was doing,’ she confessed. ‘I hurt so much. Imagine what I’d seen, Dimitri! Imagine the corrosive half-truths your mother poured into my ear! I’d long been unhappy, lonely, unsure of your love and seeing you with Athena just confirmed my worst fears.’
‘I was a fool. I left you alone too much. I know that now,’ he said quietly. ‘I was trying to continue working as I had before I was married. I thought you must be blissfully happy, enjoying your life of leisure.’
‘I felt I wasn’t part of your life any more.’ Her face was sober as she remembered how isolated she’d felt. ‘That day when I saw you with Athena, my instincts were to go back to people I knew and loved. My friends. I needed to think—and I couldn’t in that oppressive, intense atmosphere. You were in Tokyo, your mother was keen to see the back of me so you could find yourself a Greek wife. And…’ She hesitated. ‘To be honest, I thought that you’d lie your way out of the situation and I’d be so desperate to believe you that I’d be tempted to pretend you didn’t have a mistress and a child. I’m so weak where you’re concerned. I didn’t dare risk being coaxed by you into accepting your infidelity and turning a blind eye to it.’