Along Came Twins...

by Rebecca Winters

  “Karmela is very beautiful and resembles Petra,” Kellie continued. “She’s smart like her, too. They were only a year apart.”

  “What did she do that threatened you?”

  Upset and curious to hear what Kellie would tell Olympia, Leandros extended his long legs and folded his arms to hold himself in check while he waited for the answer.

  “After our wedding at the church on Andros, his family held a reception at their nearby villa. Everyone invited came up to congratulate us. When Karmela appeared with her family, she cupped his face in her hands and gave him a long kiss on the lips. As her eyes slid to mine, I saw an angry flash no woman could mistake for anything other than pure jealousy.”

  Leandros sat there, stunned. He’d been so excited to make Kellie his wife, he didn’t remember that moment. In fact, the events of the reception were a big blur.

  “After kissing my husband, she kissed me on the cheek and murmured, ‘Good luck in holding on to him.’”

  He straightened in the chair, aghast by what he’d just heard. Karmela’s childish, petulant behavior was out of bounds at times, but he hadn’t known she’d subjected Kellie to it as early as their wedding reception.

  “My best friend, Fran, was standing a little distance off. When she came over to congratulate us, she whispered that she’d noticed Karmela had fixated on my husband throughout the day. In her words, ‘By no stretch of the imagination could that kiss be construed as platonic.’”

  While Leandros was still digesting information that stuck in his throat, Kellie said, “My friend isn’t the kind of person who looks for trouble or thinks the worst of anyone. Her opinion wasn’t the only one I heard that night on the subject of Karmela.”

  He furrowed his brows, wondering what else in blazes she was about to reveal that he knew nothing about.

  “At the wedding, my husband’s best man, Frato, took me aside to congratulate me. He happens to be his first cousin and is very close to him. After he kissed my cheek, he said that he had something to tell me in confidence, but didn’t want it getting back to Leandros.”

  What in the hell?

  “Frato confided he was worried about me because Karmela had had a thing for Leandros even before her sister’s marriage to him. After the plane crash that killed Petra and their unborn baby, Karmela confided to him that she planned to be the next Mrs. Petralia and give him the child he wanted so desperately.”

  What?

  “Frato said that since I’d beaten Karmela to the altar, he wanted to warn me to watch out for her, because she didn’t care who she hurt. He was afraid Leandros had a blind spot when it came to Karmela, so I had my work cut out.”

  Leandros’s blood pressure spiked through the ceiling.

  “I could smell alcohol on Frato’s breath and feared he’d had too much to drink, but on the heels of Karmela’s kiss and my friend’s observations, I couldn’t completely ignore what he’d told me. Especially when I found out that the Paulos family were neighbors of the Petralia family on Andros and the children had grown up together. But considering it was my first day of marriage, I chose to push it all to the back of my mind.”

  Incredulous over what he’d heard, Leandros clenched his hands into fists. He couldn’t sit here much longer without exploding. The news about Frato had knocked him sideways.

  “Why did you keep your husband in the dark about this?”

  “B-because I was trying to be the kind of wife who trusted my new husband completely. Since it was his good friend and cousin who’d asked me not to say anything, I just couldn’t betray his confidence. But a little over two months ago, Leandros brought Karmela into his office to be one his secretaries.”

  That hadn’t been Leandros’s doing, but he wanted to hear the rest before he interrupted her again.

  “For my husband to do that meant he’d had talks with Karmela I didn’t know about.”

  You’re wrong, Kellie. So wrong I’m sickened by what I’m hearing.

  “That’s when I feared what Frato had told me was coming true. In response to the news, I asked Leandros if he’d let me come to work at his office, find me a position.”

  Good grief. That’s why she’d asked him for a job? The pain in her voice stung him.

  “What did you hope to accomplish?”

  “In case Karmela was still infatuated with my husband, I wanted to be closer to him, so he wouldn’t turn to her. With hindsight I can see it was very childish of me. When I broached the subject of my being at the office, Leandros dismissed the idea. Naturally I thought the reason he wouldn’t want me there is because it would interfere with his interactions with Karmela.”

  Leandros flew out of his chair a second time, hot with rage over these new revelations about Karmela’s behavior. “I told you why I didn’t want you at work, Kellie. I preferred to get business and everything associated with it out of the way, so I could come home to my loving wife every night.”

  Kellie gave him a pained look, reminding him that their relationship had deteriorated severely over those last months. “I told him I wanted a divorce,” she went on, talking to Olympia. “The night before I was going to leave for the States, Karmela walked into our apartment from the private elevator, unannounced, to bring Leandros some papers.”

  Just as she’d done the night before last!

  “The two of them disappeared into his den for a little while. After she left, I asked him if he needed further proof of her infatuation with him. He denied any knowledge of expecting her, and swore he had no feelings for her. But I’m afraid I couldn’t believe him this time, not when he hadn’t even deleted her code from the elevator entrance.”

  Leandros was afraid he’d jump out of his skin. “Once you and I were married, I never gave the code a thought, Kellie. Only the night Karmela let herself in did I remember. You have to believe she came uninvited.” He could have strangled his sister-in-law that night. As for the other night...

  “None of it matters anymore, Leandros. All I knew was that I had to get out of our marriage.”

  “All right,” Olympia stated. “I’ve heard enough to understand where suspicions of infidelity, whether warranted or not, put a pall over your marriage from day one. Let’s turn to you, Leandros.” She eyed him directly. “Why don’t you sit down and try to relax.”

  Relax being the operative word.

  Wild with fury over Karmela’s behavior, he raked a hand through his hair before doing her bidding.

  “If I understand correctly, you and your first wife knew each other for years prior to your marriage.”

  The change of subject threw him off for a minute. “Yes, but I went out with various girlfriends and had no romantic interest in Petra. Not until she was living in an apartment in Athens with her sister, who worked for an accounting firm. Both sets of parents asked me to look in on them as a favor, which I did from time to time.

  “Petra was an excellent businesswoman who was hired by a local textile company. I admired her drive and intelligence. One thing led to another.”

  “Did you have an official engagement?”

  “Yes. Six months. We were married a year and a half when she was killed.”

  “You were a widower how long?”

  “Two years before I met Kellie.”

  “Considering you knew your first wife for years and went through a six-month engagement period, your second marriage happened fast. Twelve small weeks, in fact.” Olympia scrutinized him. “Why did you ask her to marry you?”

  His gaze swerved to his wife. Her wan countenance put him in fresh turmoil. “She thrilled me from the first moment I met her. With the fire lit, that feeling only grew stronger, and I knew I couldn’t let her go back to Pennsylvania.”

  “Tell me, Leandros. When did you first know your marriage to Kellie was in trouble?”

  Letting out a sigh of frustration, he clasped his hands between his knees. “On our wedding night.” His admission brought Kellie’s head around in surprise. “When I took her back to
the villa, she went through all the motions of being in love with me, but something had changed. I felt she was holding back from me emotionally somehow, and I couldn’t figure it out.”

  He glanced at Kellie. “Now I know why, but at the time I thought it was because she hadn’t been married before and everything was still new. I believed that by the time morning came, she’d be the Kellie I’d fallen in love with, but that woman didn’t emerge. She was sweet and affectionate as always, but the passion I’d felt from her before the marriage wasn’t the same.

  “To make things even more complicated, she came down with a rash and hives so severe on the second day of our honeymoon, we had to go to the doctor. We learned she had an allergy to me. Since that meant using protection all the time, it made it impossible for us to get pregnant by normal means.”

  “How did that make you feel?”

  “I won’t pretend. It was hard for both of us to hear. We spent the rest of our honeymoon discussing options, and decided we’d try artificial insemination. After the first procedure was done, I took her traveling with me while I looked for new properties. I loved being with her.

  “In the beginning, we went everywhere together and spent the odd weekend on Andros. But over the last eight months, she preferred to stay at the apartment in Athens if we weren’t going out of town. I assumed maybe she was worrying too much, and wanted to stay close to her doctor. When I asked her about it, she told me nothing was wrong. I could tell she didn’t want to discuss it, but I knew the stress of waiting to see if we were pregnant seemed to overtake our lives.

  “Two months ago I asked her to go to Rhodes with me. She told me no, that she wanted a separation.”

  Kellie jerked around, white faced, to look at him. “At the family dinner party a few nights before, Dionne mentioned that Karmela would be accompanying you there on business.”

  “Then my cousin lied to you, Kellie! I would never take Karmela with me anywhere under any circumstances.”

  “Why would Dionne do that?”

  Leandros studied her pinched features. “I don’t know, but I’m going to find out.”

  Olympia sat forward. “Let’s leave the subject of your cousins and sister-in-law for our session on Thursday. Did you go to Rhodes without your wife?”

  “I had no choice, because of business arrangements that couldn’t be changed. Then unbeknownst to me, I found out she’d made plans for her best friend, Fran, to come to Greece.”

  “Best friend, as in Frato has been your best friend?”

  “Yes.” Kellie spoke up before he could. “She’s been like the sister I never had.”

  A grimace marred his features. “They were going to take a two-week trip together while I was away on business. After making that announcement, she moved to the guest bedroom. It meant we’d be missing our next appointment with the doctor.”

  “Since our marriage had failed, I couldn’t see the point.”

  Olympia eyed the two of them. “Artificial insemination is an arduous process even when a couple is totally committed.”

  “I was prepared to do anything to have a baby,” Kellie cried softly.

  “No more than I.” And now, miracle of miracles, they were expecting twins just before their divorce.

  Kellie glanced at him briefly, then turned away. He drew in a fortifying breath. “Even though things were bad between us, when I flew Kellie back to Philadelphia, I told her I didn’t want a divorce. That’s when she challenged me to go to counseling with her.

  “In my anger and bewilderment, I told her I didn’t believe in it, and I returned to Athens. But after our separation, I realized I couldn’t bear to lose her, so I agreed to it.”

  “Did you fly back to Pennsylvania to tell her that in person?”

  “I didn’t have to. She flew here two days ago with the news that she was pregnant. That’s when I told her I’d been doing research to find some good therapists here in Athens. If she didn’t want to get therapy here, then we’d do it in Philadelphia. After thinking about it, she chose you to help us because of your long record.”

  That brought the first sign of mirth from Olympia. “I’m an old fossil, all right. When did the subject of getting pregnant first come up?”

  “Before we married, I told her I’d love to have children with her. She told me she couldn’t wait to have a baby. Unless I’m wrong, it was a mutual decision before we took our vows.”

  “You aren’t wrong,” Kellie blurted in a wounded voice.

  Olympia’s gaze fell on both of them. “I’d say on that score you’ve communicated brilliantly. Artificial insemination is not an easy route to go, but you did it—otherwise you wouldn’t be expecting twins in the near future. As for the rest, you can see you’re poles apart for a married couple who hope to stay together.

  “Surely today’s revelations have given you your first inkling of where to dig to start finding understanding. You’ll have to be brutally honest, open up and listen to each other. You’ll be forced to wade through perceptions, whether false or accurate, and no matter how painful, arrive at the truth. I’ll see you on Thursday.”

  Kellie nodded, filling him with relief that she was in agreement. He’d been afraid that when they got out to the car, she would tell him she’d changed her mind, and would refuse to go through with this after all.

  While his mind was on the conversation he intended to have with Frato, whether his cousin wanted it or not, Leandros watched Olympia get up from her desk and enter her house through the connecting door. Kellie beat him to the outside door and hurried out to the car, strapping herself in.

  He got behind the wheel and backed out to the street. A disturbing silence enveloped them. After heading for the main artery, he turned to her, anxious to fill the rest of their day with something constructive. “Where would you like to go for lunch? Or would you rather eat back at the hotel?”

  “The hotel, if that’s all right with you.”

  “Of course. You can rest there for a while.”

  She recrossed her shapely legs, a sign she was agitated. “Please don’t assume I’m always tired.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  A heavy sigh escaped her lips. “Forgive me for being cranky.”

  “After that session, neither of us is at our best.” He put on his sunglasses. “You’re restless, Kellie. Instead of keeping it all inside until you reach the breaking point, let’s take Olympia’s advice and start really talking to each other.”

  “I—I’m afraid....” Her voice faltered.

  “Of me?” he demanded.

  “Yes—no—I don’t know.”

  “Try me. I swear I won’t erupt like I did in her office.”

  After a long pause, Kellie said, “I have a lot of questions. For one, I don’t understand why you sold the penthouse.”

  Olympia’s words still rang in his ears. Surely today has given you your first inkling of where to dig to start finding understanding. You’ll have to be brutally honest, open up and listen to each other. You’ll be forced to wade through perceptions, whether false or accurate, and no matter how painful, to arrive at the truth.

  He cast his wife a covert glance before throwing the truth at her. “Pure and simple, I couldn’t stand living there without you. That was the only reason. When I got back from Pennsylvania and walked into the living room, it hit me you wouldn’t be coming home again. I couldn’t take it, and phoned Frato. He’d coveted the penthouse and had said as much many times.”

  Through the gold curtain of hair, her lovely profile was partially visible, yet her expression hidden. “But I know you missed Petra horribly after she died. Why didn’t you sell it then?”

  If they hadn’t been in therapy today, Leandros could see Kellie would never have had the temerity to ask that question. Now that she had, she deserved all the honesty he could give her.

  “As you know, I’d rather live on Andros, and would have always lived there and commuted. But Petra wanted to live in Athens, and kept looking for a
place for us. She met with a Realtor who knew the penthouse and its furnishings were up for sale if someone could pay the right price for it. She fell in love with it and wanted nothing else.

  “To be honest, I didn’t want to move in there, but I bought it to please her. Only two things about it appealed to me. The private elevator and the helicopter landing pad. I figured I could wing back to Andros without fuss when I wanted, but the penthouse never felt like home.

  “Petra was a working woman who traveled a lot and kept late hours, like me. She wasn’t there that much and hated to cook. That’s because she threw all her creativity into her job. We ate out ninety percent of the time. When we entertained, she had the food catered. Once we found out she was expecting, it didn’t stop her from working. When the plane went down, she’d been returning from a business trip.”

  “How awful that period was for you.” Kellie’s voice shook.

  “It was, but you need to understand she never turned the apartment into a haven. You’re the one who did that for us. Every day I found myself watching the clock, waiting to get home to you and make love. Half the time I cut my work short so we could have more time together in the evenings.

  “Without you there, the memories tortured me. You know how it was with us. When I traveled, I had to have you with me—otherwise I couldn’t have stood the separations. When you stopped going with me, it was torture.”

  She’d gone stone-cold quiet.

  “Are you upset I sold it?”

  He heard a sharp intake of breath. “If you’d asked me that question before we got married, I would have told you I was overjoyed.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  “WHAT?” LEANDROS’S THOUGHTS reeled, trying to keep up with Kellie.

  “Since I’d never been married before, I wanted to start out our life together without memories of Petra. In my mind, that penthouse was her home with you. On our honeymoon, when you told me you had a special wedding present for me, I assumed you were selling it and had plans to find a place in

  Athens for the two of us.

  “Truthfully, I never liked the penthouse. I guess I wanted a real home on the ground, one you and I picked out together.”