by Dani Collins
“Have I? Gosh, that’s a shame.” She met his gaze. She could speak sarcasm, too.
Leon didn’t move, only stood over her, hands pushed into the pockets of his jeans, not a whiff of humor about him.
She crossed her legs, reminded by his cold, steely stare that she wasn’t wearing a stitch of her own clothing and was only off Istuval thanks to him. Her baby was dry and fed when she was in no shape to care for her. Illi was hers, also thanks to him.
“I’ll quit taking cheap shots,” she conceded begrudgingly. “But an explanation would be nice. You quit taking my calls. Did I do something to make you drop me cold like that?”
She subtly braced herself, having convinced herself long ago that his abandonment was somehow her fault and she was too dumb to see it.
“Are we doing this now? All right.” He paced away a few restless steps, hands still pushed into his pockets. “You must have seen the reports on how my father’s empire collapsed when he did?”
“And that you had to restructure, yes. I understand you were busy, Leon. I’m talking about five minutes to write an email so I wasn’t left wondering why you didn’t want to come back.” Or want to be married to her anymore. He hadn’t wanted to even talk to her.
She had thought about climbing on a plane to confront him, but she’d been as broke as her brother and father. Leon clearly hadn’t wanted to see her, so she had moved on with her life. More or less. She had focused on attaining her degree to avoid dwelling on the happily-ever-after dream she had lost. The money was one thing, the blow to her inner belief system and self-esteem quite another.
“The reports that were made public were the tip of the iceberg.” His shoulders became a tense line. “I was doing everything I could to keep the worst of it out of the news. Things were happening very quickly and there was no bottom to the well. Each time I thought about calling you, my situation was worse than it had been an hour before. I couldn’t risk revealing any of it and having it become public.”
“And you have the nerve to question my lack of trust in you? I wouldn’t have said a word if you’d asked me not to. What can you tell me now? Because silence leaves me making up stories and, believe me, you do not come off well in any of them.”
“No?” he asked with derision, but his cheek ticked. “What terrible things have I done?”
“You bankrupted my father’s marina.”
“Your brother bankrupted it,” he responded swiftly and firmly.
“You promised Zach you would invest with him.”
“And then I told him I had no money and he should find someone else.”
“No money?” she scoffed, looking wildly around at the polished brass and leather upholstery and grand piano. “Zach partnered with you, Leon. In good faith because he trusted you. And you completely screwed him over. All of us.”
“I had every intention of working on the expansion when he proposed it. Once I realized how bad things were with Dad’s finances, I had to stage a fire sale. That’s business, Tanja. It wasn’t personal and he knew that.”
Tanja could only stare at him while Illi did squats in her lap, babbling against her fist.
“Zach took it personally,” she finally managed to choke out. “We all did. I thought your defection was pretty personal, considering we were married. I was your wife, Leon.”
“For a week,” he scoffed. “Not even. And it wasn’t a real marriage.”
That hit her so hard she recoiled into the chair, quickly hugging the baby so she didn’t let Illi slide right out of her arms since they seemed to have turned to rubber.
Leon flashed a scowl and moved toward her.
She looked away, blindly staring at the horizon of blue on blue through the huge picture windows. “Silly me, coming all this way to ask for a divorce when we only needed to clap three times and wish it away like a bad dream.”
“The marriage was legal. Obviously,” he said tersely. “And we are overdue to discuss divorce, I agree with you on that. But it’s not as if we were in love, Tanja. We got married because your brother found out I’d slept with you. He said your father would expect it if I was buying into the marina.”
“That’s why you proposed?” Boy, he really knew how to kick someone when they were down.
“You knew that,” he said with impatience. Then, after a beat, he added, “Didn’t you?”
“Well, I thought you felt something for me.” She swallowed, trying to clear the croak from her voice. “We were sleeping togeth—Oh, my God.” She closed her eyes, hugging the baby and wishing she had the strength to rise and storm off. “You didn’t even want to marry me. That’s what you’re saying, isn’t it? I’m such an idiot. I mean, I kind of got that message after you didn’t come back, but I thought I had done something to change your mind. Or that you realized you could have had anyone and decided I was too plebian and boring. When you proposed, we had already slept together. I thought that meant you cared about me, not just getting me into bed.”
“You got me into bed. You showed up with wine. I wasn’t your first lover. I didn’t seduce you.” He shot each word at her, blunt and fast, then paused, giving her space to correct him.
She couldn’t. He was right, much to her chagrin.
“That doesn’t explain why you bothered to propose,” she choked.
“When big brother twisted my arm... Hell, I don’t know why I gave in. I liked Zach.” He shrugged. “We were going into business together. Marrying his sister seemed like a good way to secure my side of things. Honestly? Call me delusional, but I didn’t think you would accept. I thought we were having a summer fling. You said you were going back to school.”
“You bluffed and I called it? That’s what you’re saying?” she asked with disbelief.
“Pretty much. And there were things with my parents... My father wanted me to come and work for him. I thought a wife and my own business in Canada would get him off my back.”
“So I was a bulletproof vest? Did your father know he was sick? And that things were falling apart? Is that why he wanted you there?” She frowned. “Did you know he was sick?”
“It was the sort of massive heart attack that was inevitable, given his lifestyle, but no, none of us knew he was on the verge of one. He hadn’t seen a doctor in years. I thought he was being his overbearing self, demanding I come work for him so he could tell me I wasn’t doing it right.” His expression shuttered. “He’d done that twice before. I wasn’t interested in going through it again.”
“You must have had mixed feelings, though, after it happened. Must have wished you’d returned when he asked.” Any child would. “Is that why you stayed once you got there?”
“I wouldn’t have made a different choice if I had realized he was going to die,” Leon said dispassionately. “I had made up my mind I wouldn’t work for him. That I would start doing my own thing. He was the most entitled bastard you’d never want to meet.”
It was such a harsh indictment she could only blink in shock.
She recalled Leon being oddly stoic when he’d taken his mother’s call that his father had died. She insists I come home. I’ll be back soon. It had been eerie, the way he’d taken the news without emotion and acted as though his mother wanting him home was an imposition. Everyone grieved differently, she had told herself, trying not to judge.
That had come later, when he’d ignored her calls and texts.
“I was a different man then.” Leon scrubbed a hand across his face. “Spoiled. As long as my credit cards worked, I didn’t ask where the money came from. When I was forced to take over, I realized why he had micromanaged me in the past. He was hiding the fact his fortune had been built on things like child labor, collusion, and skirting environmental rules.”
“Are you serious?” She absently caught Illi’s hand, keeping her fingers from trying to get into her mouth since her jaw was hanging o
pen in shock.
“Completely,” he said grimly. “That left me with two choices. I could walk away and lose absolutely everything, leave my mother destitute, and forever wonder if the industrial leaders who moved into our place took a more conscientious approach, or I could do things better myself. They weren’t my crimes, but I had benefited from them. I had to clean it up. With great power comes great responsibility, but in order to take responsibility, I had to maintain the power. Understand? So I stayed and made the hard choices that kept us afloat—including backing out of my deal with your brother.”
In a twisted way, she saw the logic, and something else. “You couldn’t tell me that because you thought I’d go public with it? Spill the beans on your father’s misdeeds?”
“We barely knew each other. Frankly, I expected you to come after me for a divorce settlement. The longer time went on and you didn’t, the more I thought it was best to let sleeping dogs—”
She narrowed her eyes. He abandoned that metaphor.
“I figured you knew I was broke and chose to distance yourself. Given the crimes my father had committed, walking away from a wife who didn’t want me and an investment opportunity I couldn’t afford was nothing by comparison.”
“It wasn’t ‘nothing’ to us,” she said in a raw voice.
“I didn’t tell Zach to move as fast as he did,” he defended sharply. “He got in way over his head without ensuring his financing was in place. I’ve had handshake deals fall into the toilet myself. That’s business, Tanja.”
“Yes, I can see how difficult things have been for you. It’s not personal that you saved your own butt, not ours. Don’t worry about it.”
“Oh, climb off your high horse. If I was so terrible, why didn’t you divorce me? Why did you even marry me? Love?” he taunted.
“At least that’s what I thought it was!” A hot sting of embarrassment rushed across every inch of her skin. “I was young and romantic enough to think passion was a sign of something more enduring. It didn’t hurt that my brother thought you were wonderful. Everyone wants their spouse to be friends with their sibling. Your investment would have given my dad a very comfortable retirement. My marrying you wrapped everything into a tidy bow of happily-ever-after, so of course I thought you were making all my dreams come true.”
He snorted.
“I know that was immature and unrealistic! It still hurts that you didn’t even feel that much toward me. Why did you bother coming to Istuval? You could have left me there to rot, never to darken your doorway again.”
His expression hardened to granite. He was silent so long she feared she had overstepped in some way. Then he blinked and said, “I thought it would put me in the best position for negotiating our divorce.”
That launched a fresh wave of outrage. “I don’t want your stupid money, Leon. I just want to be free of you.”
“Well, that’s a little complicated now, isn’t it?” He nodded at Illi, who was standing in her lap, singing in her ear.
“Not really,” Tanja said stiffly. “I spent five years living my life without you despite your name being attached to mine on a piece of paper. It will be the same for Illi.” She cradled the baby’s warm hair and kissed her sweet-smelling cheek. “We don’t need anything from you after this little pleasure cruise. I did bookkeeping on the side through school. Once I’m home, I’ll hustle up some clients and support us fine. It’s what I was going to do anyway.”
“I’ll give you a settlement,” he growled.
A smart woman would snap that up. She had a child to feed. But she was too insulted.
“It wasn’t a real marriage,” she reminded with an overbright smile. “Let’s not turn it into a real divorce.”
CHAPTER FOUR
IN ANOTHER LIFE, Leon would have seen Tanja’s refusal of his money as a best outcome and moved on. Today, he was incensed.
Before he could open his mouth with a retort, however, the phone in his shirt pocket vibrated. He glanced down and tilted it to see the screen.
“Zach is texting. I’ll see if he’ll accept a video call.” He withdrew the phone and tapped to place the call, then handed the phone to Tanja.
A smile of anticipation burst across her face, sunny with the stark love that she and her family seemed to express unreservedly toward one another. That affection was so constant and raw it was like a force of nature—the kind of thing Leon admired and respected, but didn’t trust. Thunder and lightning were exciting to watch, but it would kill you if you were careless enough to be stuck in it unprotected.
“Oh, it’s you.” Zach’s edgy voice eased into surprised relief. “I was worried when I saw Leon wanted a face call. I thought he might have bad news. It’s so good to see you.”
“Didn’t you get the message that we’re safe? Illi, look. Say hi to Uncle Zach.” She shifted the baby into sitting on her lap to face the camera.
“Hey, sweetheart,” Zach said warmly. “Good grief, she’s getting big. Well, I hurried out here to take this call, but since it’s you...shh.” His voice dropped to a whisper, raising hackles of suspicion across Leon’s shoulders. “Shonda’s sleeping, but look.” After a pause, he whispered, “This is Bryant.”
“Oh, Zach,” Tanja gasped softly. “He’s so beautiful.”
Her gaze came up, so shiny with joy it shot an arrow straight into Leon’s chest, leaving an ache that thrummed a vibration through him. She nodded an invitation for him to come see.
He didn’t know why he went. He and Zach were barely speaking, but he moved to stand behind Tanja and saw a newborn swaddled in a yellow blanket and wearing a pale green hat.
“Congratulations,” Leon said politely.
“Oh. You are there.” Zach’s tone went flat with dismay. The image jostled as he slipped from the hospital room out into the hall, then the screen flipped to show Zach’s disheveled hair and weary face. “Thank you for getting Tanja off Istuval. Shonda was on bed rest and had an emergency C-section yesterday.”
“Everything went okay?” Tanja asked anxiously.
“They’re both doing really well.”
“I can’t wait to hold him,” Tanja sighed.
“I thought you’d be on a plane.” Zach frowned. “I was texting for a flight number. Where are you?”
“On Leon’s yacht.”
“Tanja isn’t well enough to fly,” Leon said.
“I can fly,” she insisted, sending a disgruntled look over her shoulder at him.
“You can barely fight the baby for the phone.” Illi was about to win in her quest to grab it so he plucked her from Tanja’s lap, telling Zach, “Tanja and I have some legal things to sort out. We’ll do that in Athens and let you know her plans from there.”
“Finally getting a divorce? Good idea,” Zach said in a cool voice that grew concerned as he asked Tanja. “What happened? How did you get sick?”
Leon moved across to a colorful abstract painting, giving Illi something to stare at while Tanja reassured her brother that she had seen a doctor and was already feeling better.
Leon was replaying her accusation that he had destroyed her brother financially. Was that how Zach viewed it?
It didn’t hurt that my brother thought you were wonderful. Everyone wants their spouse to be friends with their sibling.
Leon hadn’t worried too much about terminating their business deal. For starters, he hadn’t had a choice, and as much as he’d liked Zach, he hadn’t felt deep loyalty toward him. Growing up with seemingly unlimited wealth, toys, looks and freedom meant that Leon had always attracted a lot of friends, most of whom wanted to take advantage of their association with him.
Leon had met Zach when he’d hired him as a tactician after losing to a team Zach had navigated through the San Juans. Such a tight working relationship demanded a lot of communication and reliance so they’d come to know each other fairly well, but
Leon had been stung by hangers-on in the past. He only opened up as much as was absolutely necessary.
Zach’s pitch for a marina expansion had been nothing new. Leon had been drawn in because Zach had been dropping off the racing circuit to take over his father’s business. It was the complete opposite of something Leon would allow himself to be pressured into. He’d been deeply selfish in those days. There’d been a part of him that had imagined if he helped Zach he’d have an angle to persuade him to keep racing. That’s how Leon had been raised to view the world—favors begat favors. There was nothing money couldn’t buy. Nothing was done out of genuine caring or friendship.
Learning Tanja blamed him for the loss of her father’s business left a metallic taste of dishonor in his mouth. Especially when it had come about because he’d dumped Zach’s deal to rescue his own father’s business—a business built on lies and cheated negotiations.
Leon hated to see anything of his father in himself, but that tainted blood showed up at different times in ways that never ceased to make him loathe himself. Hell, he was so much like his old man that his wife felt scorned and tricked by him, the same way his mother had always felt about his father.
I thought you felt something for me. We were sleeping together.
Leon had felt toward Tanja what he had felt toward any attractive, available woman who reciprocated his interest—sexual desire. Granted, it had been an acute level of that sort of interest. Before meeting her, he’d had relationships of various lengths from one-night stands to yearlong affairs. All had been pleasant, and none had inspired more than basic levels of affection.
Tanja had been different. Obvious in her interest, which was always a kick for a man’s ego, but mesmerizing in how she was both playful and earnest. Sincere.
Leon had known deep down that she took things more seriously than he did. The connection between her and Zach and their father was infinitely more complex and real than anything he could begin to comprehend. Being around them had been both fascinating and puzzling. Intimidating in some ways because it was one of the few things in life he knew he would never grasp or properly experience.