And yet the evening had started so promisingly. He’d loved seeing Lucette at the party, looking bright and beautiful, as much her old self as ever, reminding him of how interesting and articulate and sophisticated she really was. And when she’d drawn his hand to her bump and he’d felt their child kick... it had been the most intimate thing Ariston had ever experienced.The kiss had felt like a natural extension of that intimacy. He couldn’t have kept himself from it if he’d tried—which he hadn’t.So what had gone wrong? What had spooked Lucette ?Then, with a wince, Ariston remembered the toast he’d given at the party. ‘May you welcome her and come to love her as I do.’ He hadn’t thought of the words before he’d said them; they’d simply flowed out of him, sounding very sincere. But he’d assured Lucette he didn’t love her—just as she didn’t love him. Had his toast frightened her off?Had he meant those words?It was a question he strove to dismiss. Things had become muddied with Lu
Lucette had come to breakfast after a restless, sleepless night, determined to talk to Ariston and, more than that, to come to an agreement. An arrangement even though the details remained vague in her head. She didn’t want to be businesslike any more—didn’t want this polite stepping around each other.Yet, what was the alternative? How did you engage your heart and mind, and maybe even your soul, without risking everything?And she knew she wasn’t ready to do that. She hadn’t even been able to tell Ariston that the real reason she’d refused his marriage proposal was that she’d been so very afraid. Annelise... Her mother... The foster parents who had decided she wasn’t what they wanted... So many had turned away, and she knew she couldn’t take it if Ariston did. Not if she’d given him her heart—fragile, trampled-on thing that it was.But her silence had led to this terrible strain, with Ariston having turned back to his newspaper, his expression remote and shuttered."What are yo
He kept staring at her, his gaze searching and yet not seeming to find any answers, for eventually he looked away and resumed his story.Well, understandable or not, Antonios was the favourite. I didn’t accept that, though. I tried so hard, Theos, to make my father love me.Trust me—’He broke off then, and Lucette ached to comfort him. But she didn’t, because everything about Ariston was brittle and tense, and she had a terrible feeling—a fear—that he would shake her off if she tried to hug him as she wanted to.To make a long story short,’ he continued finally, his voice brusque, ‘he never did. He had a heart attack and he sent for Antonios—told him the truth about the business. He’d been involved in dodgy dealings for years, trying to make back the money he’d lost on bad investments. He was a hair’s breadth away from losing everything. He made Antonios swear not to tell anyone...not even me.’‘And did he tell you?’ Lucette asked.Ariston shook his head. "Not for ten years. Ten y
Soon an ambulance came screeching and wailing up the drive. Ariston saw his sisters and Maria crowd onto the villa’s portico as he carried Lucette towards the vehicle. A paramedic came out to help her onto a stretcher."Ariston ! " Iris cried, and he shook his head.He promised, "I’ll call you," and then climbed into the ambulance with Lucette .She looked so vulnerable, lying there on the stretcher, her eyes huge and dark in her pale face, and she scrabbled for his hand, her fingers fragile and icy in his as the paramedic took her vitals and then asked Ariston what had happened.Ariston gave the details as clearly and evenly as he could; he could feel Lucette clinging to his hand, her breath coming in little pants as she tried to control her panic.Dear God, he prayed, let nothing happen to the baby.The next half-hour was a blur as the ambulance took them to the hospital in Amfissa and then to an examination room in the A&E. A doctor, brisk and purposeful, came in with an ultra
When Lucette awoke, the room was dark, and panic doused her in an icy wave. She struggled upright, one hand going to her middle, curving over the reassuring bump even as the remnants of the nightmare she’d been having clung to her consciousness.‘Ariston —’‘I’m here.’In the darkness, she couldn’t see him, but she felt his hand come and close over hers. Even so, she couldn’t stop shivering.‘I had the most awful dream.’ Her voice was choked and her throat closed. She’d dreamt about Annelise—something she hadn’t done in a very long time. ‘It was so terrible.’‘It was just a dream, Lucette ,’ Ariston said, his voice soft and steady. ‘It wasn’t real. Everything’s all right. The baby’s all right.’She nodded and gulped, wanting and needing to believe him and yet not quite able to do so. The dream had been real once upon a time. She’d relived the worst memory she'd had in her nightmare, and she was afraid of it happening again. But Ariston couldn’t understand that because she hadn’t to
Her body went tense and she turned to stare blindly out of the window."What are you not telling me?" Ariston asked, his voice quiet but insistent. ‘Because there’s something.’‘It doesn’t matter.’"It does matter. It matters because in the hospital you were terrified—’"Of course I was!" She turned to look at him. ‘Ariston , I was afraid I was losing my baby.’"Our baby," he corrected quietly, and Lucette bit her lip. Don’t shut me out, Lucette .’She turned back to the window without replying, and they drove in silence all the way back to the Linard estate. ******When they arrived at the villa, Ariston helped Lucette out of the car, one hand on her elbow as he guided her inside.Iris, Zoe, and Maria all met them in the foyer."You’re all right?" Zoe asked, her face pinched with anxiety.Lucette said, smiling as Maria muttered a thanksgiving prayer and crossed herself."I’m going to get Lucette upstairs," Ariston cut across his sisters’ anxious chatter. It’s been an incredib
‘After he left, my mother's life went very much downhill.’She lapsed into silence then, because she did not want to tell him how grim it had been. The sheltered housing, the stints in various homeless shelters, the weeks when she’d been taken away from her mother and sent from one foster home to another Some of them had been good, some of them mediocre, and some of them had been very bad. But always, in the end, she’d been brought back to her mother to try again, having promised she’d stay clean, and for a few days, sometimes a few weeks, she had.Life during those periods had been normal, if fragile, and sometimes Lucette would begin to believe it was going to be okay this time. Then she’d come home from school to find her mother strung out, or manically high, the promises all broken, and the whole cycle would start once more.Until Annelise But she really didn’t want to talk about Annelise.‘Lucette ?’ Ariston prompted Ariston softly. "Tell me more. If she couldn’t care for you,
She bowed her head, the memory and the pain and the guilt rushing through her.It was my fault, Ariston . It was entirely my fault she died.'She’d never said those words aloud—never even admitted her guilt to herself. And saying it now made her feel both empty and unbearably full at the same time. She bowed her head and tried to will back the tears.Oh, Lucette .’ Ariston ’s arms came around her and he pulled her towards him, her cheek against his chest. I’m so, so sorry.’He didn’t speak for a moment, and she simply rested there, listening to the steady thud of his heart, letting the grief subside.It wasn’t your fault, you know. You were twelve. You never should have had to bear that kind of responsibility.’I wasn’t a child. And it was my fault. If I’d gone to the hospital earlier, they could have given her antibiotics. brought her fever down. Maybe she’d have been taken away, but she’d still be alive.’ She spoke flatly, dully, knowing it was the truth and that nothing Ariston co