Chapter Fourteen
MONDAY MORNING ROLLED AROUND. Jetlag and heartbreak had combined to weigh so heavily on her that Athena had slept for the best part of twenty hours straight, waking only to force food down and write a letter, then slept again until her alarm clock woke her.
Draco wouldn’t be waking her today, not with the long drill of her doorbell or with a kiss.
It was over.
That didn’t stop her heart from jumping when her doorbell rang at eight a.m.
Fully armoured in her favourite work outfit of shirt, tie, waistcoat and shorts, and with her face fully made-up, she greeted Draco’s driver with her best smile, maintaining it even when she climbed into the back of the empty car.
Grace was, as expected, already at her desk. Her smile was tired. ‘How are you feeling?’
Athena shrugged. ‘A bit thick-headed from the jetlag. You?’
‘Same.’ Grace’s smile faltered. ‘He’s waiting for you.’
She nodded, not out of agreement but just because.
Grace hesitated before darting her stare around the office to make sure no one was listening and lowered her voice. ‘There’s something you should know.’
‘He’s transferring me?’ Athena guessed. At Grace’s widening eyes, she smiled sadly. ‘Don’t worry—I already knew.’
Her heart had known.
It wasn’t tenable for them to continue working so closely together. It was a conclusion she’d already reached.
Her self-possession almost came undone when she wrapped her fingers around the door handle of Draco’s office and blood rushed like a torrent through her, burning her veins and her brain with a force that threatened to double her over.
She fought it, forcing air into her lungs, then lifted her head high and opened the door.
Even as her eyes connected with Draco’s, she noticed the absence of her desk.
She’d been excised.
She’d expected it. It still felt like a knife to her heart.
She closed the door.
For the longest time, neither of them spoke.
Sitting at his desk, Draco broke the silence, softly saying, ‘Please, take a seat.’
She looked at the sofa she’d first sat on when he’d told her he was tethering her to him and folded her arms across her stomach. The rush of blood had drained away and now her head felt light. The whole of her being felt light, as if she could float to the ceiling.
‘Thank you, but I won’t be staying. I just wanted to give this to you.’ She pulled the envelope out of her handbag and crossed the floor to drop it on his desk, holding her breath so she didn’t have to breathe him in.
‘What’s this?’
‘My resignation.’
The silence that followed pulsed like a beat.
‘I would ask if you know what you’re doing,’ he said slowly.
‘Thank you for not insulting me.’
His smile was faint. ‘How do you plan to support yourself?’
‘I’m going to sell off most of my wardrobe and jewellery collection, and use the money I make to keep me going while I set up my own business.’ How she could speak at all, never mind brightly and fluently, was something she didn’t think she would ever understand.
‘Can I ask…?’
‘Of course. I’m going to set myself up as a personal stylist—one thing no one has ever said about me is that I don’t have style!’
A grin broke over his rugged face. ‘That sounds perfect for you.’
She nearly came unstuck at this, and it took a long beat for her to say, ‘I’m glad you think so. That means a lot.’
He pulled in a long breath through his nose. ‘If you get stuck for money while you’re making it all happen, there’s always a freelance translation job here for you.’
‘Thank you. Hopefully, I won’t have to take you up on it!’
‘Anything you need…just call me, okay?’
She laughed sadly. ‘I think we both know that’s not going to happen. Anyway, I should go. I just wanted to hand my resignation to you personally—it wouldn’t have felt right going through HR.’
The lightness of his features slowly fell, the finality of her words piercing them both.
It felt like for ever passed between them before he broke the silence shrouding them. ‘Are you still coming to the launch party? It will be a good opportunity for you to network for your new business.’
‘I’ll think about it,’ she lied. She didn’t know how she could cope with spending hours maintaining a smile and trying to pretend that sharing the same air as him wasn’t the worst pain in the world, not when being in an office for a few minutes, unable to touch him, felt like she was bleeding from the inside out.
There was no hiding from it. All her old coping mechanisms had gone, and now she needed to get out of this office and move far away from him before she gave in to the desperate need to throw herself at him and beg him to please love her.
He nodded, understanding etched in his rugged features.
She bit into her lip and stepped to the door. ‘Will your mother be there?’ she asked impulsively.
‘Yes.’ His stare was meditative. ‘But you don’t have to wait until the party if you want to see her. She’s never stopped loving you, Athena.’
They held each other’s stares for one long, last time and then Athena slipped out of his office for the last time.
After a moment spent fighting to hold onto a composure that was unravelling, she embraced Grace tightly. ‘Call Josefina,’ she whispered. ‘And that’s an order.’
Then, after a firm kiss to Grace’s cheek, Athena walked out of Tsaliki Shipping with tears rolling down her cheeks but with a whole new future in front of her that was entirely hers for the making.
That this whole new future didn’t include Draco was something she would just have to learn to live with.
Draco’s office had never felt so quiet. Or so empty.
Shaking the feeling off, he called Grace in and got to work.
Athena pressed the intercom on the high wall to the side of the gate.
It was a long time before it was answered. She knew whoever was viewing the security camera had recognised her.
A disembodied voice said, ‘Can I help you?’
‘Can you please tell Lucie that Athena is here to see her?’
‘She is unavailable. May I take a message?’
She didn’t point out that this was her third attempt and that she’d already left two unanswered messages with the disembodied voice. Athena knew Lucie was home because she’d been spying on the house and had watched her get out of the car and go inside only five minutes ago.
Weary and close to defeat, she quietly said, ‘I just want to talk to her. I swear I’m not here to cause trouble but there are things I need to say to her.
Please, I promise I won’t take up too much of her time.
’ Feeling tears forming—she couldn’t seem to stop crying—she blinked hard to clear them and whispered, ‘Please. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t important. Please.’
There was a long passage of time followed by a beep and then the iron gates began to open.
Lucie and Thanasis’s house could have been built in Ancient Greece, Athena thought as she walked the long driveway to the main entrance, being all marble columns and pillars and surrounded by lavish grounds filled with marble statues and waterfalls, but all put together in a non-classical way.
There was a bohemian classiness to it all that perfectly suited its female owner.
Before she reached it, the door opened and a tiny figure with a mass of black corkscrew curls appeared. Lucie. Behind her, the much taller figure of Thanasis, who wrapped his arms protectively around his wife’s waist.
They both stared at her, stony-faced.
Athena cleared her throat. ‘Thank you for seeing me.’
‘What do you want?’ Lucie asked coldly.
It was a coldness she thoroughly deserved but it still hurt. However prickly and bitchy Athena had been to her, Lucie had always forgiven her, had always snatched at the scraps of friendship Athena had thrown at her.
But Lucie had wanted to be more than her friend. She’d wanted to be Athena’s sister. And, as repayment, Athena had treated her like dirt.
She met Lucie’s cold stare. ‘I’m here to apologise.
I can’t say sorry for every mean thing I’ve done to you over the years because there are just too many of them, but I am sorry, for every mean word and deed, and I’m sorry most of all for trying to steal Thanasis from you.
It was unforgivable. I blamed you for your mother usurping my mother and blamed you for stealing my place in my own life when none of it was your fault.
You were the only good one amongst us and if I could do it all again I would treat you as the sister you always wanted me to be because the truth is, you are my sister, and I will never forgive myself for always throwing your love and friendship back in your face.
’ She wiped away tears that had leaked out unbidden and sniffed back more.
‘I am so happy you two made it back to each other. You’re made for each other. ’
The stony faces had slowly unfrozen into stunned amazement.
Lucie took a hesitant step towards her. ‘Athena…are you okay?’
Athena shook her head and rubbed more tears away. ‘I’m not suffering from anything I haven’t brought on myself.’
‘Why don’t you come in?’ Lucie asked gently.
She gave another shake of her head. ‘If you ever make the offer again I will say yes, but you need to think things through before you decide if you want us to try and form a relationship again. Also, now I’ve spoken to you, I’ve got a lot of other people I need to make apologies to—you had to be the first because you’re the one I caused the most damage to. ’
All the wind was knocked out of her when Lucie hurled herself at her and flung her arms around her. ‘I love you, Athena,’ she whispered, hugging her fiercely.
She hugged her back with equal ferocity. ‘I love you too.’
It was as Athena was walking back towards the gate that Lucie called out, ‘That list of people you’re planning to apologise to? Please tell me my mother’s not on it.’
Athena turned around and walked backwards as she replied, ‘Hell will freeze over before I apologise to that bitch.’
Lucie smiled and blew her a kiss.