CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER FIVE
S TELLA GAVE HER head a shake. “I’m sorry. I didn’t hear you properly.”
“Yes, you did.”
“No. That’s not…possible.” Her heart was beating really fast, filling her ears with a drumming sound. She wanted to run.
Run .
“Let’s go somewhere private to discuss this.”
They took the elevator to the top floor. It let them out in a sitting room with a wall of windows that gave access to a private balcony overlooking the lake. Through a pair of double doors, she glimpsed the wide bed he’d slept in last night. His room was tidy as a pin, so she assumed the staff had come in while they’d been out.
He closed the glass doors to the landing, giving them more privacy before he offered, “Drink?”
“I feel like you might have had one too many over lunch.” She sank down on the moss-green love seat.
“Snowmobiles are as dangerous as motorcycles. I drank water.” He poured scotch. Two of them. “A week is not enough, Stella. We need more time.”
“For what?!”
His one brow went up in a silent Shall I spell it out? He offered the glass.
She blushed as she accepted it. “I told you I’m not holding out for marriage.”
“I know, but marriage has become something I want. Today, Rafael confirmed my suspicion that Oliver is the biggest detriment to DVE’s progress. Now I know how urgently we need a regime change. The board is aware of his shortcomings, but they want him to step down gracefully, which Oliver promised to do if I married Iris. They don’t want to put another skirt-chaser in charge. This…” He waved between them. “If we have an affair, it makes me look just like him, but if you and I marry, I become a faithful, domesticated husband.”
“Ha!” As if.
“Oliver cheated on his wife with my mother, Stella,” he said gravely. “I would never do that to you.”
She would love to believe that, but it was all too far-fetched. Rather than push back on that, however, she asked something she had always wondered.
“Why do you always call him Oliver?”
“Spite.” His tone was pleasantly lethal. “It’s my petty way of reminding him that he behaved like a bastard first. That he made me what I am.”
“Does he call you that?” she asked, appalled.
“I don’t care what he calls me,” he said, but she suspected there was real pain behind the scoff in his voice. “The truth is, I’ve been known to live down to his labels.”
“Is ‘reckless’ one of them? Because this sounds very impulsive, Atlas. Outrageous, even.”
“It’s not.” He looked up from his drink. “In the past, I only had affairs with women who weren’t interested in marriage because I knew it was something I would have to do for practical reasons. This is the most expedient reason of all—dethroning Oliver.”
Wow. Some tiny part of her had wondered if he had begun developing real feelings for her in the short time they’d known each other, something that went beyond passion and a sense of obligation. How pathetic of her to imagine such a thing.
“I will also need an heir and a spare,” he continued. “Until I saw you with the baby today, I’ve never pictured myself having kids with anyone, but—”
“Stop.” She covered her face, appalled by how hurt she was and not wanting him to see it.
“It’s the perfect solution, Stella.”
“For who?” she cried. “What if I don’t want to have your babies, Atlas? What if I want to have a career? Did you think of that?”
“You don’t want a family? Ever?” He cocked his head with curiosity. “You seemed really taken with that baby.”
“Holding a baby for two minutes is not the same as raising one. Looking after children is hard .”
“That’s the voice of experience?” He narrowed his eyes.
“Yes. After my mother died I had to look after my brother and sister.” She didn’t want to get into that bleak time, though, and rose to pace off her agitation. “I told you I’m still helping my stepmother. My sister is still at home, along with the twins Grettina had with my father. One of them has special needs, so she can only work part-time. My brother pitches in where he can, but he’s at uni. Once he gets his engineering degree and gets a job, he’ll be able to help out more, but for now it’s on me to close the gaps in the finances and help with homework over the tablet or find a specialist if one is needed. That’s enough responsibility, thank you. I don’t need a baby on my hip while I do all of that.”
“Your father doesn’t help?”
“No,” she said starkly. “In fact, half the time, I support him, too.”
“Men who don’t look after their children is my Achilles’ heel. How much does your stepmother need to take the pressure off? I can hire people to ensure she’s not stretched so thin.”
“Don’t try to obligate me! I know how those sorts of manipulations work, Atlas. I’ve lived them.”
“With your father?”
“Yes. I told you he’s a challenging person. But we manage.” She brushed aside how painful that was sometimes. “As long as I have my job. I like my job. I have goals and opportunities there. I’m working my way up to manager. As soon as Beate is on her own, and Grettina isn’t so strained, I’ll transfer to different locations and see the world. I have a plan.” It was a good one. A fulfilling one. It was one she had made for herself .
“You want to manage a hotel? I’ll buy you one. You want to see the world, I’ll take you.”
“I can’t believe you had the nerve to call me stubborn. Let it go, Atlas. The role of wife isn’t some cookie-shaped hole you fill with the next one from the box. It’s insulting that you think you can just shove me into it.”
“I think I’ve made it clear that I want you , Stella. If you need a fresh demonstration of my interest, come here. I’m happy to provide it.” He shot the contents of his glass and set it aside.
Her heart swerved and her veins stung with fight-or-flight reaction.
“Marriage is about more than sex.” She looked to the doors to the foyer, ensuring no one was overhearing them. “If that’s all we have, it’s doomed to a very quick death.”
“Oh, Stella. Is that what you’re really holding out for? Love?”
“No,” she insisted, while wondering, maybe? “I deserve to be loved, Atlas.” Anxiety pressed hotly behind her eyes as she declared that because she was loved, but she was also vilified by someone who was supposed to love her.
He sighed, expression turning condescending. “Love doesn’t solve real-world problems. I loved my mother, but it didn’t keep her alive. She loved me, but it didn’t make raising me alone any easier for her. I don’t think you’d be working so hard to help your family if you didn’t love them, but it doesn’t make that easy, does it? I can make your life easier.”
He leaned forward to claim the drink she hadn’t touched, then negligently dropped into an armchair.
“Let go of your romantic view of marriage, Stella. It should be a strategic alliance that improves your life. Marrying me gives you the means to help your family. It spins our scandal into something viewed as respectable. If it doesn’t work out and we divorce in a year or two, you’ll possess the resources to protect yourself from any fallout.”
“I believe that sort of arrangement is called fortune-hunting. I’m not interested in being that kind of person.”
“Your desire to be independent borders on a fault. This arrangement gets both of us what we want.”
“Like Rafael? Do you seriously want to marry me to cut a business deal?”
“You say it like that’s the only one I’ll secure once I’m at the helm of DVE. But yes. I do.”
“ They love each other, you know. You must have seen it.”
“Rafael and Alexandra?” He gave a snort of harsh cynicism. “Their marriage was notoriously tactical. Alexandra had a grudge against her parents so she married a man who came from humbler roots than mine. Rafael married way up. He wouldn’t be anywhere near where he is if Alexandra hadn’t used her position to make introductions for him.”
“Well, I can’t get you those sorts of things, so why would you even consider me?”
“I don’t need that the same way Rafael did,” he said blithely. “Having a physical connection with my wife has become my highest priority.”
“I never imagined I would say this, but I would rather have casual sex with you.”
“And I would rather wait until we’re married.” He tilted his glass against his complacent smile.
“What are you going to do?” she mocked. “Hold out until I ask you for a ring?” This was the most ludicrous conversation she’d ever had.
“I’m confident you’ll break first. Based on last night.”
She called him something she’d never called anyone to their face before. She said it in German, but the way his expression frosted told her he got the gist of it.
He moved fast, catching her at the door to the foyer, stopping her from opening it by setting his hand over hers on the latch.
“Sex is a big deal for me,” she hissed as she yanked her hand from beneath his and turned on him. “Not because I’ve never done it, but because my father’s voice is in my head, calling me every name you can think of. The one time I let things go too far, I got fired for it. Now you’re mocking me for how I acted last night? I’m already ashamed of it. You don’t have to make it worse.”
“Don’t be ashamed. Don’t you dare.”
He tried to turn her face to look at him and she knocked his hand away, stubbornly keeping her blurred gaze on the fading afternoon beyond the window.
“Damn it, Stella. I don’t like losing. It makes me fight dirty, but there is nothing wrong with how you reacted last night. It was incredible. I want that for as long as it lasts. If you want a divorce when it burns out, fine. But it’s already lasted five years. It will last at least that again, I promise you.”
“As if I want to tie my life to someone who makes me feel small the minute he’s angry with me! Been there, done that, and I took a train to Zermatt to get away from it. Now let me out before I start screaming.”
With a muttered curse, he opened the door.
* * *
That couldn’t have gone any worse , Atlas thought, as Stella’s footsteps retreated down the stairs.
Then he heard her shriek from the lower floor.
He leaped toward the stairwell and peered down at her. “What happened?”
“They fired me, didn’t they?” She shook her phone at him. “Three months’ pay as per my contract since they don’t have cause, but they believe they do have cause in terms of damage to the company reputation so I’d better leave without a fight. Also, they’re putting out a statement that I don’t work there so the buzzards will get out of their lobby. Thanks a lot !”
She stomped down another flight of stairs and the slam of her bedroom door resounded through the house.
Fantastic.
He went down to the main floor and his PR manager picked up her head from studying the screen on her laptop.
“I’m guessing we’re not any closer to our own statement?”
“No.” Damn it.
He walked into the den where a pair of lawyers were working, closed the door and issued fresh instructions that he hoped would be a good use of their time since he wasn’t giving up on marrying Stella.
He went to her door, prepared to hear crying or glass breaking or even the sound of the helicopter while she flew herself out of here.
Instead, he heard her speaking German.
“It’s not a waste of time. Or money. You’re not quitting, Beate. No. Don’t listen to him. You’re good . We’ll find the money.” A lengthy pause, then, “That won’t happen. I’ll move in before I let him do it. I may have to. Don’t tell Grettina, but I’ve lost my job. They didn’t even give the scandal a chance to die down. No, it’s not like that. He’s someone I met a long time ago, but that’s not why I’m calling. Are you able to go visit the apartment today? The one from the link I sent you? If not, I’ll come tomorrow—”
Atlas rapped his knuckles on the door.
Stella opened it and held up a finger at him, continuing to speak into her phone.
“There are? How many? Hmph. But they only spoke to Grettina? Not the little ones? Good. And Pappa doesn’t know? That’s good. Let Elijah know they’ve been there. Hopefully, he can keep Pappa at the hotel. If he comes to the house…” She touched her brow. “Look, I have to go, but I’ll text you my plans in a little while. Give everyone my love.”
“Your sister?” he guessed as she ended the call.
She nodded and sank onto the edge of the bed. “You were right about them finding my family. Three different reporters were at the house today, asking Grettina about me. I thought I could go there, but…” There was no anger or blame in her voice, just worry and weariness. She dropped her elbows onto her knees and buried her face in her hands.
“Tell me what’s going on with your father,” he insisted as he closed the door.
She winced as she lifted her head, as though he was physically twisting her arm.
“Upstairs, you said he made you feel small and that’s why you ran away.” He angled the only chair in the room to face her and sat down in it, putting their feet toe to toe.
She flickered her gaze to the closed door.
“I’m not going to judge you,” he assured her. “My father refused to acknowledge me until he saw a use for me. I have so little respect for him, I’m plotting to take his job. You can’t shock me.”
She stopped clicking her thumbnails together and frowned at him. “Do you really hate him for making you? Because people can’t help who they’re attracted to.”
“They can control how they act on that attraction,” he shot back. “They don’t have to take advantage of a naive girl who’s never been off the island where she grew up. They don’t have to hide the fact that they’re married and leave without saying goodbye. They especially don’t have to call her a liar when her father calls to say she’s pregnant. Maybe they could send her some money to help raise their son, instead of refusing outright to have anything to do with either of them.”
“Did he really?”
“Yes.” It still filled him with rage and disgust and guilt for existing. For stalling his mother’s life when she might have had thousands of other opportunities if she hadn’t been a young single mother.
“Did she have any help at all? Family?” she asked with concern.
“My grandfather. He owned the taverna where she worked. He looked after us as well as he could. Things were lean, but we never went hungry.”
“You miss him,” she noted.
“I do,” he admitted with an old pang that came of wishing he’d made that old man’s life easier, too, instead of harder.
“How did Oliver come back into your life?”
This wasn’t what he wanted to talk about, but maybe if she understood what drove him, she’d be more inclined to take his side. To agree to the marriage.
“My mother wrote to him after my grandfather died. I was winning at local competitions and showing promise for national competitions, getting attention online, but the cost of training and travel was beyond what the taverna could fund. She wanted to send me to Athens where I could attend a school with an elite athletics program. I was willing to give up swimming altogether, but she saw that it was a step toward greater things, so she insisted on asking Oliver for help. His wife had recently passed and he was realizing that Carmel was ill-suited to taking over DVE. He didn’t want to lock himself into another marriage and start over with a new baby. I was fourteen, smart and ambitious. He could have paid my mother off with a modest settlement and continued to keep my existence quiet, but he offered to acknowledge me as his heir so long as I went to live with him and attended the schools he chose.”
“That must have been hard on her.” Her brow pleated.
“It was.” It had been hard on both of them. He’d been homesick as hell. “But she wanted me to claim what she viewed as rightfully mine. At first, that was an education and a standard of living she couldn’t give me. The training alone was worth my weight in gold medals. You don’t get to the Olympics by taking lessons at the community pool. I hated leaving her, but my allowance was generous enough I could cover her living expenses and still have plenty left over for myself. She kept the taverna open and worked there on and off, but she didn’t have to. For that, it was worth making a deal with the devil.”
“You really see him that way?”
“He forced me to model swimsuits. What do you think?”
A small giggle escaped her. She covered her mouth, contrite. “I’m sorry.”
He shrugged it off. “Now tell me about your father.”
She winced with dismay. Sighed. Then tucked her hands under her thighs and spoke to the floor.
“He’s very strict. Religious, but only in the way that suits him. He acts like he’s holding us to a proper standard and warns us we’ll be punished for our sins. Spare the rod, spoil the child. That kind of thing.”
“He hit you?” Cold fury wrapped like a cold fist around his heart.
“Mostly me, after my mother died. I didn’t know how to cook or keep Beate quiet.”
“How old were you?”
“Ten.”
He bit back a string of curses, not wanting to interrupt her when she was finally talking, but he could hardly hear her through the rage rushing in his ears.
“She’d been ill for a while and didn’t see a doctor. I don’t know if that was Pappa claiming prayer should fix it or if she believed it. He’s very difficult to stand up to. Last night he told Beate to give up her music. She’s very talented, but he said she’s not good and it got into her head. He told her it costs too much and it’s indecent for a woman to sing and play piano and she ought to be ashamed that it takes her from helping Grettina with the little ones.”
“Did she let him hit you?”
“Grettina? No. I mean, she couldn’t always stop him, but she’s always had a knack for calming his temper. She’s as devoted to the church as he is. That’s how they met, but she walks the walk on how she thinks people ought to behave. Kind and generous and forgiving. I sometimes think she married him for us. Me. I was thirteen and he didn’t know what to do with me.” She gestured wryly at her chest, but there was a flash of deep pain behind her eyes. “ I didn’t know what to do with me.”
He closed his fists on his knees, thinking about her father telling her sex was a sin, blaming her for the maturation she couldn’t stop. That must have been so confusing as she developed into her voluptuous figure.
“Grettina feels strongly about her marriage vows. He’s the father of her twins so I understand why she felt so compelled to try to make it work, but he takes advantage of her.” Her brow crinkled with distress. “I don’t think she would have even considered leaving him if I hadn’t run away. And sent her money to give her the means.”
Her chin set at a remorseless angle.
Such a fierce warrior of a woman. So young to be so strong and determined. Brave. He was awed and deeply proud of her for fighting so hard to get where she was. To get away.
“Why did you run away? What happened?” he asked softly.
“Pappa found someone he wanted me to marry. Not someone with a billion-dollar company.” She sent him a pithy look. “Just a man with a farm, but he has strong feelings about a woman’s place. About mine.” Her gaze dropped again, pensive. “I was looking forward to university so I could finally live by my own rules. One day he said he would take me to see a school in Bern. I was so excited.” Her mouth curled with cynicism. “It was an hour to Bern, but he told me to pack for the weekend. Even Grettina found that strange, but we knew better than to question him. He took me to Visp, where he introduced me to a man who was twice my age and said we were getting married in the morning.”
Atlas’s heart lurched. “That’s medieval.”
“I was terrified. But talking back to him was…” She shook her head. “I sat there and listened to them negotiate a price like I was a dairy cow. I realized I wasn’t going home no matter what happened. We were given rooms because my father was staying to sign the permission papers—I was still a few days shy of my birthday so he had to. I got up in the middle of the night, took my birth certificate from his wallet along with all the money he had, and caught the first train leaving the station. It took me to Zermatt.”
“And he reported you for that? I thought Oliver was a piece of dirt.”
“Not a contest I want to win, but yes. He did. Once I turned eighteen and knew he couldn’t force me to come home, I called Grettina to let her know I was safe. She told me he’d been to the police. I don’t think it was a high priority for them. It was a petty amount and I was old enough to be on my own, but I was scared enough I didn’t want to talk to them that night we met, in case they told him where I was. I did pay him back, though. Around six months after I met you, actually.” She brightened. “I found a lost dog and claimed the reward. I owed my father two hundred euros and that man he wanted me to marry offered him twenty-five hundred for my hand. That woman paid me five thousand . For a dog . Whenever I see a poster for lost pets, I look for them like they’re Easter eggs.”
The humor in her voice invited him to laugh at her, but he was the furthest thing from amused. He was sick and incensed and more determined than ever to bring her under his protection.
She sobered.
“So now you know why I don’t want to marry anyone. Not for money. Not to become a baby machine,” she said.
“He’s trying to worm his way back into your stepmother’s home? That’s what these calls are about?” He pointed toward her phone. “Can you involve the police?”
“Grettina doesn’t want to. They can’t do much anyway. She and Pappa are separated, not divorced. He’s not physically abusive, not to her, and he knows hitting is a redline where the twins are concerned. At the same time, Grettina can’t bring herself to put him on the street. He’s the father of her children. Not a good one, but their father and mine. So I’ll find him a job and a place to live. He’s a carpenter, but he’s slowing down with age and blows up with temper over the littlest things, which gets him fired. Usually, I pay his rent until he finds something else, but this time he didn’t tell me he had stopped paying. They’ve kicked him out for good. It’s so frustrating.”
“Whether you marry me or not, I will help you, Stella. But let me paint a picture of the solutions available to you as my wife. You will have the means to buy each of them a home as far apart as you deem sensible. Those will be yours to keep forever. Don’t make that face. It’s the sort of thing that was in my agreement with Iris. Listen to what I’m offering . Your father will never be homeless again, not unless you put him on the street yourself. He won’t have to work. You’ll have a very generous allowance, one that will make it possible for you to support all of them while maintaining the lifestyle expected of my wife. Your stepmother will never have to feel guilty that she’s not taking him in because you will be taking care of him.”
“That’s so mercenary.”
“It’s a strategic move that betters your life and that of your family.”
“By locking me into life with a stranger.”
“Did your stepmother know who she was marrying? I imagine she thought she was in love with him, but what did she get out of the union? Three children who weren’t hers and two more she’s raising alone. Make a smarter choice, Stella. Make the choice that betters your life and everyone you care about.”
“But what happens if we don’t work? If—”
“It will all be spelled out in the prenup. I’ve already promised you two houses, an allowance, and a hotel to manage. What else do you want?”
She blinked, then her chin came up. “Full custody of any children we have, in the event of divorce.”
“Ha!” She was trying to scare him off with a deal-breaker, but it told him that he had her. That allowed him to smile even as he said, “Never. We will share custody if it becomes necessary. And their home will be Greece.”
“I’m not having children for at least two years,” she warned with a staying finger. “If we’re still married after that, we can discuss trying to start a family.”
“Deal.” He rose to extend his hand to shake.
After a long moment of consideration, she set her jaw at its most militant angle and stood to accept it.
He held on to her hand when her grip relaxed and brought it to his mouth. “I have one more condition,” he said against her knuckles.
“What’s that?” Her fingers fluttered like a snared bird in his.
“We marry tomorrow.”