Chapter 33
The elevator ride up to the executive floor felt longer than it probably was. Aris stood beside me, one hand on the stroller, the other wrapped around my waist. Neither of us spoke.
When the doors slid open, I stepped into a space that took my breath away. I’d been so focused when I arrived at this building earlier that I hadn’t really absorbed my surroundings. Now I took it in.
A vintage sedan gleamed on its rotating platform at the center of the reception area, bathed in dramatic spotlighting like a museum piece.
Framed racing photographs lined the walls, chronicling the Christakis family’s history with speed.
Everything spoke of power, tradition, and masculine confidence.
Aris steered me toward his office, his hand never leaving my body. When he opened the door, I saw floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Athens. His desk was a massive slab of dark wood with everything neatly arranged.
He closed the door behind us, sealing us into this private space. He positioned the stroller near his desk, then turned to me.
Aris led me to his leather chair and settled into it first, then drew me onto his lap. His arms wrapped around me, giving me the feeling of safety I needed right now.
“Comfortable?” he murmured against my hair.
I nodded. “I’m fine. Now talk.”
“Phoibe, she was my father’s assistant during his last years as CEO.
We had a brief sexual relationship at the time.
When she began talking about marriage and children, I broke it off.
She was fine, and we moved on with our lives, yes?
She got married and became a mother. Then my father died, and I inherited her as my assistant when I became CEO because my previous assistant, he had passed away. ”
Six years ago. That was long before me, before us. But the fact that she was still in his life, still working so closely with him...
“Keep going.” I prompted.
“She was a good worker. Professional. She knew her job and still does. For years, there were no issues. But this past year...” His arms tightened around me. “Since her divorce, her behavior, it changed.”
“When her divorce started, she began finding excuses to be near me.” He shifted his hand to rest on my thigh. “Small things at first. Bringing me lunch when I had not asked. Calling instead of texting when a message would suffice. Staying late when there was no work that required it.”
I stayed quiet, letting him continue.
“She video-called me while I was in Montrose one night. Said her ex-husband had hit her during an argument over their divorce settlement. She was crying, wearing lingerie under a silk robe, and asked me to come back to Athens to comfort her. I told her to call the police and offered her access to the company’s attorneys. She became angry and ended the call.”
I stiffened in his lap. “You never told me any of this.”
“No. I documented that call with HR immediately and began the process of finding her replacement.”
“Good. That was smart,” I said, nodding. At least he’d been thinking ahead.
“I have seen too many men ruin their careers and family lives over their... impulses. I was not about to allow the same thing to happen to me. I knew I needed a safety net, so I had cameras installed throughout my office.”
I glanced around, but saw nothing obvious. “Where?”
“They are built into the fixtures and look like standard office equipment.”
“So you have video evidence of everything she did in here,” I said. That was the protection he needed. “Why didn’t you fire her?”
“Because I kept thinking about your story. What you survived as a single mother. How easy it would have been for someone to write you off when you were struggling.” He exhaled slowly.
“Phoibe was going through a divorce. I thought maybe she was just in a dark place emotionally, and her judgment was clouded by what she was dealing with at home. I wanted to believe that if I gave her time, she’d pull herself together. Like you did.
He’d carried my story with him into a decision that had nothing to do with me, and it had cost him. I couldn’t decide if that made me proud or furious.
“I love that you thought of me. That you wanted to show her grace.” I kissed his jaw.
“But honey, when I was a struggling single mom, do you know what I did? I showed up to work on time. I did my job. I went home to my daughter. I didn’t call my boss in lingerie in the middle of the night.
That’s not struggling. That’s scheming.”
“That is exactly the difference, yes?” He turned his head to press a kiss to my palm. “You struggled with integrity, while she is weaponizing her situation. I projected your strength onto someone who had none of it.”
Part of me wanted to crawl deeper into his chest for being the kind of man who heard a woman’s pain and carried it forward. The other part wanted to shake him for not seeing the difference between a woman surviving and a woman performing.
I smoothed down his silk tie. “But why is she doing this now?”
“Dimitrios thinks it’s envy. When she showed up at the hospital and learned about our marriage and the pregnancy, she completely unraveled.”
I remembered the blonde woman who’d strode into the private waiting room with flowers in her hand, her face shifting from shock to fury after Aris announced our marriage. She wanted Aris, and seeing me pregnant had shattered that illusion. Now she was out for revenge.
“A lawsuit like this could affect the company’s reputation.” I’d seen it happen before, watched executives get forced out over allegations that were never even proven. “What does this mean for Olympus Motors?”
“Nothing. The board, it is family. Though PR suggested I step down while the lawsuit is in progress.”
“Hell no!” This woman wasn’t just attacking my husband, she was going after everything his family had built for generations. “Stepping down makes you look guilty as sin.”
“I know this, yes.”
I’d built TWM’s reputation from nothing.
I understood how quickly public perception could shift, how one viral post could undo years of work.
“What’s our legal strategy? Are we going to release the video evidence?
Take this to trial? Because if we settle, even with an NDA, it looks like you’re buying her silence. ”
He pulled back slightly to look at me, surprise flickering in his eyes. “You’ve been thinking about this.”
“Of course I have. I run a business too, remember? I know how this works.” I held his gaze. “If you have clear evidence, we need to be aggressive. File a countersuit for defamation. Make it expensive and public so that no one else ever tries this.”
Aris looked at me with open pride. “My attorneys are already drafting the response. As for you, you will focus on recovering and taking care of our children, yes?”
“Excuse me? You don’t get to decide that.”
“In this matter, Dede, I absolutely do, yes.”
“You’re trying to shut me out.”
“I’m not shutting you out. I’m protecting you.” His hand slid down to my hip. “You had major surgery less than a month ago. You’re still healing and nursing two babies.”
“And I’m also your wife. This affects our family, which means I get a say in how we handle it.” I met his eyes steadily. “What if the situation were reversed? What if someone from my past was coming after me with false accusations? Would you sit back and let me handle it alone?”
His jaw tightened. “This, it is different.”
“How? Because you’re the man?”
“Yes.” His eyes held mine with unwavering intensity. “Because I am man, and it’s my job to protect you and shield you from threats.” He stroked my hip bone. “If someone attacked you, I would destroy them completely. You would never lose a single night’s sleep over it.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but closed it.
“This mess, it is mine, Dede. My former assistant. My company. My failure to fire her sooner.” His voice roughened. “I brought this into our lives. The least I can do is keep it from touching you more than it already has.”
“That’s not how marriage works,” I said quietly. “Your problems are my problems. Your battles are my battles.”
“You are right, yes. In principle, you are absolutely right.” His hand moved from my hip to cradle the back of my head.
“But the principle, it does not account for the fact that three weeks ago, the surgeons cut you open to bring our children into this world. It does not account for you having to nurse every two hours nursing them and for the pain you try to hide from me. Your body, it is working overtime to heal, produce the milk and recover from everything the pregnancy and the surgery took from you.”
He pressed his forehead to mine. “Let me protect you, agápi mou. You have been strong your entire life because you had to be. You carried burdens alone because there was no one else to share them. But you have me now. Let me do this while you are giving everything to our children, yes? Please. Let me do this for you.”
“Okay,” I said softly. “But you keep me informed.”
“Every development, yes? Every conversation with attorneys. This I promise.”
He kissed me then, and I melted into it immediately, parting my lips as his tongue slipped in, tangling with mine in a deep rhythm. Heat sparked and ignited between us.
I was lost in his taste when a small cry from the stroller broke through the haze. Perry. The cry quickly escalated to a full wail.
I started to shift off Aris’s lap, but he held me in place.
“Let me,” he said, standing with me still in his arms before setting me carefully in the chair. He moved to the stroller and lifted Perry out, cradling him against his shoulder.
He murmured something soft in Greek that seemed to calm our son immediately, though the cries soon turned to hungry rooting reflexes against Aris’s shoulder.
“Someone’s ready to eat,” he observed, carrying Perry to me.
I unbuttoned the top of my blouse as Aris brought him over. Perry latched immediately, his tiny hands curling against my skin.