Chapter Nine #2
‘Obviously we’re framing you not just as an investor but as the person who discovered the fraud and took action.
To rebuild trust and further reclaim the narrative, I think it would be a good idea to position yourself as a leader in the fight against fraud in the crypto space.
You could do that in several ways. Maybe write an op-ed about the need for improved transparency and security in the industry.
Or fund a team to find and report vulnerabilities in other platforms.’
‘I can do both.’
Breathing out, she let her head fall back against the seat and screwed up her face. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘For what?’
‘I feel like I’ve been talking at you for thousands of miles. Is there anything you want to talk to me about? Before we land, I mean?’
He stared into her wide green eyes. Yes, he thought. I love you, and I want this to be the beginning, not the end.
‘Just that I’m sorry for how I acted. I made so many bad decisions.
I let myself be guided by my grandfather’s fury and frustration.
I got so obsessed with Henry escaping justice that I forgot my father also broke the law.
But the only innocent people are you and your mum.
And I wish I could go back and erase what I said and did to you.
I wish I hadn’t needed to go so far before I saw how pointless and culpable my behaviour has been. ’
Cassie felt her heart swell beneath her ribs. She could hear the shame in his voice and the regret, and the pain too. The pain of a child who had lost everything. No wonder he had latched onto his grandfather’s bitter fury.
‘You were innocent too. You were so young, and what happened to you was unfair and cruel. To lose your dad and then your mother like that, your home…’
‘I know. After Henry died, I was so furious that he’d never faced justice. I didn’t think about the injustice I was inflicting on you and your mum.’
‘If it’s any consolation, as far as my dad goes, I don’t think he was always that happy.’ His smiles had been hollow. Performative. Cassie knew because she used to smile in the same way.
Used to.
Her mouth pulled up at the corners, and she reached out and took his hand.
‘It isn’t,’ he said quietly, and his hand tightened around hers. ‘Because he made you unhappy.’
‘Not anymore.’ Cassie’s eyes found his. ‘It’s different now. I’m different now. Of course I have regrets, but I’m not some character in a Greek tragedy. My life isn’t preordained, and I won’t let the past, Henry’s past, define me. I won’t let Andreas’s past define you.’
His face didn’t change, but his eyes moved past hers to the untroubled, clear blue sky. ‘I won’t let it define us either,’ he said after a moment.
‘Excuse me, Mr Tsiartas.’ It was the air steward. ‘If you wouldn’t mind fastening your seat belts. We’re approaching New York.’
As the steward retreated, Antaeus pulled her against him. ‘You know, you’re pretty badass for an Upper East Side princess.’
‘Damn right, I am.’ Her mouth found his and they kissed, a messy kiss that they each felt deep in their core. ‘Now, let’s go fix the present,’ she said.
As the air-conditioned limo left the airport, Cassie expected to feel her usual cocktail of emotions. Her own Manhattan of one part relief to be home and two parts dread at having to put on her mask again. Now, for the first time in her life, she felt none of the dread.
But what was there left to dread? She’d had her life turned upside down and had to face not just the demons of her past but one very particular demon in her present. Only it turned out he wasn’t a demon at all.
Initially, Antaeus had done a great job of acting the part of the villain.
She knew now that it wasn’t a role he was born to play.
Quite the contrary, in fact. Beneath all that talk of retribution and revenge, he was a man tormented by the past, a man in pain seeking anaesthesia.
But it was only when he imprisoned her in his home that she understood he too was a prisoner, trapped by the burden of an inherited blood feud.
‘Our first sunrise.’
Antaeus’s voice cut across her thoughts, and she turned towards him.
‘It’s beautiful, isn’t it?’ she said softly.
His blue eyes held her captive, but now she wanted to be bound to him. ‘It’s nothing compared to you.’ He bent to kiss her throat, and she had to tamp down the urge to tell him that while he might have released her body, her heart was his.
‘I love the city at this time of day. It feels newborn. Fresh. Untouched. Like a blank slate.’ She squeezed his hand. ‘Today, it’s your city.’
‘Our city. I couldn’t have done any of this without you.’ He hesitated. ‘Do you want to go through everything again before all this wakes up?’
They both knew there was no need. They had done the preparation. Antaeus sounded serious but not schooled. She didn’t want to risk making it sound rehearsed. But if they didn’t go through things again, then—
Then what? The question teetered and balanced unsteadily like a diver gazing down from a cliff into a fathomless sea. It was terrifying to jump. There could be hidden rocks. Sharks. A riptide. But for the first time in her life, it was more terrifying not to jump.
‘No, now’s the time to just let it get bedded in.’
‘And what about us?’ His eyes met hers. They were all pupils, glazed with a heat that made her skin tingle. ‘Are we going to get bedded in too?’
She swallowed. There was a silence that started small, swelled and doubled.
‘Or I can just drop you off at your apartment. Or your mum’s place. I know you want to see her, so if that’s what you want…’
‘Is that what you want?’
He glanced down at their overlapping hands.
‘No, I want to turn the car around and head to the airport and fly back to Greece with you. But that’s not an option, so…
’ He hesitated, and she felt so much in that tiny pause—panic, fear, hope.
‘I was thinking you might come back to my apartment. Only I can’t come up with a single reason you would want to do that. Of your own free will, I mean.’
‘I’m doing this willingly, aren’t I? You aren’t forcing me to work for you.’
‘And I still don’t understand why.’