Chapter Twenty-Four Imani #2
Another dry puff of laughter. ‘He looked her in the eye and denied it. Said she was nothing but a liar out for a quick payday and there was no chance that I was his kid.’ His hand tightens on my leg.
‘But she was pretty sick and didn’t have any family or any friends she could trust me with, so she did the only thing she could. She went to his wife.’
Oh.
I blink, trying to process the scale of nuclear disaster this must have kicked off in the Vouvalis household.
I risk a glance at Asher’s face. He’s not looking at me.
He’s staring blankly somewhere just over my shoulder, his jaw set, but I can see the tiniest tremor in the muscle just beneath his cheekbone.
‘She explained the situation, told her that she was sick and didn’t have anyone else to turn to. She said she didn’t want money. Just wanted to know that I’d be looked after and that Georgios was the only option she had left.’
‘What happened then?’ I breathe.
For the first time since I walked out into the room, there’s a hint of humour in Asher’s expression.
‘Everything went to shit. Maria – that’s Andreas and Teddy’s mother – was obviously furious.
Not at my mother though, who’d had no idea who Georgios was when they met, or that he was married.
She was furious at him. Demanded a divorce immediately and then she told her father. ’
I frown, not understanding the significance.
‘Georgios doesn’t come from money,’ Asher explains.
‘He needed a lot of seed money to get Vouvalis Resorts started back in the day, and he got a large chunk of it from his father-in-law, Nicholas. Ex-father-in-law,’ the last part he adds with an unmistakable smirk.
It’s subtle, but it’s the first real flash of satisfaction I’ve seen on his face this morning.
‘Nicholas essentially forced Georgios to take me in and raise me alongside Andreas and Teddy as his son. If he refused? Nicholas said he would pull out from the company and take his money with him. He was a majority investor and it would’ve bankrupted Georgios before he ever really got started.
Don’t get me wrong,’ he says quickly. ‘Nicholas didn’t do any of this out of care for me.
He just saw how hurt his daughter was and knew this was the best way to essentially punish Georgios for what he did to her. ’
I let it all wash over me for a second. All I can do is stare at Asher and try to imagine what it must’ve felt like to be a literal living, breathing expense on someone’s balance sheet.
Suddenly Asher’s attitude when all this started makes more sense to me. No wonder he never fights back. Someone taught him from day one that the only way to keep existing was to make as little noise as possible.
I try to find the right thing to say, but the words don’t come. I just keep thinking about the way Georgios treated him five minutes ago, how absolutely merciless he was. And for what? Because Asher exists? Because he’s a casualty of Georgios’ own poor judgment?
‘And he blames you for that?’ My voice comes out rougher than intended. ‘I mean, he’s the one who made those choices. You were literally a child.’
He shrugs like it barely matters, but I can see the flush creeping up his neck.
‘My father doesn’t believe in blaming himself.
He’s spent the last two decades trying to buy out his ex-father-in-law and never have anything to do with him again, but it’s never worked out.
I think he’ll hate me until he finally manages it. ’
There are a million things I want to ask, but all that comes out is, ‘And your mum? Is she…’
The silence that follows feel charged and heavy. Asher toys with the hem of my shirt on my thigh, like if he keeps his hands moving, the words will come out easier. ‘She died when I was nine.’
‘I’m sorry,’ I say, and I mean it with every fibre of my being.
He shakes his head. ‘Don’t be.’ There’s a forced lightness in the way he says it. ‘She did what she could. She knew Georgios was a shit option, but he was the only option. So she made sure I landed somewhere and I’d be taken care of.’
Taken care of physically, I suppose, but somehow I doubt she had the kind of scene I walked into this morning in mind when she turned up on Georgios’ doorstep.
I tuck myself closer against Asher’s chest. There’s another question clawing at the back of my mind and I blurt it out before I have the good sense to stop myself. ‘Do you hate him? Your father. After everything he’s done? After how he’s treated you all these years?’
He’s quiet for so long I start to regret voicing the question. But then his hand moves, his fingertips tracing lazy lines over my bare thigh. ‘I used to,’ he says at last. ‘But it takes too much energy. Mostly I just try to avoid making things worse.’
‘And that’s what we’ve been doing, haven’t we?’ I ask. ‘We’ve been making it worse.’ It hits me suddenly that the last few months of scheming and blowing up at each other in public has probably made Asher’s home life an absolute misery and yet he hasn’t brought it up once. Because of me.
For me.
I swallow. ‘Asher, if you don’t want to do this anymore, we can—’ I cut myself off, because I’m not even sure what I want to say. That we can find another way of getting out of this marriage? And what would that be? If it were that simple, we would have thought about it months ago.
‘No,’ he says firmly. ‘We’re going to do this. We’re not going to let them win. Not without a fight.’
And then he kisses me.
Slowly. Deliberately. Like he needs me to understand that this moment is real, no matter how much the rest of our lives is built on performance right now.
His mouth is warm and soft, and he tastes like toothpaste and something bitter at the edges, maybe the aftermath of that conversation with his father.
I wrap my arms around his neck and tug him closer.
He palms my thigh, fingers tightening as he pulls me even further into his lap.
I let myself melt into him. I can still feel the ache from last night in my bones, but I don’t care. I want more.
I want him.
I want him.
Truly. Wholeheartedly. With every fibre of my being. I want him.
The realisation slams into me.
I want Asher and my father has handed him to me on a silver platter. So why am I still fighting this?