escaped her throat. “I wish I could tell you he despises the idea of you and would prefer you didn’t exist, but the truth is, I have no idea how he feels deep inside.”
In other words, Ari knew his mother hated Theo.
“Today he was probably reacting the way he did to please me. He always tries to please,” she explained. “Maybe more than is healthy at times.”
He had little doubt that Ari hated the man who’d fathered him and then had promptly rejected him even before he was born. A six-year-old could hate just as vehemently as a fiftyor an eighty year-old. Theo was under no illusion that this would be easy. In this case the hatred would be worse because Ari would have been indoctrinated by his uncles who’d wished Theo dead long ago.
He realized he needed to be prepared for hostility from Ari that might last a lifetime. A lot of factors would enter in, beginning with the atmosphere in which Ari had been raised, the amount of hate built up against Theo on the part of Stella’s family. Her parents had been against him from the beginning.
Taking into account that the Athas brothers considered Theo the underbelly of Greek society and had done everything short of killing him to keep him away from Stella, Theo was starting off with an enormous minus handicap.
“Thank you for that much honesty, Stella.” He hadn’t expected it. “Since I already love him more than life itself and know you do, too, let’s meet somewhere this evening to discuss him. A public place or not, whatever you prefer. Can you arrange for someone to watch him while we’re together?”
“Of course, but it’s not possible. I’m on Andros right now.”
In other words, she assumed he was in Athens and that any plans he had for tonight were out of the question. He had news for her. “I can be there in an hour. Just tell me where you’ll be exactly.”
He counted a full minute while she was forced to realize he had a helicopter at his disposal. That put him in the same league with the way her family moved around. “There’s a paddleboat concession on the beach in Batsi. I’ll wait for you there in the parking lot at seven-thirty.”
She clicked off before he could say thank you, but it didn’t matter. Progress had been made. The gods had been with him today.
He checked his watch. It was six-thirty. After phoning the pilot to give him their next destination, he rang the manager to say goodbye, then headed for the helipad with Boris.
Theo had never been to Andros, but Stella had told him so much about it, he felt like he knew its special places by heart. Certainly his son, young as he was, could probably show Theo around and know what he was talking about.
Andros was the home of the legendary Stasio Athas, where some of the most elite Greek families lived. To the people in Theo’s family it represented lala land. A smile broke one corner of his mouth. This Pantheras member was about to trespass on ground not meant for untouchables.
Stella’s elite family viewed other families like Theo’s, who lived close to the poverty line, at the bottom of the food chain. When Theo had refused the money Nikos had thrust at him to stay away from Stella, Nikos had snarled words like scum and untouchable among the many insults hurled at him. Nice people, Stella’s family.
He looked out the window. Summer had come to the Cyclades. As Andros came into view, his breath caught at the lush green island dotted with flowers. No wonder Stella loved it here. St. Thomas was idyllic, but it didn’t compare in the same way.
After the helicopter had dropped down over the little port of Batsi, his gaze swerved to a white convertible sports car driving along the road at a clip toward the water. The sight intrigued him. Once the chopper touched ground, he jumped down and started across the wooded area to the car park where it had just pulled to a stop.
To his surprise he saw a well-endowed brunette woman climb out and walk around the area with confidence, as if she were searching for someone. Closer now, he noticed she bore a superficial resemblance to the lovely longhaired teen of Theo’s youth.
Stella.
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