What, with the way your brother and Katerina are...?’
‘It is the worst thing,’ he stated flatly. ‘My brother, when he’s not high, is a good father. He’s doing everything he can to straighten himself out so he can care properly for his son. My parents have made this move knowing full well that neither Yanis nor Katerina are in a position to fight it, so I must fight on their behalf.’
‘But...’
‘Elizabeth, I will not allow my parents to take custody of him. I wouldn’t allow it even on a temporary basis.’
‘Where’s Loukas now?’
‘At my home. I have a court order granting me temporary custody for two more weeks and then there will be another hearing. Now they know they’re fighting me, my parents will go for the jugular. They will paint me as an unfit guardian too.’
‘Why?’
‘To stop me from winning. This scandal couldn’t have come at a worse time. It’s painting me as someone debauched and without any morals. The only way I’ll be able to convince the court to let me keep guardianship of Loukas and fight Yanis’s corner is if I can prove I have a stable home for him, and that’s why I need us to rekindle our marriage. Having you as my wife will prove I’m a stable influence and kill my parents’ plans.’
‘It’s that simple?’
‘Sure.’ He took a sip of his coffee. ‘My country is still inherently conservative with a bias towards female carers. With you as my wife, they will see two people able to care for Loukas until his parents are well enough to take him back. If my parents get custody, they will never give him back.’
Her eyes clouded. ‘Are they really likely to do that?’
‘Without doubt. My family has been at war for years and my parents think they finally have a chance of winning a battle.’
Elizabeth removed her shades from the top of her head and folded the bows, her eyes distant, not looking at him, clearly weighing up everything he’d just shared.
‘It really is quite simple,’ he said. ‘You and I announce our marriage to the world and stay together long enough for Yanis to get straight. With any luck, Katerina will make the road to recovery too.’
‘And what if Yanis gets straight but then relapses?’ she challenged. ‘Will I be expected to act as your wife again?’
He shook his head. ‘As soon as he’s released from his facility, I’ll get the steps put in place that I am to be Loukas’s legal guardian in the absence of his parents. You and I will stay married until this has been done. Yanis will agree. If we’d known our parents would take this action we would have done it before but neither of us imagined even they would stoop so low. They hardly know Loukas.’
They should have imagined it, Xander thought grimly. His parents were a law unto themselves. They treated family life as they treated business: as a sport in which there could only be one winner.
‘As I said, it’s a simple matter of us rekindling our marriage. I appreciate it’s asking a lot of you...’
‘A lot?’ she exclaimed, blinking furiously. ‘My business will be finished. Everything I’ve worked for...gone. It works on discretion, remember? And what about the rest of my life?’
‘What life, Elizabeth? All you do is work.’
At the darkening of her features, he figured he might as well get everything out in the open and deal with it all in one go. ‘I had you investigated. There’s no significant other in your life. You have some friends you socialise with occasionally and you take yoga classes when time allows, but there is nothing else. So tell me, what will you be giving up to help me?’
Now her face was ablaze with outraged colour. ‘You went digging into my life? Well, that explains how you discovered Leviathan Solutions.’
He was unrepentant. ‘I learned about your business when searching for our annulment. I had a deeper search made to be sure you had nothing in your past that could be used to paint you as an unsuitable guardian for Loukas.’
As it was, his investigations hadn’t revealed anything. If she had skeletons in her closet, they were tucked too far out of reach for discovery. If she’d dated anyone unsavoury, that was hidden away too. Indeed, he hadn’t found evidence of a link with anyone, not even a fling, never mind anything approaching a committed relationship. Whatever relationships she’d had in the past decade, they’d been conducted discreetly and that was all that mattered.
‘I don’t care what excuses you make, that’s a gross invasion of my privacy,’ she raged. ‘It’s inexcusable.’
‘If you were in my position you would have done the same.’
‘If I were in your position I wouldn’t need to—your private life is splattered on the front page of every red top for the whole world to see.’
‘I can assure you the vast majority of it is highly exaggerated, the rest of it lies,’ he said icily.
‘Of course it is.’ Her sarcasm was delivered with extra bitterness.
His temper rising, Xander finished his coffee and carefully set the cup on the table before pointing to the beach. ‘Do you see the man with the camera round his neck?’
She followed his gaze.
‘That man is a paparazzo, tipped off by my assistant that we’re here.’
Her face contorted into such anger she looked ready to explode.
‘He has your name. He knows about Leviathan Solutions and the service you provide. He knows we’re married. What the story that accompanies his pictures tells is for you to decide.’
Elizabeth listened to Xander’s words and knew her world was crumbling around her.
He’d set her up.
Whatever happened between them, pictures of one of the Casanovas from the Celebrity Spy! scandal pictured in a Caribbean paradise with a woman purported to be his wife would beam around the world. It would be headline news.
‘I can’t believe you would do this.’ She was so angry she could hardly breathe. ‘You say your parents have stooped low...you are exactly like them.’
He was unrepentant. ‘I regret I’ve had to take these steps but everything I’m doing is for my nephew. If you say no to my proposal I have nothing left to play. I have nothing left to lose. My reputation can’t be damaged any more than it already has been. Say yes and you’ll be financially set for life. Thirty million dollars for you, and I’ll pay off your staff too.’
Elizabeth listened with the feeling of talons being dragged over her skin and her head swimming in cold sludge.
Her business was finished. Her life—everything she’d built for herself—was over.
Once the world learned she was married to this Casanova and her face graced the front pages of all the glossies and all the major Internet search engines, no one would be able to risk using her discreet services any more.
As
