from?”
Takis had trouble getting his emotions under control. “You don’t want to know.”
“Yes I do. You’ve been with several women over the years, but I’ve never seen you turned inside out by one before.”
“It’s not just the woman. It’s everything!” His voice shook. “I feel like my world has been blown to smithereens and I don’t know where I am anymore.”
Takis should never have left his parents’ home. He should have stayed on Crete and worked alongside his brother. He’d been so certain he’d had all the answers to help his family. But in the end he’d accepted the help of a wealthy man.
The thought of the deeded gift sickened him. That kind of gift might be given to a son, but Takis hadn’t been Nassos’s son. He was the son of Nikanor, who after all these years still didn’t want his money. Neither did his brother. Worse, one of his parents was probably ill and Takis didn’t have a clue because he’d been living out of the country for years. He was the ingrate of all time.
“What’s the point of anything, Cesare?”
Worry lines darkened the features of his Italian friend. “Hold on, Takis. Come with me. We’re going for a ride. My car is parked in the rear lot of the castello.”
“You don’t want to be with me.”
“Well, I refuse to leave you here alone. It wouldn’t do for Sofia to find you in this condition.” Cesare was right about that. He didn’t want his assistant privy to his personal life. “Whatever trouble you’re in, we’re going to talk about it. Let’s go.”
Takis grabbed the papers and stuffed them inside his suit jacket. They walked swiftly through the corridors past some of the guests to the outside. Cesare started up his sports car. He followed the road around from the back of the castello and they drove down the hill to the little village of Sopri. Before long he parked in front of a sports bar on the outskirts that didn’t look crowded this time of day.
They went inside and found a quiet spot in a corner. Cesare ordered appetizers and their favorite Peroni, a pale lager from the brewery that had been founded in Lombardi. Once they’d been served rolls along with a hot plate of grigliata mista di carne, he eyed Takis.
“You didn’t eat breakfast, which might explain the state you were in. You need lunch, amico, and you’ve got me for an audience. Now start talking and don’t stop.”
Cesare knew Takis’s weakness for their grilled sausage, lamb and steak mix. Combined with the lager, it did taste good and he could feel his strength returning.
He pulled the deed out of his pocket and pushed it toward Cesare. “As you know, I attended Nassos Rodino’s funeral while I was in Crete. Would you believe in his will he gave half the Hotel Rodino in Heraklion to me as a gift? The other half was given to that woman you saw. She was the courier who delivered it.”
His friend studied it. “Who is she?”
“Lys Theron, the daughter of Kristos Theron, the hotel owner in New York who gave me my first job after I reached the States. You remember me talking about him. When he died, his best friend, Nassos, Rodino became her guardian and brought her back to Crete to raise.”
A low whistle came out of Cesare. But Takis didn’t want to talk about the beautiful woman who’d robbed him of breath the moment he’d laid eyes on her. She was another problem altogether.
“I thought the money I sent to Nassos for his help had changed his image of me as the poverty-stricken teen from Tylissos.” He swallowed part of his lager. “But I was wrong. In his mind’s eye I would always be the poor son of poor Nikanor Manolis, humbly scraping out a living day after day.
“I never wanted anything from Nassos. His kindness gave me a new life, but I paid him back. To be handed a deed to part ownership of a property that isn’t mine, that I never earned, is worse than a stiletto to the gut.”
Cesare shot forward in his seat. “You couldn’t be more wrong. It’s his tribute to your raving success.”
“You think?”
“Of course.”
Takis shook his head. “Maybe the problem lies inside me. Maybe I’ve been too proud wanting to make a success of my life. Nassos’s gift of the hotel takes me back to the time when I was eighteen. He approached me about furthering my education, not the other way around, Cesare.
“The hotel manager I worked for arranged for me to meet Nassos. I never asked for his help. When I finally accepted it and left for New York, I started paying him back as soon as I could. But being given half ownership of his hotel now doesn’t feel right and has made me feel...guilty all over again.”
“What’s gotten into you, Takis? Guilty for what? Help me understand.”
“That I’ve failed my family.”
“In what way?”
“I left them to do something purely selfish. I accepted a rich man’s help. My father couldn’t give me that kind of help or encourage me. If I’d been any kind of a man, I would have stayed home and helped him.”
“That’s crazy talk, Takis. I left home too in order to pursue a dream and accepted a lot of help along the way.”
“This is different, Cesare. You’re not a Cretan.”
“So what? I’m a Sicilian. What’s the difference? My pride is no less fierce than yours.”
Takis had no answer for that. “You don’t understand. My brother stayed behind to work with my father. He never failed him. But that wasn’t the case with his second-born son. What did I do? I took off. When I think about it now, I cringe to realize how deeply I must have disgraced him.”
“Disgraced?” Cesare sounded angry. “You don’t know any such thing. He must be bursting with pride over you. When was the last time you had a real heart-to-heart talk with him?”
“Before I left for New York, we talked. I went to him with ideas for what we could do with the hotel. He looked me in the eye and told me my plans for the family hotel didn’t fit his vision, and that one day when I was a man, I’d understand. That was it! End of conversation. It shut me down. After eleven years I’m afraid I still don’t understand.”
“Then you need to force another conversation with him and find out what he meant.”
“My father isn’t easy to talk to.”
“Then it’s time you faced him so you won’t stay in that hellhole you’re digging for yourself. Let me ask you a question. Do you think me selfish? Or Vincenzo?”
Takis didn’t have to voice the easy no that came to his mind.
“Come on and finish your food. Then we’re going back to the castello to talk to Vincenzo before he leaves for Lake Como with Gemma. You’re not the only one who has known the pain of separation from family. Don’t forget that he ran from his father as fast as he could and hid out in New York under a different name for over ten years.”
Takis had forgotten nothing. The three of them would never
