Page 62 of The Billionaire's Demand

Not understanding.

Not understanding at all.

‘It’s the deeds to your father’s house,’ Leandros said.

Her eyes flew to him, distended.

‘I bought it from Jonas Makris,’ he told her. ‘Oh, he didn’t know it was me—I used a proxy. A very eager proxy,’ he said with a wry expression on his face. ‘He offered him an absurdly high price—saying how he adored houses of that period and was determined to acquire it, whatever the cost. Jonas couldn’t resist—though I did tussle him down from the price he thought he could get,’ he said with a note of satisfaction audible in his voice. ‘I made speed of the essence, and the transaction went through yesterday. So...’ his voice changed ‘...there it is. Your father’s house, back in the family.’

He paused, clearly seeing the shock, the incomprehension, in her face.

‘It’s yours, Eliana,’ he said.

Her eyes distended again. Not with incomprehension now, but in disbelief—swiftly followed by the shaking of her head.

‘No, of course it isn’t! Of course it isn’t mine! It’s yours—yours, Leandros! You bought it, with your money—of course it’s yours!’

It was his turn to shake his head. ‘What would I want with a house like that? I’ve got a perfectly good one of my own in Psychiko. Left to me by my father.’ His voice changed again. ‘Just as your father, Eliana, should have left you his house.’ A hardness entered his voice. ‘And not expected you to marry a man like Damian Makris to stop him losing it!’

Eliana bit her lip. ‘He didn’t, Leandros. He didn’t expect me to do it. Never. I married Damian of my own free will—it was my choice. I told you that.’ Her voice dropped. ‘Just as it was my choice to break my engagement to you to do so. My choice—mine alone.’ There was a tightness in her voice as she looked at him. ‘I married money, Leandros—and it was my choice to do so.’

‘To save your father’s house for him.’ That edge was still in his voice. ‘To save him from financial ruin.’

Her expression changed. ‘But my marriage to Damian also kept me from poverty—just like you’ve always thrown at me. The poverty you’ve always said I could not have faced had your father disinherited you as he threatened.’

She lifted her chin as she spoke. She could make no defence against Leandros’s accusation—his accusation six years ago and his accusation ever since.

A flash came in his eyes. Anger. Well, she deserved that. She always had.

But his anger was not for that reason.

‘That,’ he bit out, ‘is not true.’

He reached for his beer, took a hefty swallow of it, set it back on the table with a thud. That flash in his eyes came again.

‘I’ve thrown it at you time and time again! And it’s never been true! Because if it were—if all you cared about was a luxury lifestyle—you wouldn’t be living the life you’re leading now. The life I found you living the first time I tracked you down to that dump you lived in. And you’re facing poverty now, taking on Damian’s child as you have—’

‘I don’t have much choice,’ she replied.

She didn’t want this conversation. There was no point to it—no point at all.

The flash was there again. Fiercer still.

‘Yes, you do have a choice! You could leave Miki and his grandmother to fend for themselves. And if Jonas gets hold of his grandson, what is that to you?’

‘I’ll never do that—never!’ There was vehemence in her voice.

‘Exactly! And that proves my point. You could take the allowance Jonas makes you and keep it all for yourself.’ His voice twisted. ‘Keep all those damn clothes I bought you in Paris! Head back to Athens, get out and about again—find another husband or a lover. It doesn’t matter which. Your incredible beauty would guarantee you hit paydirt!’

Her face was paling, the blood draining from it. Dear God, did he still think that of her?

His voice changed. ‘But you won’t. It’s unthinkable to you.’ He took a razored breath. ‘As unthinkable as you marrying Damian just to keep that luxe lifestyle for yourself.’ A laugh broke from him, harsh and humourless. ‘Because you didn’t marry him for that reason at all, even though it was what I told myself, and went on telling myself these past six years. I wanted a reason to hate you, because you no longer valued my love! And that hurt, Eliana—dear God, it hurt! I saw you as pampered and cosseted by your father—overprotected. But it was the other way round—that’s what I’ve finally realised! It was you protecting your father. That’s why you married Damian—to protect your father, to let him see out his days in the house he loved, to escape the financial ruin he was facing at least for his lifetime. You were landed with it after his death instead. Just like your husband landed you with the son he was too scared to claim for himself!’

‘Don’t blame them!’ Her cry came from the heart. ‘Don’t blame Damian—please don’t! He was so cowed by his father—so scared of him. And my father just wasn’t good with money. Those with inherited money often aren’t good—they weren’t the ones who made it, and they don’t know how to manage it. He...he did his best. But he just...well, got into a mess. And after my mother died he was so devastated...’

Leandros was looking at her. ‘I thought you cossetted...overprotected by a doting father. But I’ll say it again: it was the other way round—wasn’t it, Eliana?’

She looked away. The truth was hard to face—she had loved her father so dearly...

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