Page 58 of Husband for the Holidays

Had he killed whatever she might have felt for him?Washe creating the very reality he feared so he could face it and move past it, rather than have it hang over his head? Because he didn’t think he’d ever get over her absence from his life.

He desperately wanted the reassurance he hadn’t hurt her too badly, but Nemo refused to be much of a spy, saying only a circumspect, “Legal hiccups have been minimal. Things are progressing.”

“But how are Eloise and Lilja coping?”

“As well as could be expected, under the circumstances.Kýrie? I’m not sure how to broach this. Lilja—she asked me to call her that. She’s made me an offer of employment. It’s been such an honor to work for you. I wouldn’t want you to think I’m ungrateful...”

Konstantin tuned out the rest, letting the young man say his piece before saying, “The door remains open if things change.”

They ended the call and Konstantin felt as though one more thread that joined him to Eloise had been snipped. It stung like hell.

Which was why he was so surprised when Nemo contacted him a few weeks later, asking when he might be visiting New York next. Lilja wanted to have lunch with him.

Konstantin hadn’t been planning anything, but booked a trip immediately, concerned.

It was a sunny February day when he met his almost mother-in-law at a restaurant located one hundred stories in the air, overlooking the city and the Hudson River.

“Lilja.” He was startled to feel such an intense rush of warmth when he saw her, as though he’d missed her when, much as he liked and respected her, he didn’t know her well. He didn’t have any reason to feel attached to her, except through her children. “How are you?”

“I’m well. You?” Her eyes, so much like Eloise’s, searched his, making him feel transparent.

“Fine,” he insisted briskly. “How is Eloise?” he asked once they were seated. “I was concerned that you wanted to see me.”

“She’s not ill or injured, if that’s what you’re asking, but she is the reason I wanted to see you.”

“You’re worried about her?” he guessed, suffering a stab of guilt. He had hurt her. He knew he had.

“Only insofar as any mother would be worried when she realizes her daughter has stopped drinking and turns green at the smell of bacon. I couldn’t stand the stuff myself when I was carrying her.”

“She’s pregnant?” He nearly fell out of his chair.

“I’m assuming so. Thank you.” She accepted her mimosa as it was delivered.

He drained the scotch that was set in front of him. The alcohol burned all the way into the back of his skull and down into his chest.

“Why hasn’t she told me?” It was the most intense rejection, the worst kick in the teeth, he could have imagined.

I’ll be able to move on now, she’d said.

Apparently, she’d meant it.

“You tell me.” She looked to the diamond on her hand. It was the one from the bank, now worn in place of the rings that Antoine had given her. “I thought she had with you what I had with Petros. He was the love of my life.” She sighed wistfully.

Konstantin signaled for another drink, then looked out the window, wondering if she had requested this meeting specifically to torture him.

“I’m deeply sorry that Antoine brought up your parents, Konstantin. When I realized afterward that that was what he was referring to, when he threatened you at the bank, I was sickened.”

His stomach heaved and a clammy sweat rose on his skin. “Eloise told you?”

“No. She only said Antoine had threatened to expose something private that you don’t like to talk about, but I was living in Greece with a son your age when it happened,” she reminded him gently. “Word got around and for me, it struck close to home. I came from a troubled family, too. One I don’t like to revisit, either.”

His second drink arrived and he ignored it in favor of reaching out to squeeze Lilja’s hand, hating to think of this delicate, infinitely kind, beautiful woman being at the hands of someone cruel.

She held onto his fingers tightly while a smile touched her mouth. Then she released him to sip her mimosa, blinking and drawing a slow breath, as though gathering her composure.

“I don’t know if you ever told Ilias about any of it. I never said anything to him about you, but he said to me early in your friendship that you were the only boy at school who knew what it felt like to lose a parent and not have a father. It gave me some comfort that you had each other.” Her brow flexed with poignancy. “I didn’t know what to do with him back then. Losing Petros was devastating for both of us, but Ilias was so determined to grow up and take his father’s place. I know I leaned on him too heavily, but when I didn’t ask his advice, he was annoyed. There was no winning.”

“He did insist on looking after people, whether they asked for help or not,” Konstantin recalled with rueful affection.

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