Page 7 of About Love and Revenge

Odin

CHAPTER TWO

Eighteen Years Later

GREECE

I walkaround the island with the certainty that it all belongs to me now.

Every bit of this land, wherever my eyes reach and far beyond—it's all mine.

It was painstaking work.

It took me years to assemble everything, but the final part of the promise I made to my rescuer is fulfilled: Leandros Argyros has little left besides the clothes on his body.

Every time I broke some of his pride, it was like balm to the open wounds inside me, but unfortunately, that relief won't last.

I can't even take pleasure in his downfall.

Not that I intend to stop.

There's still a long way to go, but tomorrow night, at last, I'll be able to see his agony up close.

Once, I watched a documentary about a father who hunted down and exterminated his daughter's murderer. I'm not used to watchingtelevision, but this particular story fascinated me because he was tireless. He defied the laws of two countries, fought the system for years, and when the law wasn't enough, he decided to take matters into his own hands.

He went on trial for his vengeance, and when the reporter interviewed him the day before the jury's decision, he asked him if he felt at peace with the death of his enemy.

He looked at the cameras with the emptiest eyes I had ever seen and said that nothing would ever bring her back.

And this is a truth that only those who have been robbed of what is most precious to them could understand.

Nothing will bring my family back to life.

My sister will never have the opportunity to grow up like Leandros’s children did. My father will never be able to walk the streets of our old island again with me on the back of his bicycle, smiling and greeting his friends.

I sit on the Blue Rock and look out to sea. A lot has happened in the last eighteen years, and one of the worst events has been the disappearance of my cousin Orien, Aristeu’s eldest son. It was on the beach below that he was last seen alongside Theodoro, the only male descendant of the Argyroses.

I always knew that their friendship wouldn't work out and that his closeness to Theodoro would bring problems.

Over the year I lived here, I saw it all happen. They loved each other, and that only increased as they grew older. There was no way Leandros would dismiss it and set it aside.

And now, seven years after he disappeared without a trace, I'm still looking for answers.

At first, Aristeu was naïve enough to believe that Orien had left because he wanted to start life elsewhere. Even letters and phone messages arrived as if they’d been sent by Orien.

Since there isn't a credulous bone in my body, unlike Aristeu, it didn't take me more than half an hour to discover that the messages were fake—or rather, that nothing could prove they came from the boy.

Unfortunately, I think I know what happened.

I don't feel guilty. There was nothing I could have done.

Even after I managed to justify my wealth, after graduating from college and starting to earn money—they had no idea of the inheritance I had received from my rescuer—my relatives didn't want to leave the island.

I had a plan and couldn't afford to waver.

I offered protection, but they ignored my pleas to leave.

At least Milena was safe. As if the gods had decided to intercede on our behalf, she fell in love with a foreigner who was here on vacation and ended up moving to southern Italy.

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