Page 143 of About Love and Revenge

“But contrary to what you had planned, you always took care of me.”

“There was no other option for me.” He takes my hand, kisses it, and places it over his heart. “From that first day, when I took you from the sheik's arms, I wanted you for myself.”

“Coming with you was the best decision I have ever made. It wasn'tuntil after some time here that I realized how scared I'd been my whole life. I pretended to be indifferent, but the truth is that I was afraid of everything, and above all, I found myself incapable of overcoming my difficulties. You helped me have faith in myself.”

“I'm not a good man, Elina.”

“Yes, you are, but maybe you're not ready to hear that yet. Please finish telling your story. What did that letter say?”

“He lied.”

“About what? Wasn't my father the one who hurt your family?” God, just saying it out loud fills me with pain.

“Not about that. That part is true. I was there, remember? But he lied about my mother. That's what the letter was about. So that I wouldn't give up my revenge, he let me believe that my mother was a part of it, and that it was her relationship with Leandros that triggered their deaths, but that wasn't true.”

“Jesus Christ!”

“She never wanted anything to do with your father and asked Ingvar for help getting rid of him. But when he arrived, it was already too late.”

“He used you.”

“In a way, yes.”

“No, Odin, he used youcompletely.”

“Elina, after what I've seen, I think I'd have taken revenge anyway. The one thing I can't forgive him for is making me hate her all these years. I hated her almost as much as I hated your father.”

“Why did you have to go to Greece this time?”I'm not sure I really want the answer, but I meant it when I said I wouldn't raise my son on the basis of a lie.

He sighs, and after giving me a kiss on the forehead, he gets up with me in his arms. Then he sits me on the bed and paces the room. “I discovered your father's whereabouts. I've hunted him all these months, since the day he ran away, and when we finally caught him, I asked them to take him there.”

“And what happened when you faced him?”

“I've imagined that moment for many years, you know? The moment when I would destroy him. When we were face-to-face,however, the monster that haunted my nightmares no longer scared me—it just disgusted me.”

“Did you kill him?”

“No, but I didn't save him.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means I wasn't his only enemy. The islanders appeared at the boathouse. In addition to several other crimes, your father was responsible for the disappearance of many girls from our island as well as the neighboring ones. The men who arrived were their fathers. They asked me to let them settle accounts with Leandros, and I left. I didn't want to, but I went.”

“You did not want to?”

“No. He confessed that my mother had never given in to his harassment. In fact, he laughed when he told me that. He laughed because I'd spent all these years thinking she'd been unfaithful. That's when I was sure he needed to die.”

“Why did you leave, then?”

“Because I found out you were pregnant. I'd pushed everything we have together to the back of my mind because I wanted to go back and honor my family, but when Christos told me you were expecting our child, it was as if a curtain had been pulled aside.”

He kneels in front of me. “You are my life. My present and my future. You said you don’t want our son growing up in a hateful environment. Neither do I, but you need to know that while I didn't kill Leandros with my bare hands, I left him with those who would and I didn't feel any remorse for it.”

Odin

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

I wait,rather anxiously, for her to decide our future. There's nothing else I can do besides that.

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