Page 165 of Modern Romance Collection December 2024 Books 1-4

“Nope.” Michail shifts as if he is suddenly uncomfortable. “Mom told me he was a bastard and I was better off not knowing him.”

“Smart woman.”

“The best.” He glances down at his feet for a moment. “I expected you and Rafael to be exactly like him.”

“Why?”

“You had his last name. You worked for his company.”

“Drakos North America is my company.” The steel in my voice is ice-cold. “I won’t lie and say that I got to where I was solely on my own merit. But everything that Drakos North America is, it is because I built it that way.”

“I know.” Michail shrugs. “I read up plenty on the two of you after that will-reading. And,” he adds slowly, as if it almost pains him to say, “I realized you two were different.”

“I think that’s a compliment.”

“It is.” He glances back at my mansion. “Even if you live like a damn peacock.”

I grin. “Now that I will take as a compliment.”

Michail makes a sound that almost resembles a chuckle. He glances around.

“Where’s your wife?”

My brief moment of good humor evaporates.

“Not here. I assume she’s at Grey House.”

Michail stares at me for a long moment.

“I hadn’t planned on showing up to your wedding.”

“Why did you?”

I almost missed the slight tensing of his shoulders.

“Changed my mind. I thought you were just marrying for the money.” He smiles wolfishly. “But then I saw your wife and that kiss you gave her during the ceremony. Sure was something.”

“It was.”

It had been the start of everything. Perhaps the moment I’d started to fall in love with her. And I’d let it slip away.

Michail tilts his head. “Which makes me wonder why she suddenly departed from the south of France before the end of your honeymoon and is now up on the Olympic Peninsula.”

I entertain the idea of planting my fist in his face. I’ve never engaged in a brawl with a sibling. Perhaps it’s time I finally experience that family tradition.

“You’ve been busy.”

“Curiosity.”

“We had a fight on our honeymoon.”

“Must have been some fight.”

“Is Sullivan Security now offering marital counseling as well?”

Michail makes that rumbling sound again. “In my early days, I did plenty of investigations for marriages, both the before and after. Vetting potential spouses, seeing if the loving husband or wife had someone on the side. My business tends to rip marriages apart, not mend them.”

So do I, I think gloomily as I glance back down at the report. Juliette had had a feeling that Paul was hiding something. But she had been trying to do the right thing by finding out more before pursuing him, before losing herself in the investigation and intentionally ruining someone’s life. I stare down at the photo of the boy, a child who has a father who, despite his faults, loves him very much.

---