Page 47 of The Kiss that Captured a Billionaire
Her fingers curled against the doorframe for support.
Her mother. Her father.
She wanted to cry out, to demand how they even knew these things, but shock pinned her in place.
“…Lorenzo will want to know as soon as it can be confirmed,” Nikos finished.
Her knees wobbled.Lorenzo?
Her grandmother had told her—clear as day—that Lorenzo and Sophia Alliata had wanted nothing to do with her. They had told her grandparents that it would have been better if she had never been born.
Her stomach churned at the thought of meeting them now—after all these years.
“So, what’s next… now that you’ve found her?” Nikos asked.
Theo spoke, his voice calm, deliberate. “I’ll contact Mimi Devan later this morning and tell her that if the theatre wants a charitable donation, she’ll have to terminate Rose’s living and working arrangements. Immediately.”
Rose’s head snapped up, disbelief slicing through the haze.
“She’ll have no choice but to depend on me,” Theo continued smoothly. “I’ll take her first to Greece. We’ll marry there. Then to Italy—where I’ll introduce her to her grandparents.”
Marry? Greece? Italy?
Her heart pounded in her ears as Nikos asked, “How do you think your godfather’s going to handle the fact that you married his granddaughter without asking first?”
Theo didn’t hesitate. “He’ll approve. It would be the perfect merger between our families.”
Rose bit her lip when there was a lull in their conversation, as if both men were deep in their own thoughts.
Nikos wryly continued. “How do you think Rose will feel about her sudden engagement?”
“She’ll accept it. I told you it was inevitable—especially after last night,” Theo replied. The cold certainty in his tone made her skin prickle. “What other choice would she have once she no longer has the theatre to hide in? She has no other family. She’ll have no job. No place to live. And… there’s a possibility she could be pregnant. The condom broke.”
The air left her lungs in a sharp, soundless gasp.
“Besides, what woman do you know would who turn down being the granddaughter of Italian nobility—and marrying a billionaire?” Theo asked.
Nikos snorted out a laugh. “When you asked me that same question before, I wasn’t thinking of Rose. But… knowing her, I wouldn’t place any bets on it until you get a ring on her finger—or at least get her on a plane heading to Greece.”
Her gaze landed on Nikos’s hand when he waved at Theo through the crack in the door.
He was holding her locket.
The floor seemed to tilt.
Heat flooded her face—not from embarrassment, but from a white-hot fury that made her fingers tremble.
Without a sound, she backed away from the door. The surrounding room blurred, her body moving on instinct as sheslipped into the living room and grabbed her purse, shoes, and shawl.
It wasn’t Theo’s words that gutted her—it was the cool certainty in his voice. The warmth she had fallen for was gone, replaced by calculation. As if she were just another business deal for him—one he’d made with her mother’s parents.
By the time she reached the elevator, her resolve had crystallized into steel.
She wasn’t a delicate bloom that needed Theo Kallistratos—or anyone—to save her.
Mimi would absolutely accept the terms of Theo’s donation. Her first thought would be the theatre—not to the girl who did maintenance.
That was fine.
