Page 1 of The Reason for His Wife's Return

PROLOGUE

Eleven months ago

Greek Billionaire Breaks Hearts by Marrying a Nobody American!

Brilliant international corporate lawyer and daredevil playboy Aristos Carides, thirty-three, broke fans’ hearts all over the world by marrying a nobody American, Mira Reddy, also thirty-three, over the weekend in party city Las Vegas.

While the playboy’s numerous fans have taken to posting their disappointment all over the internet, Carides’s new bride is conspicuously absent from social media. However, one of our reporters has unearthed a picture of the plump, plain Mrs. Carides, which clearly boggles our minds as to how she landed the favorite bachelor on the planet.

Sources close to Mr. Carides have leaked that Mrs. Carides has tied up the playboy in a watertight contract marriage of five years through nefarious means known only to the couple. We’re trying to learn more.

Here’s a montage of the clips posted by adoring fans of Mr. Carides...

AristosLover23: OMG howz the world fair? Why did Aristos marry such a boring old woman?

Carides’sFavCoochie: Wonder what she did to land him...

ArisBootyCall: A gold-digging skank if you ask me.

HackerNush: My sister’s not a nobody, you assholes. She’s pretty and smart and a wonderful doctor. Get your facts straight.

BeautyYana: And they’re in love. Jeez. Stop corrupting everything.

IamAristos: My wife is a gorgeous piece of ass. Why wouldn’t I marry her?

HackerNush: Aristos, that you? Can you sue this trashy website? Or should I try my hand at it?

IamAristos: Bringing the whole thing down might be the easier way, Nushie-kins ;)

HackerNush: On it then. :)

CHAPTER ONE

Ten weeks ago

MIRAREDDYCARIDEShid her trembling hands by her sides and greeted friends and colleagues who’d come to pay their respects at her grandfather’s wake while stealing glances at her estranged husband like a covetous other woman.

Aristos is here, her mind kept repeating in an awed voice. In California. Tall and broad and devastatingly gorgeous. After zero communication in the eight months since she’d left to take care of her grandmother and stayed behind after her death when her grandfather, her Thaata, became ill.

Of course, the fact that his grandfather and hers had been friends for five decades wasn’t a small thing. Very possibly he was here on Leo Carides’s behalf to pay final respects to an old friend and wanted nothing to do with his estranged wife.

Mira scoffed, knowing it was wishful thinking. From the moment he’d arrived, she’d felt his gaze on her back like a knife, flaying her hard-won armor apart, ripping through her shields, delving for her secrets, demanding she let him see into her head and her heart.

Really, Mira, Aristos has no interest in your stupid heart. Isn’t that why you ran away?a rational voice whispered and Mira clung to it.

But it was impossible to ignore the speculation among the guests even as she played host alongside her grandfather’s protégé and heir, Caio Oliveira. She could hear the awed whispers about their marriage, their subsequent separation. His name floated around her, making her pulse race...

Aristos Carides, the international corporate law genius and the man who donated millions to orphanages around the world.

Aristos Carides, the daredevil playboy and the man with the Midas touch.

Aristos Carides, the magnificent male specimen who’d broken hearts all over the world by marrying the most boring woman on either side of the Atlantic.

But to Mira, he’d always been someone no one else knew, no one else saw.

To her, he was the adolescent companion she’d once adored with all her heart. The orphan who’d suddenly found himself heir to billions that she’d found common ground with. The naughty, brilliant, live-wire teenager that had made her heart sing and laugh with his daredevil stunts. The stunningly handsome young man she’d fallen in love with. The gorgeous, coveted young lawyer-in-the-making she’d let herself be persuaded into getting engaged to by their grandfathers.

What could be more thrilling than spending the rest of her life with such a dynamic, gorgeous guy who accepted her for the calm, boring, staid teenager who barely took any risks or sought fun.

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