Christo gritted his teeth. His suspicions were right. A pain knifed him deep inside, causing an aching wound to his soul. He’d craved her. Kissed her. And for what? Merely to repeat Hector’s mistakes?
‘You’re so like your father.’
Damn his mother’s words—the last she’d spoken to him. They hadn’t been meant as a compliment.
He cast them into the wasteland of his memory. They had no place here. He’d married Thea for convenience, not love. So why did evidence of her betrayal tear to the very heart of him?
He gripped the arms of his chair till his nails bit into the leather. ‘I’m sure you’re easy to love when you want to get your own way.’
The cool calm thawed and her eyes widened a fraction. Triumph leapt inside him, a bitter white-hot flame. He’d caught her out.
‘You think...? Me?’
She sounded incredulous—another act.
‘That I’d trade myself to Sergei to get what I want? I may be many things, but I’d never do that.’
‘Don’t lie to me.’ Christo flew from his chair, hands trembling. Every part of him was too hot, too tight for his suit. He tore off his tie before it choked him. ‘I won’t be taken for a fool like my father!’
Turning a blind eye to his wife’s outrageous behaviour. Ignoring it till she ran off with her latest lover. Christo thought he’d avoided his genetics, the weakness allowing him to be conned by women. He had believed Thea was more. But glorious curves and luscious kisses had caused him to look past the truth of another duplicitous female.
‘I’m not lying. Even though you’ve done nothing to earn my trust.’
He placed his hands on the desktop and leaned forward. Thea didn’t move, her expression placid, as if she’d done nothing wrong at all.
‘Sergei was protective,’ he hissed. ‘There’s only one reason a man behaves that way!’
She laughed at him—a cold jeer. It was the way his father had been laughed at for years by his mother in the charade of their marriage.
‘As you know so well, being the great protector that you are.’
He refused to be mocked. ‘How quickly you move on from one man to the next. I hope using Sergei was worth it to get back at me. What happened? Did you seduce him when you realised Alexis was unavailable?’
Thea leapt from her seat, chest heaving. ‘Alexis is my brother!’
A dreadful quiet fell in the room, taking on a life of its own. Heavy, oppressive, punctuated by Thea’s ragged breaths. A clock on the wall ticked seconds in an ominous rhythm.
‘He was like the brother I should have had.’
She only had one brother. Didn’t she?
More lies.
‘You want to know why I did this?’ she asked.
Thea grabbed the bottom of her shirt and tore, buttons scattering as she hurled the ruined fabric to the floor, then whipped round, displaying her back. Christo stared at the birds sweeping across her skin, at the spidery detail of the feathers in their vivid colours.
‘The first, I was eighteen. For all the times my father prevented me from seeing my mother. For the way she begged the staff to allow her to visit her little girl. I learned then the value of secrets and lies. This is a reminder of the sacrifices she made. How she fought to be free.’
The birds looked joyous as they twisted their way from the slender curve of her waist across her lower back and up her spine. Christo counted. Nine. Nine bluebirds.
‘The one in the middle—the largest—it hurt the most. But not as much as what I did to earn it. Demetri promised me to one of his business associates. To close a deal.’
Christo froze in horror. No.
‘Luckily the man desired a “compliant” woman,’ she spat, ‘not one who’d fight. So I remained untouched. Demetri wasn’t so forgiving. He always enjoyed hurting little girls.’
‘But your father...’ Surely he should have protected her?
She gave a mirthless laugh. She was still facing away from him, hands now defiantly planted on her hips, her nails digging into her flesh.
‘My father didn’t need his fists to make an impression. He’d take my phone—prevent my contact with the outside world to ensure compliance. I thought I’d go mad at times. In the end I behaved. Or he thought I did.’
He couldn’t stand here and let her continue baring herself like this. ‘Thea. Stop.’ The words were rough as ground glass in his throat.
She shot a look behind her. ‘Oh, please... You wanted to know and I’m keen to enlighten you. This bird, at my side...’
She catalogued a litany of deprivations. Too many for someone so young. He wanted to rage. To tear her family apart on her behalf. To fix this.
‘But this last one. This one is all for you, Christo, my beloved husband. When I told my father I wouldn’t marry you Demetri stepped in to convince me. Alexis and Demetri fought. Then the police...’
She stopped. Slumped a little. Her shoulders rose and fell. Then she straightened.
‘That’s when my father discovered who Alexis was. He said he’d go to jail for assault unless I married you.’ Her voice broke and trembled.
He wanted to reach for her. Hold her. Make it better, somehow. But the painful truth of their deal and what it had cost her was etched on her back, red and angry-looking. His fault and his shame.
The realisation sat leaden in his stomach.
‘And you think I used my body, used Sergei, to get him to do what I wanted?’
She turned, bared to him apart from her bra. Christo couldn’t keep his gaze from her devastated eyes.
‘He doesn’t deserve to be fired for doing what a good man should. Yes, Sergei’s protecting the one he loves—but it’s not me. I just blackmailed him into doing what I wanted.’
Defiant, she bent down for her shirt and shrugged it over her shoulders as she made for the door. When she reached it, she stopped.
‘I’ve learned that blackmail is
