He waited patiently for her to swallow it.
‘Well?’ he queried.
She shrugged again and, eyes holding his, sucked on the cocktail straw.
There was no mistaking the suggestiveness behind that action.
‘I haven’t spoken it in years,’ she said, placing her glass back on the table.
He dragged his thoughts away from her provocative gesture to the conversation in hand. ‘But I thought that’s all you spoke with your mother?’
She raised an eyebrow. ‘And I thought you’d seen my mother.’
‘I did.’
‘She didn’t tell you?’
‘Tell me what?’
‘That I’m estranged from them...well, estranged from my father.’
‘She never mentioned it.’ But then, he hadn’t hung around for conversation. He’d gone to Helena’s childhood home with the express purpose of getting her current address. As soon as he had it he’d left.
She pulled a rueful face. ‘It’s painful for her. We have to meet in secret.’
‘Why?’
‘Because my father would be furious if he knew.’
‘So what? You’re her daughter. She shouldn’t have to see you in secret.’
‘She’s the one who has to live with the consequences.’
His eyes narrowed. ‘What kind of consequences?’
She stared at him for what felt like a long time. ‘When he found out she’d spoken to me on the phone he stopped her pocket money.’
He laughed uncertainly. ‘Children get pocket money.’
‘My father treats her like a child.’ She pressed the pad of her forefinger to the crumbs on her plate and popped it in her mouth.
Theo found himself suppressing another groan.
She pushed her plate to one side. When she next spoke, her voice contained a hardness he’d never heard from her lips before. ‘I’ve told you many times that he’s a misogynistic dinosaur. He controls and pays for everything. He gives her a small monthly cash payment to spend on personal necessities. She has to provide receipts to account for every penny spent. Everything’s in his name, including her phone. All her calls are itemised and he scrutinises them, which is how he found out she’d gone against his word and spoken to me. He stopped her pocket money for a month. That might not sound like a long time to you but try and imagine it—she couldn’t even buy herself shampoo when her bottle ran out.’
Theo stared hard at her, looking for a sign that she was exaggerating. Helena was a terrible liar. She’d lied to him twice, the first time when he’d asked if she liked the shirt he’d chosen to wear on a night out and she’d cut eye contact and nodded vigorously while tucking her hair maniacally behind her ears. The second time had been later that same night when they’d been on their way back to his Agon home after partying in a nightclub and he’d asked what she thought of his friends. She’d turned her head away to look out of the window while replying, ‘They’re great,’ in such an unnatural voice that he’d immediately known she was lying. He’d made her promise after that never to spare his feelings, a promise he came to rue when she’d taken him at his word in their last, fateful argument.
Her gaze didn’t drop. She spoke the truth.
‘What caused the estrangement?’ He’d never given much thought to her dismissive description of her father as a dinosaur and her childhood as old-fashioned. He’d been too busy plotting their future to think much about her past.
He should have given it more thought. He should have asked more questions.
She took another sip of her cocktail, loosened her shoulders and sank back into her seat. For all the weight of the subject matter, the Helena sharing a table with him was the most relaxed he’d seen her since he’d brought her back to the peninsula. ‘My father was furious that I changed my mind about marrying you. If he could have dragged me down the aisle by my hair he would have.’
‘He hardly knew me.’
‘But he knew your wealth and status,’ she pointed out. ‘He’d boasted to all his eminent friends and colleagues about his daughter marrying one of Europe’s wealthiest men. My actions humiliated him. My refusal to change my mind...’ She shook her head. ‘I’ve never seen him so angry. He kicked me out. He said if I was going to throw away a life of riches then I didn’t deserve his money, so he cut off his financial support too.’
Sharp needles dug into Theo’s skin. Pieces of a puzzle he hadn’t realised he’d been trying to solve were falling into place. Helena’s debt. Her screamed words that he was just like her father...
Her eyes remained steady on his. ‘Anyway, that’s why my Greek’s gone a little rusty—I haven’t needed to speak it in three years.’
Theo shook his head in an effort to clear the buzzing in his ears. ‘Forgive me, agapi mou, but I fail to see the link. I thought you said you still saw your mother secretly?’
‘We only spoke Greek together because my father insisted on it. I’ve not been allowed to speak English under their roof since my seventh birthday. He banned me from speaking English in his presence. My mother had to translate.’
‘I thought you were raised as bilingual?’
‘Not until I turned seven. Up to then I could name the days of the week and count to fifteen in Greek but my father decided that wasn’t good enough.’
‘You were banned from speaking any English?’ he clarified, the buzzing in his ears louder than ever.
‘At home, yes.’
‘But that must have been impossible for you.’ To suddenly have it enforced that she could only speak a language she barely understood must have been torturous.
‘I wanted to please him,’ she admitted with a sudden wistfulness that pierced him. ‘My father had never taken much interest in me up to that point. He’s from the school of thought that children should be seen and not heard.’
‘And that wives should do as they’re told?’ he asked, already knowing the answer.
‘Yes. My mother’s been indoctrinated into believing his word is law.’ And then she gave a
