A Fling with the Greek Billionaire (23 page)

“You can order the matching set for it, if you wish. Consider it a parting gift.”

“I’ll take you up on it,” she accepted readily enough.

He smiled.
This
was the Miranda he knew and had appreciated as a friend.
 

“Danny will be coming with me to France,” she told him as they walked out of her office. While he locked the doors for her, she shared with him, “I’m thinking I’ll try to seduce him.”

Nik raised a brow. “He’s gay.”

Miranda shrugged that off. “I can make him bisexual.” Her gaze turned serious. “But anyway, that’s not why I called you to come.”
And this
, she thought,
was the hard part.

“When I tried to kill myself, I knew…Danny would come in time.”

Nik didn’t say a word, but she had known him too long not to be able to read what his silence meant.

“Given enough time, I think you’d probably have realized the truth for yourself. I know I paint myself as cold and unemotional, but I’m as human as the rest of them.”
 

Nik said finally, “Thank you for telling me the truth.”

“I’m not finished. And it’s about to get worse.” She forced herself to meet his gaze. “I’m also sorry that what I did will probably make you distrust women even more. I’m
sincerely
sorry for that,” she said heavily. “I don’t want that for you because…you’re a good man, Nik. I want to think you’re a good man because I’d like to think I’m good, too, despite all the mistakes I made. We both keep pushing people away, but I think it’s time we both stop and just…let ourselves feel and be hurt.”

“I see.” Nik’s voice was polite, and Miranda knew that was also his polite way of telling her he didn’t want to hear the rest.

Too bad for him,
Miranda thought, but she was no longer on his payroll.

“Shall we go now? Perhaps my driver—”

“Nik,” she cut him off. “Danny lied.”

He froze.

“He told me about what he said, and he lied.” Miranda’s voice was urgent. “
Danny lied,
Nik. I never got to talk to Daria. I never got to tell her that I was depressed, and she never told me that she had you following her like a dog.”

A dull ache emerged in his chest as Miranda’s words sank in, but Nik forced himself to ignore it. “It doesn’t matter,” he heard himself say. “It doesn’t change a thing—”

“Doesn’t it?” Miranda demanded. “Nik, other people—”

His head jerked up at what she was implying. “Other people could what?” he grated out. “Are you fucking saying that you think all those men lied about her? Can you hear yourself, Miranda? Are you saying that all twenty-eight men fucking lied—”

“Yes!” As soon as she said it, she suddenly knew she did believe that. “I’m saying yes, even if it sounds completely unbelievable and unrealistic, I’m saying
yes,
I believe that. I’m going to bank on the fact that I know you’re not the type of person to fall for someone just because she was good in bed – if you were, you would have fallen for me.” Her smile was self-mocking. “But you didn’t. So yes, I think you must have seen something special in Daria and so yes, I think they all lied. I think she’s
it
for you.”

****

The flight from New York City to Miami had drained him, but Nik had his driver take him straight to Magnolia Everest’s estate.

He wasn’t certain if she would consent to meet him, but she did. She bore a strong resemblance to Daria and looked a decade younger than her age. The photos he had seen of her always had Magnolia dressed in outfits more suitable for teenagers than middle-aged women. But when Daria’s mother came to the drawing room, she was nothing like her photos. Her hair was left loose, her face free of makeup, and she was dressed in a loose, long-sleeved silk blouse and slacks.

“Mr. Alexandropoulos.” Her voice was as husky as Daria’s.
 

They shook hands briefly. “Thank you for seeing me, Mrs. Everest.”

She nodded, and when they were seated, she said without preamble, “Daria’s not with me.”

Ah.
She knew about him then. It was all he allowed himself to think. The fact that Daria was not here was something he preferred not to dwell on at all.

“Was that why you came?” she asked. He didn’t answer right away, and she was beginning to see why Daria’s friends had oh-so-carefully described him as mercurial and aloof.
Understatements, all of them,
Magnolia thought.

 
“She came here three months ago, and she found me drunk.”

Nik stiffened.
 

“But I wasn’t drunk enough not to realize something was wrong with my baby. She wasn’t crying, but I’m her mother and I could feel it. I kept asking her what was wrong in my slurred voice, but she only said she was going to take care of me. And I let her even when…she’s never cried. Don’t you think that’s strange? My baby’s always been a girly girl.” Her voice broke. “She should cry more, don’t you think?”

Nik’s jaw clenched. Memories drifted in his mind, Daria telling him she didn’t allow herself to cry as punishment for hurting him.

“It sobered me, seeing her so determined to care for me even when she was hurting inside. It
broke
me.”

And looking at her, Nik saw that Magnolia was also punishing herself now. Tears brightened her gaze the way it did Daria’s, but Magnolia kept her eyes unblinking, not letting a single drop fall.

“She didn’t tell me a thing about you, you know. All she told me that it was her fault because she lied.” She choked the last word out, emotions tightening her throat. “Why are you so hard on her?
One lie
and you took away her pride, took away everything, even though she loved you so much—”

Nik stood up. “I’m sorry,” he bit out. He didn’t give a damn if leaving suddenly would make him like the biggest prick on earth. He just didn’t want to listen to another person waxing poetry about Daria. Iolanthe had done it, even Miranda, and of course Magnolia would do it, too.

If he listened to more of this, all his defenses would crash, and he would—

As he turned away, he heard Magnolia speak behind him. “She’s the
silliest
daughter in the world, you know.”

Nik knew he should leave. That the more he listened, the more he would think that Daria—

“She’s so silly it breaks my heart,” Magnolia whispered. “She dated all those men, and she let them speak lies about her because she kept thinking that one day, a man would come to love her, despite her past, and with that she could prove that even someone like me – someone like me could be loved.” Her voice caught, and then and there he saw her for who she was, saw Magnolia the way Daria had always seen her mother.
 

A woman the world punished for loving too much and not being sorry for it.

Slowly, Nik turned to face Magnolia, and his defenses broke down as her eyes sought his assurance. Him, the man who had thought she was despicable, the same man who had hurt her daughter.

“I was such a bad mother to her, Mr. Alexandropoulos. But I can still make it right, can’t I?”

It was almost like hearing Daria speak those words. He thought about the hurtful things he had said of Magnolia Everest, of how daughter and mother were alike, and now he knew it was true. And it was a good thing.

“Yes, Mrs. Everest,” he heard himself say roughly. “You can still make it right.” He meant it, and he hoped to God he could still make it right, too. Because everything was clear now.

Memories came back to him, the oldest memories – the most precious memories.

He remembered how furious he had been at Daria throwing a bottle at him
twice
and Daria promising him she wasn’t
insane,
and Nik wanted to smile even as more pain ravaged his chest. Because if he could remember the good times, he could remember the bad times, and there were so damn much more of them.

He remembered himself shouting at Daria.
What’s my goddamn fucking number?

He remembered himself putting Daria in her place.
You’re just a cunt that belongs to me.

Other people could have lied about her, too.
Miranda’s words came back to him. And this time, he believed the same damn thing.

“I’m sorry.” His voice was raw.

Magnolia’s smile was sad. “I’m sorry, too. Not for you or me. I’m sorry for my daughter. I’m sorry that she’s so silly…so sweet to find something in us to love.”

Chapter Three

Nik’s badly bruised knuckles made it difficult for him to unlock the door to Daria’s apartment, but the knob finally turned after several tries.

When the lights were on, the first thing he saw was the empty suitcase on the floor, and self-contempt seared through him at the sight of it. Jerking his gaze away, he walked further inside. Everything he saw came with memories, and each one of them ripped his chest wide open with agonizing pain.

The couch where she sometimes made him read a book aloud while Daria laid her head on his lap and listened to him.
So his vocal chords wouldn’t get rusty,
she had told him seriously.

He checked the cupboards and found leftover ingredients from their last trip to the grocery. He opened the refrigerator, and his heart stopped at the sight of the cake on the lower tray.

Happy Eight Weeks.

Inside the bedroom, he took his time going through her dresses, finding a sense of comfort at seeing them. None of his investigators had managed to come up with any clues about where Daria was now. It had driven him to seek her presence in her apartment – he needed something to cling to, needed a reason to keep hoping.

He found a box in her closet and taking it out, he saw that it was a Gatorade bottle with a piece of paper inside it.

He read the message, and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to laugh or despair at how silly…at how goddamn sweet she was. Her mother was right. No one was as silly and sweet as Daria was, for thinking that God could give her a prince with a message in a bottle and
pandas
of all things as a sign.

And yet…God had, only Nik had chosen to turn himself into a frog.

He moved to her desk, taking a seat before pulling the drawer open. The first thing he saw was her calendar, and he felt the blood leeching out of him as he realized what it was.

“
Theo,”
he whispered hoarsely. No, God, no—

A calendar that had only Mondays and Fridays, a calendar that said her world revolved around a bastard like him.

The calendar slipped from his hands.
 

Forgive me, Daria.
 

I love you.

I’m sorry.

Forgive me.

****

“I’m so proud of you, Bella,” Daria exclaimed when she saw the 3D paper-cut tiara on her student’s IG account.
 

As she spoke, the dictation software she used caught her words, and they appeared on the screen.

“You’ve come so far,” she said sincerely. It was true. Of all her online students, Bella had proved to be the most diligent. Although she had only been Daria’s student for a week, she had already completed close to forty hours and the first one to create the 3D paper-cut assignment.

Bella:
It looks even prettier in person, Ms. Everest. Thank you for being patient with me.

Daria smiled. “You’re too sweet.” So sweet, in fact, that she had found herself sharing more personal stuff with Bella than with other students. There was just something about the way Bella always seemed to understand and never sought to judge that encouraged Daria to talk.

Bella: Will we have lessons tonight?

“I’m afraid not. I’ve been invited by my neighbor to some kind of party.” She wrinkled her nose as she spoke. The idea of going out and being around so many people still didn’t appeal to her, but Grant had been so insistent and she hadn’t wanted to be rude.

Bella:
Ooooh. A guy?

“Yeah,” she said glumly. Grant had been dropping more hints than usual, and she didn’t want to think of the day that she would have to turn him down.

Bella: You like him?

“I don’t hate him.” It felt disloyal to say she didn’t like Grant outright even though that was exactly how Daria felt. In fact, she couldn’t understand why she hadn’t fallen for him still. Grant was good-looking, rich, intelligent, and
nice.
He also knew about her “past” and he didn’t mind.