The Greek Tycoon Box Set: The Complete Serial: Books 1-10 (39 page)

“Anastasia Sophia Kostas.”

“Oh, that’s so beautiful,” Mary said. “We’re so excited to meet her.”

“Us too,” Carla said, then laughed, “of course.” She looked back at Dios asleep in his car seat. “I think Dios is just beginning to understand he’s going to be a big brother. He got to see a picture of the baby on the screen today and he kept saying ‘
baby, baby
.’”

“Aww, precious.”

“How is the little tyke?” Charles asked.

Atreus smiled.
 

“Knocked out right now. He’s great, though. Calling Carla ‘Mama’ all the time. I’ve never seen him happier.”

“That’s wonderful,” Mary said. “So when are you two going to come down and see us?”

The thought of visiting filled Carla’s heart with a warm comfort. She’d spent so much of her childhood there, and the happy memories and warm atmosphere never failed to make her feel safe and supported.
 

“Soon,” she said. “Definitely before the baby comes.”

“I should hope so!” said Mary.

“Though you’ll be coming down for the wedding in six weeks.”
 

Carla couldn’t believe how soon that sounded. There was so much to do before then.

Mary clicked her tongue.
 

“Goodness me, I need to go and buy a new hat.”
 

“You’ve got a whole closet full of them,” Charles teased.

“Nonsense.”
 

Carla knew just the playful face her grandma would make just then.

“I think we’d fly down to see you,” said Atreus. “It’s such a long drive from here to London.”

“That’s what I was thinking,” said Charles.

“Ooh, look,” Carla said, pointing to a sign reading
Soft Play Center
.

Atreus took the turn the sign pointed to.

“Grandma, Granddad, we’ll come see you really soon, okay?”

“Perfect,” Charles said. “See you soon.”

Carla blew a kiss into the phone.
 

“Love you lots, Grandma. Love you lots, Granddad.”

“Love you, dear,” Mary said.

Atreus smiled.
 

“Looking forward to seeing you.”

“You too, dear.”

When Carla hung up the phone, she grinned at Atreus.
 

“She called you dear. That means you must be part of the family.”

“That’s what I like to hear,” Atreus said, pulling into the parking lot of the soft play center. “And you know you’ve been family ever since I saw you at the airport with Onella. You looked like an angel”

Carla laughed at herself.

“It was then I knew,
there’s something different about this girl
.”

She looked through her purse for change for the meter.
 

“All the way back then?”

“That’s right.”

A sly smile crept over her face.

“You know; I did see you taking little surreptitious glances at me in the rearview mirror on the way back from the airport.”

“You did not.” Atreus thrust his chin up in a play of being indignant. “I would never do such a thing.”

Carla rolled her eyes as she got out of the car.
 

“Yeah, right.”

She went to buy a ticket for the car while Atreus roused Dios from sleep. When she returned, Atreus stood by the car door, a half-awake Dios on his hip.
 

“You ready to have some fun?” she said to him, tickling him under his chubby chin.

He batted her away and yawned, which made Atreus and Carla laugh.

“Not quite yet,” Atreus said.

“I’m sure when he sees all the bright colors and all the other children playing he’ll perk up,” Carla said. They began to walk toward the entrance. “I can’t believe you’ve never been to one of these places before.”

“Well, Dios couldn’t even toddle before I met you,” Atreus said.

Carla held his free hand.
 

“I had a birthday party in one of these places. I think it was my seventh. Best party ever.”

“Seven?” Atreus said. “Are you sure Dios is old enough for this?”

“No, no, I checked, they have a special area for under threes. And we’ll have to supervise him the whole time, obviously.”

They soon entered the warehouse, paid, and emerged into a totally new world. Bright colored structures towered all the way up to the ceiling, packed full of slides and climbing nets and ball pools and all other kinds of amusements.

“Wow,” Atreus said. “I wouldn’t mind playing here.”

Carla felt just like a kid again.
 

“Tell me about it.”
 

There was a coffee area for the parents but they skipped that and headed over to the under three area, where everything was smaller and more manageable. There was only a mother with her daughter, and a little baby strapped to her chest. She waved and seemed friendly enough.

“Hey, look, Dios,” Atreus said. “Doesn’t this look like fun?”

Dios had not quite woken up and still had a wary look about him, but leaned forward and reached out as he always did when he wanted to be put down. He leaned against a foam-covered pole and watched the little girl as she picked up balls from the ball pond and tried to squish them.

“He doesn’t look sure,” Carla said with a giggle.

“Not yet. Give him time.”

Carla felt so proud watching the little boy. He’d come so far since she’d first met him. It all seemed to have happened so fast. He was now walking with confidence and barely fell over at all. He was so close to her heart now that the thought of losing him made her blood run cold.

Just then Atreus’ phone buzzed into life.
 

“Who is that now?” he said, irritated. “I’ll just turn it off.” But when he looked at the screen he frowned. “Theo? Why would Theo be ringing?”

“Pick it up,” Carla said. “Maybe Angelique has news.”

He did so, putting one earpiece in his ear.
 

“Theo, how’s things?”
 

He handed the other earpiece to Carla and she put it in her ear.

“Hi, Atreus,” Theo said. He didn’t sound his usual jovial self. “I’m not sure if you still want me to represent you, but as I was the last lawyer she knows you dealt with, Serene’s sent me an email through her solicitors.”

Carla’s stomach sank and she saw frustration gather in Atreus’ face.

“What does she want now?” he asked, his voice thick with emotion.

Theo’s voice was apologetic.

“She’s split with Nikolas. She wants to contest for full custody of Dios in a private court. The date has been set for September 1 in London.”

The day before the wedding.

“Okay,” Atreus said to Theo. But everything was far from okay. Still, he repeated, “Okay.”

*****

Chapter 2

“We’ll have to cancel the wedding,” Carla said, feeling like the world was crashing down around her all over again.

“No,” Atreus said decisively. “We’ll get through this and still have the wedding.” He put his hands on either side of her face. “We’ll do this, darling. We will. We can. We must.”

Carla put her hands over her belly. A new baby, a wedding, and a court case all in one year? The baby was due at the end of December. That was to add to the list of engagement and a kidnapping and traveling all over the world. It was certainly the most eventful year of her life thus far, and it was still July.
 

“Okay,” she said slowly, trying to gather her courage. “We must.”

“I know the courts won’t take Dios from us,” said Atreus. “We’ve given him a stable home, much better than Serene ever could. She was the one who walked out on him.”

Carla wished that what he said was true, but she couldn’t help panic from setting in as she watched Dios play in the ball pool.
 

“But courts so often favor the mother.”

She heard the worry in Atreus’ voice.
 

“I wonder why she wants to do this in the UK, not in Greece.”

“Maybe she’s setting up home here,” Carla said.

Atreus took a deep breath and squeezed Carla’s hand.
 

“I know we can get through this. I know we can.” Then he glanced at her with almost a shy look, which surprised her. Atreus was never shy. “When we go to London, would you come to church with me? The Greek Orthodox church?”

Carla had never been particularly religious though she did pray from time to time and had fond memories of Sunday school in the Methodist church her grandparents went to. She’d be glad to find out what a Greek Orthodox church was like.
 

“Sure.”

“That was where we worshipped as a family when we were growing up,” he said. “We’re not as religious as we used to be, but it’s still very important to me.”

“I’d love to go,” she said. “Maybe it can bring us some more strength and courage.”

“And hope,” he said.
 

“Yes.”
 

Carla smiled at him, and he returned it. They both looked at Dios.

“Let’s keep going with our lives as we want them to be,” said Atreus. “We can’t let Serene or anyone else stand in our way. We’ve come too far for that.”

Carla nodded, feeling that same certainty building within her. She looked down at her ring.
 

“Definitely.”

*****

After a little experimentation, they found that Dios loved the slides the best. They were small in the under three area—a row of five plastic slides in different colors, some with dips, some without. His favorite was a blue one which dipped in and out all the way down, giving it the appearance of a wave. He toddled up the steps as fast as his legs could carry him, then sat at the top, launched himself off and cackled madly as he came sliding down.

“Again!” he’d say when he got to the bottom, and would start the cycle all over again.

Carla and Atreus looked on, delighted.

“I just knew he’d love this kind of place,” Carla said.

Atreus put his arm around her.
 

“You sure were right.”

But just below the surface of their joy, there was a worry that buzzed through the very core of them. Neither of them spoke of it, but both of them could recognize it in the other.

Atreus took Carla’s hand when they walked across the parking lot back to the car.
 

“We’ll be okay,” he whispered. “We’ll be okay.”

*****

Carla and Atreus made up their minds that before they relaxed into their new work-free life in the Gardener’s Cottage, they had a few things to wrap up.

The first thing they decided to do was to check up on Cressida, Olivia, and Hugo at the hotel. The kidnapping had been a great shock for all of them and Carla wanted to check that they were all right. Though Atreus had offered them all paid leave and counseling, none of them had taken up his offer. They seemed as motivated to put right the damage done.

“We had a pretty damaging headline in the local rag,” Cressida said, placing the newspaper flat on the reception desk for Carla and Atreus to look at. “But, luckily, they didn’t get the full scoop, otherwise, we might have been on national news. Maybe even international.”

“That’s a relief,” said Carla.
 

She adjusted Dios on her hip. He had fallen asleep in the car and was now curling into her shoulder and drifting in and out of sleep.

“Though most of our customers won’t be coming from the local area, it still might be damaging,” Cressida warned. “So I’m going to ring them up and do some damage control. Perhaps get them to put another article about a special we’re running, or a feature about you,” she nodded at Atreus, “as the owner. Plus, some advertising, of course.”

Atreus grimaced. Carla knew he hated drawing unnecessary attention to himself.
 

“Let’s stick to the advertising for now.”

“No probs,” Cressida said.

“Though not in the local paper, try the Scottish or UK high-end magazines.”

Cressida drew out a list from underneath the desk with a smile.

 
“Exactly who I’m targeting already.”

Carla grinned back.
 

“Looks like you’re right on top of this.”

“I try,” Cressida said. She blushed a little. “Especially, you know, after what happened.”

“You’re still on about that?” Carla teased. She could imagine how horrible it was for her, though, finding out that the man she believed she was falling in love with was a criminal. Well, she had been through the exact same thing with Brian. “Do you know where Olivia is?”

“She’s overseeing the kitchen and wait staff just now,” Cressida said. She glanced at the clock. “They should be beginning afternoon tea any minute now.”