A Deal with Demakis(60)
“But it was not his right. It was mine. I had already slogged for a decade with little notice or returns for it. I realized following Savas’s rigid instructions wasn’t going to get me anything but the bare minimums. It was time to make him take notice of me.”
“What did you do?”
“Are you sure you want to hear this, Lexi?”
Say no, walk away. “Yes.”
“I went digging and discovered Spyros, beneath his perfect exterior, had a little secret. He had a wife hidden away that no one knew about, and he was struggling to get out of his engagement to one of Savas’s oldest friend’s granddaughters. I arranged for his wife to come to his engagement party. And despite Spyros’s pleas asking for forgiveness, Savas kicked him off the board.”
The quiet, matter-of-fact tone in his words only amplified the chill they caused. “You knew what your grandfather would do.”
His gaze narrowed into an unflinching hardness, Nikos stared at her. “Everyone knew what he would do, including Spyros. He had made his choice. I just hurried along the consequences.”
“I don’t get it. It’s not like you don’t have money of your own.” She pushed off from the wall, and walked the perimeter of the pool. “That yacht, the private jet, this new real-estate deal you have with Nathan Ramirez...you have nothing to want.
“Why is becoming the CEO so important to you, Nikos?”
He gave her a long look that said he wasn’t dignifying her question with an answer. “It just is.”
“Why can’t you be happy with what you have? Why let your grandfather push you into anything?”
“Savas didn’t push me into anything. I started on this path with one goal in sight. The moment I walked in through those electronic gates, clutching my sister to me, the poor little bastard that everyone pitied, I made a promise to myself. That I would do everything I can to become the master of it all. Do you realize what odds I have surmounted to get to this stage? I started with nothing, Lexi. And I won’t settle for everything that he walked away from, until I’m everything he was not.”
“Until you’re everything he...” Her heart sinking to her shoes, Lexi finally realized who he meant. The bitterness in his words, it was only a superficial cover on a deeper cut. “Your father? Nikos, what he did was awful, but you have to forgive him. He may have started this, but it’s your grandfather that brought you to his point. With every little thing you tell me about your grandfather, have you never wondered why your father might have turned his back on all this?”
“I don’t care why he did it. Even before he died, we never had anything. He struggled in that garage, he barely provided for us and he stood by like a useless fool while my mother’s health degraded and she eventually died. All he had needed was to call Savas, ask for help.”
That garage, those cars, didn’t he realize why it comforted him so much? “Do you believe Savas would have helped him? Without conditions? Would he have welcomed your father with open arms without a price?”
Not even a little of his anger waned. “Any price would have been worth it. It was his duty to look after her, to take care of Venetia. He not only failed in that, he then went and killed himself, breaking Venetia forever.”
“And you.”
Nikos shook his head, despising the glimpse of pity in her eyes. “He taught me a very valuable lesson early on. Love is a luxury only fools want and can afford.”