A Reputation For Revenge(74)

Anna felt dowdy in comparison, wearing the same T-shirt and jeans from last night, with a sweater tied around her waist. Her hair, which hadn’t been washed or combed since yesterday, was pulled back in a ponytail. She’d been afraid to leave her baby alone on the plane, even for the few minutes it would have taken to shower.

Next to Lindsey, Anna felt a million years old, worn out from running away, working odd jobs, trying to get by, raising her child. Lindsey was fresh and young, glossy and free. No wonder Nikos preferred her. The thought stung, even though she told herself that it didn’t hurt.

“I don’t care if he hates me.” Anna nervously twisted her great-grandmother’s wedding ring around her finger, fiddling with its bent-back tines and empty setting. She couldn’t let Lindsey know how vulnerable she felt on the inside, how scared she was that the younger woman would soon take everything Anna cared about. She already had Nikos and her job. Would Misha be next?

Lindsey lifted a perfectly groomed eyebrow in disbelief. “You really think you’ve gotten away with it, don’t you? You actually think Nikos will take you back.”

Anna smoothed back a tuft of Misha’s dark hair. “I don’t want to be taken back. I’m here for my son. Nikos can rot in hell for all I care.”

The girl gave Misha a crocodile smile that made Anna’s skin crawl. “Yeah, right. As if anyone would believe that.” Her perfectly made-up eyes narrowed. “But Nikos doesn’t want you. He’s got me now, and I keep him very satisfied, trust me. We’ll be getting married soon.”

Anna couldn’t keep herself from glancing at Lindsey’s left hand. It was bare. Remembering Nikos’s wandering eye when she’d been just his secretary, Anna almost felt sorry for the girl. “Has he proposed?”

“No, but he—”

“Then you’re kidding yourself,” she said. “He’ll never propose to you or anyone else. He’s not the marrying kind.”

Grinding her white teeth, Lindsey stopped in the hallway, and grabbed Anna’s wrist. Her long acrylic nails bit into Anna’s skin.

“Listen to me, you little bitch,” Lindsey said softly. “Nikos is mine. Don’t think for a second you can come back with your little brat and—”

Nikos spoke from behind her. “This is cozy. Catching up on office gossip?”

Lindsey whirled around, spots of hot color on her cheeks. “We...uh, that is...”

Anna hid a smile. But her pleasure at the blonde’s discomfiture was short-lived as Nikos turned to her, reaching for the diaper bag on her shoulder.

“I need this.”

“What? Why?” Anna stammered. The diaper bag held her whole life. Bought at a secondhand shop, it was overflowing with documents, diapers, wipes and snacks. It was the one item that Anna had taken with her everywhere since Misha’s birth.

“For my son.” As he took the bag, he brushed her shoulder carelessly with his hand. An electric shock reverberated across her body. For a single second it stopped her heart.

Then she realized that Nikos was taking Misha away from her.

And handing both bag and baby to her replacement.

“No!” Anna cried out, shaking herself out of her stupor. “Not to her!”

Nikos stared straight back at her, as if he were marking her over the barrel of a gun. “Good. Fight me. Give me a reason to throw you out of my house. I’m begging you.”

Anna opened her mouth. And closed it.

“I thought so.” He turned back to Lindsey. “Take my son to the nursery. I’ll follow in a moment.”

She tossed Anna a look of venomous triumph. “With pleasure.”

As they passed him, Nikos kissed the baby on the forehead. “Welcome home, my son,” he said tenderly.

Anna watched as Lindsey disappeared down the hall toward the nursery. She could see her baby’s sweet little head bobble dangerously with every swaying step and clackety-clack of the girl’s four-inch heels against the marble floor. She wondered if Nikos had destroyed all of Natalie’s hand-painted murals and her own carefully chosen antique baby furniture. He probably ordered Lindsey to redecorate the nursery from a catalog, she thought, and her heart broke a little more.

As much as she’d hated being on the run, this was worse. Here, every hallway, every corner, held a memory of the past. Even looking at Nikos was a cruel reminder of the man she’d once thought him to be, the man she’d respected, the man she’d loved. That was the cruelest trick of all.

“You don’t like Lindsey, do you?” Nikos said, watching her.