The Billion-Dollar Marriage Contract(47)
She was snapped out of her thoughts when Anna handed her another wooden case for her to stack on the shelves.
“I’m just curious, you know. He wants to apologize but he’s never been here and it’s been a month. If it was me, I’d have come here in the flesh.”
“He’s busy. There are a lot of things that have been going on with the company. There’s this deal that’s been falling apart and then he had to handle the media after our kidnapping.”
“Why are you even defending him?” Anna glared at her.
Cassia shrugged, “I’m not. I’m just stating facts.”
The doorbell rang again.
“I’ll get it,” Anna said as she ran towards the door.
Cassia finished placing the boxes back on the shelves and dusted her hands. She was so tired and she just wanted to return home and buy herself take-out dinner.
“Err...Cassia, speaking of the devil.”
“What?” Cassia grabbed her purse and followed her friend to the front of the shop. There, she saw Anna glaring at Nikos.
Her breath caught in her throat as she saw him in the flesh. He was still as handsome as ever. He wore a finely-tailored gray suit and was holding another bouquet of flowers in front of him. This was the biggest and most elaborate one yet.
“What are you doing here?” Cassia spat.
“I came to see you. I would’ve come sooner but there were a lot of things I had to do.”
He handed her the bouquet of roses and Anna took it from her.
“Okay. You saw her. Now you can go.”
Anna shooed Nikos away and the two glared at each other.
“I was hoping we could talk.”
“There’s nothing for us to talk about, Nikos.”
“There’s a lot for us to talk about. Hear me out, Cassia. Please?”
“No.”
Cassia grabbed Anna’s purse from the table near the register and handed it to her. She tugged her friend outside the door and both of them locked-up the shop as quickly as they could.
“Let’s go.”
She grabbed Anna’s hand and went to the other side of the street where her car was parked.
Suddenly, she was lifted off her feet and carried over Nikos’ shoulder.
“Put me down you brute!” she shrieked.
“Hey!” Anna shouted.
The people in the vicinity all turned to look at them with curiosity. Some looked at Nikos warily.
Nikos smiled that charming smile of his at everyone who turned to look. “Just settling a domestic dispute with my wife. She’s being stubborn,” he told them. The others turned away and continued what they were doing.
“Miss, is this man really your husband?” one man shouted. Nikos heard the man’s companion order him to call the cops.
“No need! He’s my husband. Unfortunately.”
Some laughed. The man and his companion turned and walked away. When no one else paid attention, Cassia pinched Nikos’ arm.
“Put me down now! You’re causing a scene!”
“Ochi.I’m kidnapping you so we can talk and you can’t do anything about it,” Nikos told her as he brought her to his car.
He nodded to his bodyguards and they opened the door. Their faces remained completely blank to what Nikos was doing. One of them even held Anna back.
“We’re going to talk, you and I. And you can’t run away this time. I refuse to have another misunderstanding keep us apart.”
He gently placed her inside the car and climbed in after her.
She tried to get out but the doors were immediately locked and only the driver could unlock them.
“Let me out of here!” she screeched.
“My hotel. Drive,” Nikos told the driver who quickly sped off.
December 23, 2013
Nostos Hotel
New York City
Nikos dumped Cassia on the bed and sat beside her.
He pinned her arms by her sides so she couldn’t escape and looked straight into her hazel eyes.
“What’s the matter with you?” he hissed.
“Me? It’s you who kidnapped me here!”
“I mean what happened to you? I thought that we were okay back on the island and then you suddenly disappear on me! You didn’t reply to any of my letters or emails and did not answer any of my calls.”
“Well, I thought that since you already have Marietta with you, you have everything you need.”
Nikos stiffened and then he sighed. He finally realized what was going on here. Alex was right.
“That day back at the docks...it was nothing. Alex told me she wanted to come see for herself that I was fine. She thinks we’re still together but we’ve broken up a long time ago. She keeps on thinking there’s still something else between us. There’s nothing, Cassia.”
“Lies! From the looks of that, she’s still your mistress—“
“After I was kidnapped, I didn’t sleep with anyone for two years!” he cut her off.
Nikos took several deep breaths to calm himself. He stood up and faced away from her.
“I told you I am a broken man, Cassia. I’ve never even slept peacefully after I was kidnapped. I can’t because every time I close my eyes, I am drowned by nightmares. I haven’t been with anyone else because I can’t trust them to look at my scars...I can’t trust them enough to fall asleep and let them hear what torments me. If you want, I can contact all the doctors I’ve seen and ask for my medical records.”
“N-no...” She remembered waking him up from his nightmares well enough.
“I just want you to know I have wanted to come here since the day you left me at the hospital. They asked me to stay for three more days before they cleared me for discharge. Then there was the media frenzy because of our kidnapping. Then I had to fix the Higeshimadeal.”
“I am aware what happened with that and I am happy that it pulled through.”
“Ne. But it took me almost a month before I could come here. So I sent you flowers and letters in my stead.”
Cassia scoffed, “Your assistant did, you mean?”
“No. I remembered what you told me when we were in that island. This time, it was me who chose all of that.”
Her jaw dropped.
“Y-you did?”
Nikos nodded.
“I am serious about wanting another shot at our marriage, Cassia.”
For the first time tonight, she was speechless.
“I am never letting you go. You are going back to Greece with me.”
Her ire came back in a snap just like that. “What?!”
Nikos just raised an eyebrow for he was sure she perfectly heard him.
“We are not going back to Greece! It was a disaster last time! And I could not leave my shop just like that!”
“It’s final, Cassia. We are going to Greece. I hired more security this time. We are going to Athens by plane and then we are going to take a helicopter to go to my island. I am not taking any chances with our safety now.”
“We’ve had this argument before, Nikos. I have a life here. I can’t just take off on a whim.”
“You can. And does that life still include Hector Petrides?” he snarled.
Cassia lifted her chin.
“I heard he was hiding from the drug cartel. Alex told me he lost an entire shipment worth about a billion dollars. There’s no going back from that Cassia. Either he finds the shipment or he’s a dead man. He’ll never be with you. Have you spoken to him in the last few days?”
That struck something deep inside of her. Hector hadn’t talked to her for more than a month already. During that time, over and over, she had thought about their relationship. They were great friends but they never really had much when it came to a romantic relationship.
Hector was never there.
When he was, he was busy and preoccupied. He was never open to her and she lately found out about the dark secrets he harbored - secrets which nearly cost her life.
How were they going to have the family she wished for when he was never going to be free of a drug cartel?
They never released their people. Once you were in, you were in for life.
She glanced down at the ring she wore. She slid it off her finger and placed it in her bag. She was waiting for Hector to talk to her so they could end their relationship. Once she spoke with him face to face, she would be returning his ring.
They were really better off as friends; they would never work as lovers. She had to talk to him and end it all before it got even more complicated. It wasn’t something easy and it hurt, for he’d been there for her for the longest time.
But it had to be done.
“He’s not in my life anymore,” she whispered.
“Good. It will never work between the two of you,” Nikos said as he knelt in front of her and took her hand.
“And you think it will work out between us, Nikos?”
“I know it would. I’ll do everything,” he vowed.
“This is all going so fast. Can’t you give me some time to think about it instead of forcing me to Greece?”
“I can’t. I’ve waited for a month already,” he groaned.
She sighed.
“Then at least give me tonight, I have a night out with my friends. I’ll take as many bodyguards as you want. Just let me go.”
“Tell me where you’ll go and I’ll drop you there and pick you up myself. And you must always be within the line of sight of your bodyguards.”
She nodded but sighed and rolled her eyes, “Fair enough.”
“So what time are you supposed to be there?”