Kassandra huffed a mirthless chuckle. “And that’s me?”
Selene’s gaze softened and hardened at once. “You don’t call for the big guns—who clearly didn’t fire a shot—then answer our messages with more vagueness, and expect us to sit back and wait.”
Kassandra squeezed her friend’s hand fondly. “Vagueness is an achievement in my situation, since I’m as in the dark as any of you. Your men left this office promising me they’d leash Leonid away from me and the girls. Then each called me to cajole me into giving him a full and fair chance.”
“A chance at what exactly?” Caliope sat forward, reaching for Kassandra’s other hand, her smooth brow furrowing. “This is the part no one is clear on.”
“At being the girls’ father.”
“Is that all he wants a chance at?” Naomi probed.
“Yes.”
“You mean he didn’t...?”
“Didn’t ask for a second chance with me? No. According to him, he never wanted a first one.”
“He said that?” Selene’s gaze hardened to granite.
Knowing she was sealing Leonid’s coffin where her friends were concerned, Kassandra sighed. “What amounted to that. When he was breaking it off, he made it clear he considered our liaison only sexual entertainment and he’d had enough long before he told me to get the hell away from him when I failed to take a hint.”
Caliope, the softest heart among them, piped up. “He was at his worst when he said that. It could have been his frustration and anger at the whole world talking.”
Exactly what Kassandra had thought at first. She shrugged. “He disappeared for over two years. Too long to be at your worst.”
“Maybe he realized the gravity of his mistake,” Naomi offered, her newest bestie, the one clearly trying to keep emotions out of the equation. “But didn’t know how to fix it.”
“You mean he stayed away because he couldn’t face me?” Kassandra huffed. “This is a man who has faced tens of thousands of people on the athletic field, the rest of the world when he was in the rabid spotlight of the media, not to mention the sharks of business he wrestled under the table on a regular basis. He squared off with your unstoppable predators and turned them into purring pussycats.”
Selene exhaled heavily. “This last bit is something we’re all beyond perplexed about. We thought only us and the kids could do this to our Triumvirate.”
Kassandra gave a there-you-go gesture. “Since you know your endless power over your men, you can measure Leonid’s.”
Caliope’s eyes shone. “Maybe that’s your answer, since when it comes to us, our men’s rules are inverted. Maybe it’s the same with Leonid. The man who can make the world heel could be powerless when it comes to you.”
That was the last straw. She had to put a stop to her friends’ efforts to give her hope that her story could end as happily as theirs.
Sitting forward, she let any lightness she’d painted on drain from her face. “Okay, let me make one thing clear. My situation with Leonid is nothing like yours with your men. Those men were more than ninety percent in love with you when each left you or let you go or did whatever they did. Leonid never felt a thing for me, and he’d been itching to move on. He would have done so without the accident, but it gave him the opportunity to do it abruptly.” And viciously. She’d never been able to bring herself to tell them just how viciously. “Now he’s only back for the girls. He made this far more than clear.”
Echoes of her hard tone and words rang in the silence that stretched afterward. A myriad of emotions streaked across the women’s faces, each according to her character and relationship with Kassandra. What they shared seemed to be mortification, empathy...and fury.
Selene was first to gather her wits enough to ask another question. “Are you even considering giving him that chance?”
“Since I don’t have a way of keeping him away, and since my reasons for wanting to do so no longer apply, I don’t have the choice not to.”
“So you’re feeling forced into it.” Naomi chewed her lip thoughtfully. “Would you have considered his return and his demand more favorably if he was back for you, too?”
“No.” Kassandra paused, then had to add, “Not at first.”
And that told them everything. That after everything he’d put her through, she still wanted him. That after her initial anger and rejection, her buried emotions had resurfaced, and she now wished he wanted her, too. Which he didn’t.
Clearly realizing all that, anger set Selene’s exquisite features on fire. “I don’t care how he got Aris and the others on his side, I’ll make them wipe him off the face of the earth. And if they don’t, we three can still do a lot of damage on our own.”
Caliope nodded. “You know we would do anything for you.”
“Even if it means standing against your husbands?”
The three women’s exclamations were simultaneous.
“Just say the word.”
“Without hesitation.”
“Hell, yeah.”
Kassandra’s eyes stung, a smile shaking her lips. “And I love you, too. But that won’t be necessary. Everything changed, literally overnight. He came to visit the girls last night. And no matter what I feel, how he was with them, how they were with him, makes him deserve that full and fair chance he’s convinced your men he should get.”
“That man crushed your heart,” Selene ground out. “And I have a feeling if he invades your life again to be with the girls, he’ll hurt you again.”
Kassandra sighed. “And I can’t do anything about it. It’s not his or the girls’ fault he feels nothing for me.”
Caliope threw her hands up in the air. “You should have moved on when you got the chance. All those chances. There were at least three men who could have been perfect for you! And they’re all still waiting for your slightest signal.”
“Could any of you have moved on when you were estranged from your own member of the Triumvirate?” The three women winced, lips twisting in concession. “Exactly. Same here.”
“But if you know nothing would come out of it because you’re feeling this way about the wrong man...”
“The problem is he isn’t the wrong man,” Kassandra said, interrupting Naomi. “Apart from his treatment of me and his lack of feelings for me, he remains everything I admire in a man. And though I hate it and wish it wasn’t so, the fact remains that no one withstands the comparison to him in my eyes.”
“But you can’t just resign yourself to being miserable like this!” Selene exclaimed, her face reddening.
“As long as Eva and Zoya are happy, it’s a price I have to pay. You would pay the same price and more for your kids.”
“How do you know he’ll make them happy?” Selene countered.
“Surely you can’t tell from one meeting!” Calliope added.
Kassandra sighed. “Regretfully for me, and fortunately for them, I can. You have to see them together to understand.”
Selene wouldn’t give up that easily. “What if, once the novelty wears off, he becomes the son of a bitch he was with you with them?”
Kassandra set her teeth. “If he even breathes wrong around them, I’ll rip out his jugular.”
“That’s our Kassandra!” Selene’s approval was ferocious.
Caliope’s face fell. “So the only thing that can make you hate him is if there’s a hint of mistreatment or neglect toward Eva and Zoya. Which you don’t seem to think would happen.”
Naomi was as crestfallen. “And we can’t even wish it.”
“Can’t we?” Selene growled protectively. “They wouldn’t lose anything if he exited their lives as he entered it. They were perfectly fine without him after all.”
“They were.” Kassandra exhaled heavily. “But with him in their lives, they could be far more than fine. You really have to—”
“See them together to understand?” Caliope sighed. “Not really. If his effect on the girls is anything like Maksim’s effect on our children, I know exactly what you’re talking about.”
Selene looked more horrified by the second. “So you’re stuck with him? You have to suffer forever and we have to watch it and be unable to do anything about it?”
Wanting to alleviate her friend’s distress on her behalf and end this debate once and for all, Kassandra decided to placate them. “Who knows? Maybe I’m just experiencing echoes of what I once felt for him, and being around him again will show me I’ve blown everything out of proportion, allowing me to move on at last. Maybe this will turn out to be a blessing in disguise after all.”
The three women looked at her, then exchanged a look among themselves before finally nodding. It was evident they hoped so with all their hearts. But even though they let her change the subject, she knew they didn’t believe this was even in the realm of possibility.
Not for a second.
At last, Selene rose to her feet, prompting the others to do so, too. As Kassandra followed suit, Selene waddled toward her, holding out both hands to pull her into a tight hug. At least as tight as her burgeoning belly allowed.