She ground to a halt, her breath rushing in and out. Sakis glanced from her face to the phone he’d taken from his pocket.
Belatedly, she realised it was her phone. ‘What are you still doing with that? I thought you were going to turn it over to the authorities.’ Her voice trembled but she raised her chin and glared at him.
‘Not after I saw what was on it.’
‘What...what did you see?’
He walked slowly towards her, contrition and desperation in his eyes as he held the screen in front of her face.
‘I saw this.’ The shaken reverence in his voice sent an electrified current through her. Almost fearing to, she glanced down.
You can go rot in hell, Greg. You once tricked me into taking the fall for something you did. And now you want me to betray the man I love? No chance.
She looked up from the screen, her heart hammering against her ribs. ‘So what? You shouldn’t believe everything you read. For all you know, I could’ve sent that text just to throw you off the scent.’
He glanced down at the screen again and stared at the words as if imprinting them on his brain for all time. ‘Then why did you warn me about him?’
She shrugged.
‘Brianna, Greg confessed that he coerced you into signing the papers he used to divert funds into his offshore account.’
Shock ricocheted through her body. ‘He came clean? Why?’
‘He’s facing charges in three countries for bribing Lowell to crash the tanker. I told him I would delay the Greek charges if he gave me any useful information. He gave up the dates, figures and codes to his Cayman Islands accounts and confessed he tricked you into helping him siphon off the money.’
The handbag she clutched slipped from her fingers. ‘So...you believe me?’
Pain washed over his face. ‘Wasting time feeling sorry for myself gave Landers time to spill your real identity to the tabloids. But I shouldn’t have doubted you in the first place.’
‘I don’t really care that everyone knows who I was. And, given the overwhelming evidence, you would’ve been a saint not to doubt me.’
He flung the phone away and stalked to where she stood. He started to reach for her then clasped both hands behind his nape. ‘Then I should damn well have applied for sainthood. What he did to you...what I did...Theos, I’m even surprised you agreed to come here with me.’
‘I was heading here anyway,’ she confessed.
Surprise flared in his eyes, along with hope. ‘You were?’
‘Don’t flatter yourself, Sakis. I wasn’t on my way to beg you for my life back, if that’s what you think. I was coming to clear my desk, or ask security to clear it for me if I was still barred from entering these hallowed grounds.’
‘You’re not barred. You’ll never be barred, Brianna.’
‘You don’t have to call me that. You know who I am now.’
The hard shake of his head made a lock of hair fall over his eyes. ‘You’ll always be Brianna to me. She was the woman I fell in love with. The woman who possesses more strength and integrity in her little finger than anyone else I know. The woman I stupidly discarded before I got the chance to tell her how much I love her and treasure her.’