Memories of Santorini, page 23
Though she’d called earlier to make an appointment, her father made her wait ten minutes, because that’s just what her father did. She texted Carter to let him know.
Then Heather, her father’s admin, showed her in.
Naturally, Dad didn’t get up from his desk. He only did that for important clients. “Sienna, it’s so good to see you.” He flicked his gaze over her frame. “You look terribly tanned. That Santorini sun is too hot for human habitation.”
She didn’t want to fight, but she didn’t want a lot of chitchat either. She didn’t engage, saying, “It was a good trip. While I was away, Mom told me.” The name slipped out. Not Mother, not Angela, but Mom. What she’d said wasn’t the full truth, but it wasn’t a lie either. Mom had told her the whole story, even if Tamryn was the one who’d opened Sienna’s eyes.
“Told you what?” he asked, his mouth agape as if he was mystified. Yet his eyes gleamed with an image of the confrontation, and it made him giddy. Now he wanted her to fill in all the dirty details.
“She told me you’re not my natural father.” As she said the words, she found them almost soothing. She didn’t want to think about why right now.
He smiled, still with that satisfied gleam. “I’m glad she finally decided to tell you. I’ve wanted her to for years. You deserved to know, but your mother fought me every step of the way. She was afraid you’d hate her.” He raised one eyebrow. “But I truly hope you don’t.” The eyebrow was his tell. He wanted her to despise her mother.
“It was a shock,” she admitted, then probed him on his latest lie. “But I got the impression you enjoyed holding it over her head.”
He laughed. It didn’t sound natural, as if laughter was a tool rather than an emotion. “Of course she would say that.” His tone was soothing, almost melodic. “She always liked to paint me as the bad guy.”
She wondered if he actually was.
“But I didn’t know the truth when I married her,” he had to add, his voice deepening with affront.
“Would you have married her anyway? If you’d known, I mean.” What Sienna really wanted to ask was whether he’d loved her despite the lack of DNA connecting them, but she was afraid she already knew.
“It would’ve been disingenuous if I knew and married her anyway, don’t you think?” He smiled as if she were a foreigner who didn’t grasp the nuances of a second language.
He didn’t say that she was important to him, that it didn’t make any difference, that she was still his daughter. But this was the man whom she’d thought of as her father all her life, and he’d never been one to reassure her. He’d saved that for Matthew, his real firstborn, his son.
“Well,” he said, still smiling, “that settles the wedding then.”
It wasn’t a question, but she had to ask, “What do you mean?”
That smile. She’d never seen how cutting it was. His laughter had an agenda, his smiles had hidden meanings. And he was moving in for the kill.
“It’s obvious you need to back out of the wedding. After all, you’re not actually related.”
She sat before him, utterly stunned. His words were like a knife she hadn’t seen coming until it slid right between her ribs. Then he turned it, slicing all the way to her heart. “You’re not the baby’s half sister. You’re not even a stepsister.” He raised a brow as if suddenly seeing the truth. “You’re not really family at all.”
She couldn’t take another second. Standing, she said, “Thanks for letting me see you.”
She had seen everything about him that she needed to.
Carter was already leaving the coffee shop as she exited her father’s headquarters. After waiting for a break in traffic, he jaywalked to her.
“Are you okay?”
She was too stunned for words. Or maybe there were just too many words fighting inside her head.
Carter hooked his arm through hers and headed her down the street to a burger bar. “Are you hungry?”
She shook her head, but he settled her into a seat anyway. It was an old-fashioned fifties diner where the waitress slapped menus down on the table, then brought glasses of water, splashing and grumbling as she wiped the mess with a dirty cloth.
As the woman stalked away, Sienna found her voice. “I might throw up if I eat.”
Carter pushed into the same side of the booth and wrapped his arm around her. “You’ll be okay,” he whispered into her hair.
“I don’t think so,” she muttered in barely perceptible words. Then she looked at him. “He’s a monster.” She could feel her eyes wide in her face, and Carter let her go on. “He told me he didn’t want me in the wedding because I’m not family.”
“That’s maniacal.” He pushed the glass of water closer in case she needed it. “Maybe you’re better off being out of it.”
But she was thinking ahead. “I wish there was a way I could stop the wedding. Bron is too sweet and nice for him. He’ll crush her.”
“She’s going to have a baby. Would she really back out now?”
She was silent, ignoring the menu.
When the waitress arrived to find they hadn’t decided, her lips pinched with irritation, and Carter said, “We’ll be ready in a minute.”
Sienna blurted out, “I’ll have a cheeseburger and fries, no onions,” just to get rid of the woman. Carter ordered the same. He could have eaten hers, she thought, but whatever.
“What can I do?” she asked as the woman left to toss the order at the cook. “Should I send Bron a text? Maybe an email? Or I could be old school and send a letter?”
Carter’s arm was still around her, still comforting. “Don’t you want to talk to her?”
She trembled and, in a little girl’s voice, said, “I’m afraid to talk to her.”
He cupped her chin, forced her to look at him. “You’re not afraid of anything. The truth is probably more that you don’t want to be the one to tell her what a scumbag her future husband is. Or maybe you think he can be different with her. Or maybe it’s even that you know a person can’t be told something, that they have to learn for themselves.” He kissed her softly on the lips. “Just like you needed to learn about your father. Your mother could’ve told you long ago what he was like. But would you have believed her?”
He was so right. “Even on the plane, when my mother told me her story, I didn’t think he could be as bad as she said, trying to turn Matthew and me against her, emotionally blackmailing her. I thought she was exaggerating.” Her heart was in her eyes as she looked at Carter. “I didn’t truly understand until he callously told me I’m not family.”
He hugged her then, so tightly she thought he’d never let go. “You do have family. Your mom, your brother, your aunt and uncle and cousins, your grandparents. That man isn’t your only family.”
She drew in a breath, trying to fill herself up again. “He’s always held me at arm’s length, always preferred Matthew. And I’ve always tried to get him to love me. Now I know it’s all because I’m not his daughter.”
“That fact isn’t your fault, and yet he punished not only your mother, but you as well. From the time you were eight years old. You didn’t deserve that. He could say anything he wanted to your mother, but you didn’t deserve it.” He tipped her chin, held her gaze. “And that makes him a monster.”
She saw the truth with powerful clarity. “I always blamed my mother. At times, I barely tolerated her, at others I actively hated her. But I realized that wasn’t good for me, and I thought this trip would be a way to see if we could have some sort of relationship.”
He asked her the important question. “Do you still hate her?”
It took a minute, maybe two or three, but she finally shook her head. “She made a mistake. I wish she hadn’t lied to me. I wish she hadn’t married Donald Walker. But I understand in a way I never did before. She was scared. She didn’t want to face him or her mother. And she certainly didn’t want to tell everyone she was pregnant with another man’s child. I think my ex-father—or my father who never was or whatever the hell he is—I think he would’ve rained holy hell down on her. She would’ve been a pariah. And even though it was the early nineties and not the fifties, it would’ve been really hard on her.”
“Does that mean you forgive her?” His voice was gentle, and yet so loud inside her.
She said, with no preamble or platitudes, “Yes.” She grew stronger, more certain, less afraid. “Yes, I can forgive her.”
Carter wrapped her in his arms, holding her tight. “I love you, Sienna Walker. You’re the strongest woman I’ve ever met.”
She admitted to the emotion she’d never felt for any other man. “I love you, too.”
25
Even though it was eleven at night for Xandros, Angela called him after her lunch with Matthew. “I got home last evening,” she explained. “But I didn’t want to wake you.”
“I don’t care if you wake me. I am glad you’re home. Are you safe?”
His voice was a soothing balm. “I’m safe.” She told him about the daunting conversation with Sienna on the plane, but now at least her daughter knew the truth. “I don’t know what the future holds for any of us, but Matthew surprised me completely today. He’s known for years. And he doesn’t hate me. I’d been envisioning this horrible confrontation, but…” She searched for the right word. “It was just so easy. Too easy. But it was a good start.”
“I am so glad. I had to rearrange a few things, but I have booked a ticket.”
“Have you said anything to your kids yet? About me? And Sienna?”
“I said only that I’ve met a woman, and I am flying out to see her. I will deal with them when I get back. But for me, right now, it is all about you and Sienna.”
She wondered if they were putting off the inevitable blow-up. Or was he right, that his family would deal with it so much more easily than hers? But he was coming to her now, and that was the most important thing.
“I will be there late tomorrow afternoon, and we can handle this together. If you don’t want me to meet Matthew, I understand. If you don’t want me to see Sienna right away, I understand that too. But I will be there for you.”
Tears pricked her eyes, and she blinked them away before they obscured the traffic. “I was going to beg you to come. I never want to be without you again. And I’ll work this out. Even Sienna.” She wasn’t as sure as she sounded.
“I love you.”
His words reached deep inside her, easing her fears about Sienna and boosting the joy she felt over her lunch with Matthew.
“I love you too. But I’ll let you go you. I want you rested for your flight tomorrow. Send me all your info, and I’ll pick you up at the airport.”
“I want to make love to you all night long.”
When he was gone, she called Teresa and told her the entire story, from finding Xandros again, to the week of lovemaking that renewed their feelings, to the ghastly scene with Sienna, and finally the reunion with Matthew.
“I’m so happy for you,” Teresa said. “Especially about Matthew. He’s a good boy.” Angela could almost hear her sister gulp then. “Sienna called me, and she wants to come over for dinner tomorrow.” She stopped, as if she was stalling or trying to figure out the right words. “She wants you to be there because she has something to tell us.”
Angela sucked in a breath. “Good or bad?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. But your daughter isn’t a vindictive person. She wouldn’t invite you to dinner at my house if she was going to ream you a new one, especially not in front of other people. Will you come?”
Angela hoped her sister was right. “Xandros arrives tomorrow afternoon. I’m picking him up at the airport.” She paused. “I want to bring him with me.”
“It’s fine with me. Sienna’s bringing Carter Ellis. She told me all about him. He sounds wonderful. But tell her about Xandros. Let me know what she says.”
They hung up without Angela even describing the holiday. There would be time enough for a trip diary later on.
She bucked up and called Sienna, but her daughter didn’t answer. Rather than freak out and come up with all the worst reasons why Sienna didn’t pick up, she used her Bluetooth to speak a text.
Sienna texted just as Angela pulled into her driveway, and the tinny voice read aloud, “It’s good that Xandros is here. We have to talk and get this out. Carter’s coming with me.”
There were no emojis and no tone of voice to gauge her daughter’s words. Angela didn’t know what to think, but neither would she work herself into a frenzy. She wanted to believe what Teresa said, that if it was a bad thing, Sienna wouldn’t hold a dinner meeting.
The thought gave her strength.
Angela saw him on the arrivals monitor, tall, strong, handsome.
When he exited the customs area, she ran to him. Dropping his carry-on with a thud, he gathered in his arms, holding her before setting her back on her feet and kissing her until she was breathless.
“I’ve missed you,” he whispered. His eyes seemed bright with tears.
She stroked his chin, his skin smooth and his mustache trimmed, as if he’d shaved before the plane landed. People flowed around them, shouting with joy, hugging relatives heartily.
But for her, there was only Xandros. “I love you. I always have, I always will.”
“And I love you.” He picked up his bag, then wrapped her beneath his arm. “Take me home. I need to make love to you. Now.”
She laughed. “I like the way you say home.”
“Anywhere you are is my home.”
She stopped him in the middle of the arrivals hall to kiss him soundly.
Walking swiftly to the parking garage, her arm around his waist, his around her shoulders, she knew they’d never let go of each other again. But first there was Sienna.
“My sister Teresa invited us for dinner. And as much as I want you to make love to me now, we need this dinner.”
He looked down at her. “Is it an intervention?”
She laughed at his Americanism. “I don’t know what it is. But Sienna called it, and she’s bringing Carter. I texted her to say you’d be coming too, and she said that was fine.”
“Fine?” he murmured, his brow knit.
“That’s the best we’re going to get. But, as my sister said, if Sienna was going to ream me a new one—” She looked up to see if Xandros got the euphemism. And he did. “—she wouldn’t do it in front of everyone. So I’ve got high hopes.”
He hugged her against him. “Then I have high hopes too.”
As she kicked her foot under the SUV to open the hatch, Xandros said, “No matter what happens with our daughter, we will always have each other. No matter what she says, no matter what anyone says, your family or mine, no one will tear us apart again.”
He threw his bag in the back, punched the button to close the lid, and gathered her into his arms. “You never have to be afraid again. You have me.”
“And you have me.”
They sealed the vow with the tenderest of kisses.
They stood on her sister’s front porch, Angelika’s hand in his, his heart in her palm.
Then she rang the bell.
He was so in love that he’d do anything for her. And yet a fist had closed around his heart that he couldn’t tell her about. He wanted his daughter to love him, but if she couldn’t, he wouldn’t be able to bear the rift that would grow between him and Angelika.
Reality hadn’t hit him this hard on his home earth of Santorini. They’d been keeping it a secret from Sienna, and everything had been about not letting her know until the time was right. He hadn’t even begun to feel what it was like to have another daughter, a child he’d made so long ago with Angelika, a girl he hadn’t known existed.
And now, he would finally face his daughter when she knew exactly who he was. It felt so much more momentous than the evening in Oia when he’d seen her for the first time and instinctively knew the truth.
His family was entirely different. He didn’t believe his kids would have any big issues. They had their own lives, their own dreams, their own families.
But Sienna’s world had blown apart, her identity stripped from her. He wanted to make this as easy as possible, though he didn’t know how. And he didn’t want Angelika to feel his trepidation. For her, he wanted to be strong, with no doubts.
Then there wasn’t a chance to back out or rethink as the big front door opened wide.
Teresa, the sister, was a duplicate of his beautiful Angelika, but her smile was broader, her eyes holding a less darkness, as if her life had been far happier.
He wanted that look for Angelika. Perhaps someday she would have it.
Teresa opened her arms wide. At first, he thought it was for her sister, but then she enveloped him, the unexpected action stealing his breath.
When she said, “I’m so glad to finally meet you,” he felt a tremor inside for this warm welcome. He wished he’d known Teresa all these years. He felt in his belly that she would be good family.
Then she led them both into the living room, introducing her husband, William, a stocky, balding man with a smile as big as his wife’s.
Carter Ellis stood tall beside Sienna, but Xandros had eyes only for his daughter. He hadn’t let himself brood on her. In fact, he’d distanced himself, unwilling to contemplate the pain of her rejection. Now he would face it head on.
She was so beautiful, so like Juliana, like Thea too. And he opened his heart fully to her, his skin tingling and his palms clammy as Angelika puts her hand in his.
Just when he was about to speak, Sienna said flatly, “I know you’re my father.”
Angelika nodded. “Yes, he is.”
Xandros forced himself to say, “I know it is a shock.”
Sienna sat with a plop on the sofa. “The shock is that the man I thought was my father told me there’s no reason I should be in the bridal party at his wedding since I’m not any relation to the baby Bron is carrying.”
