The Greek's Long-Lost Son. Rebecca Winters

flowed through her body, driving her to get to her feet. She clung to the chair back while she waited for her head to stop reeling.

      “Drink this.” Iola handed her a glass of water.

      It tasted good and she drank the whole thing. “Thank you.”

      “Theo Pantheras has obviously been stalking you. That is not good. You must call Stasio at once.”

      “No,” she countered in a quiet voice. “That’s the one thing I won’t do. I have Ari to think about. This is something I intend to handle myself.”

      Since her parents’ deaths, Stella had relied on her brother for everything. It had almost ruined his life in the process, but she wasn’t a helpless teenager anymore. She’d grown into a twenty-four-year-old woman with a responsible position in the company, who’d been raising her son for the last six years.

      Stasio had done more for her and her son than any human could expect of another. Her love for her brother bordered on worship. The only way to repay him in some small way was to leave him out of this. He had a wife and children he doted on, and Rachel was expecting for a third time. Stella wasn’t about to impose her problems on him or his family. Never again.

      She stared at Iola. “Not one word of this to anyone, especially not Nikos or Stasio. It will be our secret. You understand?”

      The older woman nodded, but she said another prayer under her breath.

      With no time to lose, Stella went upstairs for her purse. While there she phoned Dax’s mother and told her she was coming to collect Ari. After telling Iola where she was going, she put the letter in her purse, then left the villa and drove to Dax’s house.

      As soon as Ari saw her, he ran down the steps of the front porch carrying his backpack and got into the car. She gave him a kiss on the cheek. “How was your last day of school?”

      “Okay. We had to bring all our pictures and stuff home. Can we fly to Palaiopolis tonight?” It was the village on Andros where Stasio lived.

      “No, honey. I’m planning to drive us tomorrow morning. I’d like my own car while we’re on vacation.”

      “Hooray! I love our new car.”

      She chuckled. “So do I.”

      “Stasi says I’ll be able to drive a car like this one day.”

      “Not for years yet, honey.”

      Whatever Stasio said, that was it. Long ago, when Stasio had told Stella he’d help her raise Ari, Nikos had warned Stella that Ari would always look to Stasio as his father. No other man could hope to compete. Nikos had told Stella that she should put her son up for adoption so he could have a normal life with a mother and father, but Stella wouldn’t hear of it. Ari was her life! Since Theo had opted out of all responsibility, a boy could pray to have a surrogate father like Stasio.

      While they waited for an old man to cross the street in front of them she glanced at her son. For six years she’d purposely concentrated on his Athas traits, but since receiving the letter from Theo, she was forced to take a second look at him.

      Like Stasio, Ari was tall for his age with brown-black hair. He had Nikos’s beautiful olive skin and her smile. But if she were honest with herself, his jet-black eyes, the musculature of his lean body, the shape of his hairline with its widow’s peak belonged to Theo.

      Pain stabbed her heart. Ari was the most adorable six-year-old in the entire world. Theo had no idea what he’d given up when he’d turned his back on the two of them. Why in heaven’s name would he be interested in his child now? It didn’t make sense.

      She moved on. The breeze played with Ari’s overly long hair. It had a tendency to curl at the tips, like Theo’s…. Sometimes he held his head at an angle while he was looking at something with intensity, and again he reminded her of the man she’d once loved so completely she’d thought she couldn’t live without him.

      But that man who’d shown her so much love and had made her feel immortal had disappeared from her life. After realizing he was never coming back, she’d thought she was in the middle of a nightmare and would wake up. To her horror, she discovered she’d been awake the whole time. Welcome to the new reality of her life.

      Remembered pain still had the power to shake her. She glanced at Ari. “Are you hungry?”

      “No. Dax’s mom fed us. Do you think Dax could come to Andros for part of our vacation?”

      Any other time she would have said yes without thinking about it, but her entire world had been turned upside down this afternoon. She dreaded broaching the subject of his father with Ari, but if she put it off she would become more frantic than she already was. Then he’d know something was terribly wrong.

      Ari had a very intuitive nature. Since she’d always been honest with him, she couldn’t be any different now. When they pulled around the back of the villa, she didn’t immediately get out of the car.

      “Ari—before we go inside, there’s something I have to tell you.”

      He looked upset. “Is it about Dax? You don’t like him, huh.”

      She blinked. “Where did you ever get that idea? He’s my favorite friend of yours.”

      “Because you wouldn’t let him come with us to Andros last year, either.”

      Stella let out an anxious sigh. “That wasn’t the reason. Dax’s parents had other plans for him, remember? They took him to Disneyland. It was a surprise. That’s why he couldn’t come with us.”

      “Then how come you haven’t said he can come with us this time?” He continued to look at her with those penetrating black eyes while he waited for an answer. Sometimes he could be very adult for his age. It always caught her off guard, probably because he reminded her of the Theo she had once known.

      At sixteen Stella had been so shy and unsure of herself, yet he’d been tender and patient with her and he’d slowly built her confidence. When Nikos had been mean to her and made fun of her and her friends, Stella had turned to Theo, whose love and acceptance had made all the hurts go away.

      Where had that man gone? After he’d disappeared from her life, she’d wanted to die.

      Clearing her throat she turned to Ari and said, “Do you remember when you asked me if I knew where your father lived and I said no?”

      All of a sudden she felt Ari go quiet. He nodded.

      “It was the truth. I didn’t know anything about him. When I asked why you wanted to know, you said there was no reason, but I knew that wasn’t true.”

      He didn’t move a muscle.

      “I…I’m afraid I haven’t made it easy for you to talk about your father,” she stammered.

      “Stasi said he hurt you so much you got sick.”

      “He was right. You see, my mommy died before you were born. Then your father went away and I never saw him again. I was so sad I fell apart for a while.”

      To make the pain even more unbearable, Nikos had been cruel and impossible to live with back then, always siding with their father that Theo came from the wrong kind of people with no background or class and no money. A marriage between them was unthinkable. She should be thankful he was out of her life.

      Sensing how traumatic the situation was, how fragile her feelings were, Stasio had taken Stella to New York to have her baby. Six months later their father had suffered a fatal heart attack. After his funeral she and Ari had stayed in New York for the next four years. With Stasio there doing business half of every month, it had worked out well for all of them, and Stella had been able to get her college degree.

      Thankfully at the time, Nikos went back and forth from Athens to the family’s condo in Chamonix where he skied. She rarely saw him. That was a plus.

      “Because of your uncle Stasio’s