Page 80 of A Diamond Deal
‘I already understand it,’ he said. ‘You were never put first as a child. So you put the baby first without hesitation.’
‘I did,’ she agreed. ‘I put my needs before our marriage. Before…you.I did what had been done to me for my entire childhood by my father. What had been done to you for the entirety of yours. I putyousecond.’
‘I’m not unaccustomed to the position,’ he admitted because too closely did she strokethathurt inside him. An old pain now. But still it ached. Deep in his bones.
‘It shouldn’t have been that way for us.’
‘But it was,’ he reminded her. ‘It was the only waywecould be. The only wayIcould be.’
He needed his hand back. He needed to step back. Because oh, so close was she to knowing. Understanding all those things he’d never explained to anyone. Why he worked so hard to be number one. Why he was never second place in anything he did.
‘Is that why you never wanted children?’ she asked, digging, probing into parts of himself he didn’t want to go. ‘Because you never wanted them to come second best to business?’
‘Exactly,’ he answered truthfully. What was the point in denying it when she already knew? But still she pressed.
‘That’s why you hated him? The real reason you never took over your father’s company? Why you made a rival business—became number one in the industry? You did it to be number one?’
‘I did it forher.’ His lips curled into something ugly. ‘I did it to prove it didn’t have to be like it was for my mother. No one had to be second best to business.No one.Not employees. Staff. Everyone could be treated fairly.Equally.No one had to be left behind. No one had to be alone. Like she was. My father left her to suffer. He locked her away from the public. He left me to look after her, and I…couldn’t.’
He was breathless. His heart pumped as if he’d been in a ring with a boxer. Never had he confessed it. Never had he let anyone see why he had to be the man he was. Number one. Kind. Fair.Loyal.But he had told her.
‘I’m so sorry I left you behind, too,’ she said, and her apology stroked something inside him. Lifted it.
No one had apologised for leaving him behind. But she was. She was doing this because she thought he needed it. He couldn’t let himself need it. Words, they meant nothing.
She was still leaving him. A few more months, and it would be over between them as if it had never happened.
A mist sheened her eyes. ‘Oh, Konstantinos.’
His throat tightened.
He’d seen Poppy cry before. He understood why humans cried. It was a release of emotion from the only part of the body it could escape from. But for her to do it here. For her to cry in the place where the tears—the emotions—had buckled her knees.
He was scared, he admitted to himself, that this time he was too weak to carry her. His body didn’t feel like itself.
He didn’t feel strong in this place.
He felt…undone.
‘We need to leave, Poppy,’ he said. ‘We’ll go inside.’
‘I don’t want to go inside.’
‘You are crying.’
‘I am,’ she admitted.
Something shifted inside him. And he didn’t like it. He did not like the instinct raising his hand to her cheek. Or the words ready to spill from his mouth. But he did it anyway. He raised his hand, and the tremor beneath his skin, he couldn’t hide it. He brushed his hand against her cheek—tried to wipe away the wetness, but another drop fell.
‘Don’t cry,glikia mou.’
‘But I want to.’
‘Why?’
‘I miss him,’ she admitted, so openly, so honestly.
‘The baby?’
