Page 154 of Mafia Obsession
I stare at him, watching my sister, studying his features that I know so well, though I can see something is different about him. Resolved. Settled, and it makes me hopeful.
“She is.” I wait for him to face me again. “Thanks to you.”
Softly, he rests his hands carefully against my belly, and something shifts inside me. “Have you seen a doctor about the baby? Is everything okay?”
“I had an ultrasound in New York before I left,” I tell him, bracing for him being mad that I knew then and let him leave. “It’s a boy, Ares.”
Ares seems to grow taller, staring down at a son.
“I want to be at every appointment,” he says, his voice cracking. “I’m sorry you went through this alone.”
“That was my choice.” I reach into my purse and hand him the sonogram snapshots of his child that I had been hoping to show him.
“It was because of me and my stupidity that you made that choice.” He studies the black-and-white images.
In those few seconds, Ares Zervas rearranges into a different man.
A father.
He had a terrible one. He knows whatnotto do.
I lift my hand to his face, brushing my thumb along the line of his jaw. “How was Santorini?”
“Terrible without you.” He presses a hand over mine and exhales a soft, broken laugh. “The volcanic shelf is repaired. I’ll show you. We’ll fly there when you’re ready. Have the honeymoon you never had. I’ll give you everything you never had.”
His absolute desire to make up for everything weakens me completely. Nothing sounds dreamier than the blue water and white stone of the Mediterranean and my husband’s arms around me on one of those terraces without walls between us.Just love.
“I would love that,” I whisper. “One day.”
He studies me carefully. “May I kiss you?”
The want in his voice undoes me.
“Yes,” I breathe.
He cups my face gently, and when his lips meet mine, the kiss is not one of crazed hunger. It’s an extension of his apology, an acknowledgment of his devotion to us, and a promise for more. I’ve not kissedthis manbefore.
The desert wind moves around us, a mini-tornado pulling us together. For the first time since I watched him walk away, I let myself believe that broken things can be rebuilt stronger than before.
“Mrs. Zervas?” A voice behind me turns me around.
“Yes?”
“We’re ready for our meeting with your sister,” an administrator says to me.
“You still go by Zervas?” Ares asks, sounding breathless.
“Thatismy name.”
Chapter 65
Lourdes
After a brief kiss, Ares left the facility that afternoon, got into a black SUV, and with his guards following, drove off.
He came back later that day. He’d changed his clothes. They looked new and surprisingly casual. He brought me a latte while I took a break between Sandrine’s appointments.
Her first day was a therapist-apooloza. This facility takes its therapy and treatments extremely seriously. Sandrine doesn’t have one therapist, she has a team.
