Page 2 of Her Secret Heir
He knew what his father wanted from him. Take over the business, marry and produce more Greek babies. Ensure that the Theakis line continued. His father had sent him to Ava to claim the boy whom Stavros had paid her to keep quiet about.
He even knew what Stavros would say to him if he had been able to see into the future…he would advise Christos to marry Ava and claim the boy as his own. Move them back to Greecewhere the boy could be raised to inherit the shipping empire that had been in their family for generations. His father’s advice had been the same, but then Stavros and Ari were cut from the same cloth.
“I’m surprised you’re here. I didn’t think I’d ever see you again,” Ava said at last.
He couldn’t deal with the circumstances that had brought him here and he wouldn’t talk about them with her. Not now. Tristan, one of his best friends, assured him that grief lessened over time, but Christos couldn’t imagine this pain fading. “What does the boy know about his father?”
“The boy? His name is Theo. And I…I told him that you were an important Greek businessman whose interests kept him busy.”
Thathewas an important Greek businessman. God, he couldn’t believe she was still clinging to the lie that he was the father. He’d been careful every time they’d come together. Only slipping up once, he thought. But even then he’d pulled out as soon as he realized what he’d done. And Stavros…well, his brother had always been blunt when it came to sex and condoms—he didn’t use them.
“A lie.”
“You are a businessman. And you’re always busy, at least, according toHello!magazine. I don’t see how Stavros’s death changes anything. You made your choice a long time ago.”
He shrugged that aside. He wasn’t going to get into the paternity issue again. That boy was a Theakis and he was returning to his family. They had the legal document she’d signed when she’d taken the money Stavros had offered.
He tried not to think about those long-ago days in Greece. As soon as he’d seen her with his brother he’d left, returning to a life of endless traveling and parties that he used to blur memories of their time together. He’d gone back to his old lifestyle witha vengeance. Being the second son meant his life was full of frivolity and socializing. No one expected anything of the second son. He had focused on his business interests during the day, but he’d partied all night.
“Where’s the heir?” he asked.
Ava tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, eyeing him warily. Crossing her arms over her chest, she glanced out the window. “What do you mean, the heir? You told me…” Her voice quivered.
“I know what I told you but times have changed. I need you to be the woman I once thought you were.”
That was nothing less than the truth. He needed something from Ava that even she couldn’t have predicted. He needed her to be the kind of mother his had been. The kind of mother who could raise a boy to handle a world of privilege and expectation—because he wouldn’t have enough time to do that.
“What woman was that?”
“One I could trust. My father’s health is failing and he misses his grandchildren.”
“Theo is nothing like the girls. He can’t replace them,” she warned.
“What do you mean?”
“He’s American, Christos. He knows a little of your background and heritage, but he’s not Greek.”
“I’ll teach him what he needs to know.”
Still she shook her head. “Ari hates me.”
“My father will love your son.”
“I don’t know. I’m not the naive young girl I was,” she said.
“You’re still young,” he said. She was twelve years younger than he was, which he’d once thought excused some of the lies she’d told him. But he wouldn’t be as forgiving this time.
“Being a mother has matured me in a way nothing else could have.”
“Then you know that keeping your son from the Theakis family is not something that I can allow to continue.”
She nodded. “When I saw the news about Stavros and his family, I thought about contacting you.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“I was afraid to deal with you.”
“I can understand that,” he said. He’d treated her almost cruelly when she’d come to him with the news of her pregnancy. But then, he hadn’t been interested in cleaning up his brother’s mess. So he’d turned her away.
