Page 61 of Loving the Greek Billionaire

Stavros pulled her tighter. “I can only imagine how you felt.”

With her free hand, Rose wiped at her eyes. “There are few words that convey the depth of my sorrow and loss.” She took a fortifying breath. “I couldn’t cope, couldn’t function. I turned everything over to my in-laws to settle and went home to my parents. I was a walking zombie for months, trying to process and work through my depression. I thought I’d never be happy again.”

Stavros pulled her tighter, and she rested her head on his shoulder, her tears leaking onto his shirt.

He kissed the top of her head. “Oh, Rose.”

“Six months after burying my husband and son side by side and just as I was starting to pull out of my fog, my in-laws paid a visit. They’d been wonderfully supportive and kept in regular contact with me while I was a mess. They made a proposal.”

Stavros’s eyebrows scrunched together. “What kind?”

“The unimaginable.”

“Marry his brother?” Stavros turned to face her.

“No.”

“Marry his sister?”

Rose nearly laughed, a needed breath of humor. “No. They wanted me to have Robert’s child.”

Stavros shook his head. “I don’t understand.”

“We’d put some of Robert’s sperm on ice, remember?”

Stavros looked out over the water, comprehension and disgust washed over his face. “They wanted to artificially inseminate you with their dead son’s sperm to bear the grandchild they lost.”

“Yes,” she whispered.

Stavros shook his head, his jaw clenched. “Of all the cruel, selfish . . .”

“I thought so too at the time. They offered to pay for everything if I would live with them, and we would raise the child together. They returned the next day for my answer.”

“Oh, Rose. What did you do?”

“As you can see, I’m here.” She folded her hands in her lap. The memories of that meeting left her trembling.

Stavros stiffened beside her, and she sat up.

“Did you have the child? Is he with your in-laws?” he asked.

“No.” She was hurt that he would think her capable of abandoning her child, and she put a little physical distance between them. “I knew that wasn’t what Robert would want. Of his siblings, he was the exception. The rest of them are arrogant and self-serving. Turned out, underneath their kindness, his parents were too. When I refused, they offered more money. And when I told them I couldn’t be bought, they threatened my career and family. They were in a position to make good on all they said, but I held my ground. They left, and we never spoke again.”

“And that’s why you despise the wealthy,” Stavros concluded.

“Yes.”

“Did they make good on their threats?” he asked. His expression turned reflective, laced with pain, which she didn’t understand. Was he feeling pain on her behalf?

“No.”

“Wait. You said earlier that you thought your in-laws were selfish and cruel. But you don’t think so now?” he asked.

“Over time, I’ve concluded that they were parents in pain, desperate to hold on to a piece of their son in any way they could. They knew I was capable of carrying and bearing a child, his child. They thought their idea would bring happiness to all of us, give us back what we’d lost. Some days, I wonder if they were right.”

“And on the other days?”

“I wonder what their reaction would’ve been if I’d fallen in love and wanted to take my son and start a new family with my husband.”

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