Page 6 of Forgotten Greek Proposal
The decades-long feud between the patriarchs had escalated as they’d aged to the extent that the dirty tricks they’d employed had escalated too, dangerously so, dirty tricks the press had got wind of. What had been an infamous rivalry enjoyed by the public swirled into a maelstrom of relentless negative publicity that had led to investors threatening to pull out of Antoniadis Shipping. Thanasis’s father had voluntarily stepped down his position as Chief Executive, the board of directors voting unanimously for Thanasis to step into his shoes, but this hadn’t been enough to mollify the investors.
At the precise moment Thanasis had been wondering how the hell he was going to stop his company imploding, Alexis Tsaliki, who’d not long forced his own father from the board of Tsaliki Shipping, had called requesting a private meeting. ‘Our fathers’ actions caused all this,’ he’d said. ‘It is for us to end it.’
What had followed had started out like a scene from a gangster film where the new heads of two families fighting over the same territory had faced off.
The deadlock had been broken when Alexis had said, ‘The only way to stem the losses we are both suffering is to show we are serious about ending our fathers’ feud. I propose a marriage.’
‘An intriguing idea but you’re not my type,’ Thanasis had deadpanned, even as he’d immediately seen the sick logic behind the suggestion.
‘A shame. We would make a beautiful couple. But no, I propose a marriage between myself and your sister.’
‘Over my dead body,’ he’d stated flatly. Alexis Tsaliki was poison like all Tsalikis, and an unscrupulous Lothario. Thanasis would sooner live bankrupt in a shed than countenance a marriage with his sister to him.
They’d eyeballed each other for a time that had seemed to suck all the air from the room, until Alexis had given a sharp nod. ‘Then you will have to be the one to make the sacrifice.’
And that was how, eventually, Thanasis had come to be engaged to Lucie Burton, Georgios’s so-called beloved stepdaughter and the so-called beloved daughter of Rebecca Tsaliki.
Rebecca stepped over to him. Voice low, she said, ‘You got my message?’
He nodded curtly.
‘Then you know what to do.’
He didn’t bother hiding his disdain. Now he understood how this wife had succeeded where Georgios’s other wives had failed—her ruthlessness. That this extended to her own daughter sickened him, even if he did despise the daughter as much as the mother.
‘How could you let her believe we’d fallen in love?’ he demanded.
‘I didn’t put the idea in her head, I just ran with it,’ she answered, her own disdain as evident as his. ‘What did you expect me to say? That she was mistaken and you hate each other’s guts?’
‘No, I would have expected you to correct her and tell her our relationship was cordial and businesslike.’
‘If you’d kept it cordial and businesslike we wouldn’t be standing here.’
That this observation was on the money only added to the burning angst pumping through him.
‘You need to be nice to her for a week,’ Rebecca said in the same acidic tone he’d heard her daughter use more times than were countable. ‘That’s it. Be nice, and get her to the damned church to make her vows. After that, you can do whatever you want with her.’
They both knew Lucie would never sell them out to the press. Even when she’d furiously screeched away in his Porsche, Thanasis had been certain her intense aversion to being public property would stop her taking that nuclear step. Whether she took that step or not though was irrelevant—her failure to marry him would set off a nuclear detonation of its own.
‘I will go along with this pathetic charade until the wedding because you leave me no other choice, but you’d better pray her memories don’t come back before it.’
‘We should all pray for that.’
He shook his head in disbelief. ‘When she learns the truth… She will hate you for facilitating the lies. You know that, yes? You could lose your daughter for this.’
Rebecca was unmoved. ‘If that’s the price I have to pay then I can live with that. All that matters is that the wedding goes ahead. Anything that comes after can and will be managed. We’ll pay her off if necessary—she pretended not to care but I know she was jealous of Georgios’s brood having their own trust funds. Cold hard cash always makes injured feelings sting a little less.’
Sickened to his core, Thanasis turned without another word and strode with heavy footsteps back to Lucie’s room.
Before entering, he took a moment to compose himself.
The path had been set and he had to follow it. The alternative would be devastation for everyone and everything.
Their engagement had stemmed much of the press negativity and calmed the investors, but there had been predicted cynicism too. If the wedding failed to go ahead the media would go into a frenzy, the becalmed investors likely pull their investments.
In only three weeks, Antoniadis Shipping would take delivery of fifty new container ships to add to their fleet at a cost of close to six billion euros. Two thirds of this still needed to be paid. If the investors pulled out, Thanasis would have to conjure four billion euros. Antoniadis Shipping was worth tens of billions but that money wasn’t sitting in a bank account. It would take months to liquidate enough assets to cover it.
All these things had been going through his head as he’d tried to work out how the hell he was going to steer his company away from the impending disaster when he’d received the call that Lucie had been in an accident.
