Page 43 of His Forgotten Wife
He could still be cut by their words. Especially Sergio, who seemed to understand the deepest wound that Ares had never healed from. The same wound that pulsed and raged when he couldn’t get his mind to calm. At those moments, even the pain pulsing through his hip was a welcome distraction. Through sheer will, he refused to let his mind give a form to that wound.
“I’m hoping you refused their offers,agapi,” he said, baring his teeth. Much like a wounded animal, he assumed.
“Of course I did,” Dahlia said, bristling. The little shake of her head sprayed droplets onto his cheek. Sudden shadows danced in her eyes. “And clearly, they aren’t going to listen to common sense. The next step I think is to appeal to your father to talk to them. Put the fear of scandal into him. Seems to me he’s the only one who can control them.”
“I will decide the next step,” Ares said, suddenly feeling exhausted. “You should get out of the wet suit and take a hot shower.”
“Walk away now, then,” she said, her mouth at his jaw. “I will shower and be in your room in ten minutes.”
He wrapped his fingers around her nape and took her mouth in a rough, possessive kiss that he wanted to deepen. His erection throbbed for relief and her breath came in warm pants when he released her. “I don’t like conditions, Dahlia, or caveats. You know that.” And before she could say anything again, he tightened the towel around her and gave her a push toward the house.
His father reached him on hurried footsteps as he turned to look at his brothers. Sergio and Stefano jumped out of the pool and grabbed towels, leering at him. Challenging him to come at them.
His father barked something at them that Ares couldn’t hear through the deafening roar in his ears, his hand on Ares’s shoulder. The meatheads exited, tame as well-trained dogs. The extent of his father’s control over them made the antics they had taken up against him even more tragic.
Ares jerked away from the older man’s touch, resentment coating his stomach like acid. “Don’t touch me,” he bit out, angrier than he had ever been in his life. “How dare you stand there and let them bully her? She’s an innocent woman. How would you feel if someone did that to Arabella? What the hell is wrong with you?”
“They were simply talking to her, figuring out what her game is. Whatever that woman told you about your brothers—”
“Don’t talk about Dahlia. She’s got more integrity in her pinky finger than the whole lot of you.”
“She’s an outsider, Ares. How can you—”
“Then, by all accounts, I’m an outsider too. The only time you or your sons remember me is when they need money.”
“Ares…”
“Did you know that they’ve stolen thousands of euros from the family company before they came up with the idea for this lawsuit?” he bit out. Another serrated laugh escaped him as the man he’d once idolized stared at him without blinking or even a hint of regret.
And then he saw the truth in those eyes. “Of course you knew. You sent them to me. Didn’t you?”
“You had the means to help them and the company, Ares. That’s what family does. Imagine how it would have broken your grandfather’s heart to know that we might slide into bankruptcy.”
Ares turned and covered the distance between them until he was face-to-face with his father. “And what do you call turning a blind eye to your older sons beating the shit out of your younger one? Or leaving him locked for an entire night in the tool shed? Or dunking his face into the water sump for long, painful minutes?”
“They were just being boys, Ares. And you needed toughening up. If it wasn’t them, you would have been subjected to it at the boarding school that you begged to be sent to. If you hadn’t left and stayed away, all that would have been settled among the three of you a long while ago.”
“You…” His throat felt like it was full of needles and thorns. “I see how foolish it was of me to expect that things had changed here. You are the same old fool who ran the business to ground,and they are the same greedy, cheating, thieving bullies who will take whatever they can get their hands on. And Mama…she refuses to see any of this.”
“Don’t bring your mother into this, Ares.”
“And the lawsuit? Am I allowed to bring her into that?”
His father flinched. Resignation filled Ares. It felt the same as the metal that had dragged itself through his hip as he tried to crawl out of the flaming mess of his car. “So you know about that too and haven’t done anything to stop them.”
“You have billions and at the end of the day, they are your brothers, Ares. Settle some money on their children, stock options in your company maybe, and I promise I will get them to drop the lawsuit.”
Ares laughed and rubbed his hand over his hip. “You think they will be happy if I simply settle some stock in their names? You think they won’t come at me and my company again?”
“Not if you give them enough,” his father said without a pause. “Or the entire family gets dragged through the press and the scandal will be horrible. You owe it to this family, Ares. Without your grandfather’s gift—”
“No, I don’t owe anyone anything,” Ares said. “I will not give them or you a penny. Let them do as they will.”
“No, Ares.” Panic seeped into his father’s features and suddenly, he looked old and exhausted. Whatever pity Ares might have felt leached out of him, leaving a hollow in his gut. “Think of what might happen if they win? All the assets you might lose. The check your grandfather gave you for your nineteenth birthday…officially, it can be shown that it came from the family money.”
“I don’t care what they or you can prove, Papa. I know how to protect myself and the company from your grubby hands. Tell your sons to do their worst.”
As an eight- or nine-year-old boy, Ares had learned to not show his fear, to let no tears fall when Sergio or Stefano played a particularly nasty trick on him. Forget pity, it had only made them feel as if they’d won over him.
