I sit by Cassie on the bed and tap her arm. “Look at this with me.”
She does what I ask and looks at the photo album.
“This is where I grew up.”
She frowns and shakes her head. “But that’s a shack.” She seems confused.
“Yes, Cassie, it is a fucking shack, and yet it’s still where I grew up. It was so damp mushrooms grew out of the walls. This is my grandmother.”
I turn the page, and she stares at the old lady with her long hair and only one eye.
“What happened to her eye?”
“Taken out in the war.”
“What?”
“Yeah. She was gang raped too.”
It’s not something I tell many people, and it makes what my father did to Yulia so much worse.
I turn the pages again and show her my mother and my sister. “They’re both dead, Cassie. Both of them. They didn’t fight, and now they’re dead.”
She swallows, and I watch her throat work, knowing she’s trying not to cry.
“This is my father, the piece of shit who—”
“He left; I know.”
“Cassie, he didn’t only leave. He did so much more. He raped and murdered my wife.”
“Raped?” Her face pales.
“Yes. He’s trash, and he came after me after I walked away from the fight. In this life, you don’t get to walk away, Cassie. Andrius tried, and now he’s back in it.”
“There must be a chance, a way. Otherwise, you’re never safe; your partners are never safe. If you have children, they won’t be safe. Look at Michael having to stay with the Bianchi family.”
“So I what? Become a lawyer?” I laugh bitterly.
“Or do nothing. Look at all you have, all you own. You could travel. Do good deeds.”
“Good deeds? Jesus fucking Christ, Cassie, you’ve sugarcoated me so much I’m a stick of candy.”
She glowers at me.
“You’re fighting ghosts,” she says sadly.
“Excuse me.”
“Ghosts, you’re fighting the ghosts of your past, and it’s a war you can never win. You could have something else, something real, in the here and now, but you’re fighting the past.”
She gets up and walks to the door. “Which is my room?” she asks.
“This is your fucking room. You sleep with me, and right now, I’m the one leaving.” I walk right by her and slam the door hard enough to do it damage.
By the time Damen and Maya arrive, my bad mood has calmed a little. Good job because Maya is all sunshiny bonhomie. If I hadn’t lightened up some, I’d have wanted to throttle her after ten minutes.
I don’t know either of them the way Andrius does. We met and talked a while ago in Athens, but it was a brief visit, and the business talk took a back seat to Stamatis and Rhea’s engagement news. I’ve done my research though, and talked to Andrius about the various people involved in Stamatis’ inner circle.
“Oh wow, this is so gorgeous. Isn’t it?” Maya asks Damen as she wanders around the living room.
“Yes, darling,” he says, and I get the impression that some of the time, he says this automatically when she’s gushing about stuff.
“It’s so Paris,” she says with a wink, and he bursts out laughing at that.
I don’t get the joke.
“I’m glad I packed a lot of Chanel. I’d have hated to do this place an injustice.”
She’s the sort of woman who looks right at home here. She has an innate sense of style and manages to stay the right side of looking wealthy rather than tacky. Cassie most definitely doesn’t fit this house, but she’s the one I want. Still. Despite infuriating me. Maybe, I admit to myself, because she infuriates me.
I like the balls she displays when she stands up to me. I love the contrast with the way she melts for me if I tell her to submit. Sexually, at least, because she doesn’t damn well submit the rest of the time.
Footsteps on the stairs have me glancing to the door of the large reception room where we’re all standing around making chitchat.
Cassie appears, and she walks in hesitantly, throwing me a worried glance. Does she think I’m going to send her to bed without any supper? It’s a tempting thought, but I’d rather have her by my side, so long as she doesn’t start her shit again.
“Come and meet Damen and Maya,” I tell her.
She comes to me, and I sling my arm around her, pulling her into my side. “Damen and Maya, meet Cassie.”