of a business bargain would take the messy emotional side out of his need for children to pass the Spiridakou empire onto. His own father had messed up spectacularly in that arena repeatedly.
And Ariston’s one foray into the world of romance had had him crashing and burning, not to mention losing several million dollars on a business deal gone bad in the bargain.
So when his grandfather had come to him and asked him to consider a contractual marriage to ensure the next generation, after careful consideration, Ariston had agreed. As he’d reminded Chloe, it wasn’t so uncommon among the men at his level of power and wealth.
He knew Eber Dioletis was looking for a single investor to infuse capital into his company.
Eber didn’t want to give enough shares of the company for the investment capital he expected in return, but the marriage deal made it possible for both men to find a win-win.
Emotions were messy and devastating.
Business was something Ariston understood and knew how to control, so finding a wife as the result of a business deal appealed very much.
He now realized his certainty that a business marriage would come without the complications he’d sworn off, not once, but twice in his life—first because of his parents’ devastating mistakes and then because of his own—was one of the reasons he’d been so livid with Chloe for lying to him.
She’d let him down personally, but more important, Chloe had betrayed him on a business level, just as Shannon had done. Only this time, Ariston’s grandfather had been hurt as well and Ariston found that untenable.
The one person in his life he could trust and wanted to protect, and Chloe had betrayed them both.
Ariston hadn’t discovered what she’d been up to until a couple of months before their third anniversary. He’d been looking for his wife’s favorite pair of earrings so he could have a complementary necklace and bracelet made as a gift to celebrate the occasion.
He’d also hoped to use the jewelry to soften her toward having fertility tests done. Ariston hadn’t said anything, but he’d been to his own doctor and tests had confirmed that there should be no problem with conception coming from his side.
He’d thought Chloe might need fertility treatments because three years of sex at least once a day, often more frequently, should have resulted in pregnancy.
For a woman not on birth control.
Ariston had never found the earrings. What he had found was a partially used packet of birth control pills in the upper drawer of Chloe’s jewelry armoire.
No matter how she wanted to look at it, Chloe had affirmed to both Ariston and his grandfather that she wanted children before she ever signed the contract they’d negotiated with Eber Dioletis.
She’d tacked on an eventually, but Ariston had assumed the eventually would come within the initial three-year parameter of their marriage contract.
Apparently, he’d been wrong.
What was bothering him now was the possibility—no, probability—he’d been equally wrong about other things, as well.
Chloe had not been on board with her father’s idea of marrying her off in another business contract advantageous to Dioletis Industries. Ariston had known the older man’s plans in that line had fallen through, but he’d assumed it was because of actions on Ariston’s part.
He’d made subtle but unmistakable promises regarding the future of the other man’s business interests if he married Chloe. Ariston had followed that up by allowing his displeasure at the thought of his ex-wife married to someone else leak into the financial community.
It would take a brave or very stupid man to buck the Spiridakou empire.
No one had. Or so he thought.
It had never occurred to Ariston that Chloe might have refused any other marriage deal outright, that those threats might be unnecessary.
However, that made a lot more sense of the fact that she’d made a new life for herself across country. Her claim she’d had nothing to do with her father or Dioletis Industries in two years rang true and was too easily checked. As she had to know it would be.
He’d told Chloe he hadn’t had her watched by a private investigator, and he hadn’t, but now he regretted that choice.
He’d been too focused on Eber and Dioletis Industries and maneuvering her father into an untenable situation for which there was only one out—giving Ariston what he wanted. He hadn’t been focused enough on the woman who had been his wife.
Most telling, for Ariston at any rate, was that he had no trouble adjusting his view of her to something