“But I can’t.” Damen captured Mairi’s wrist when she tried to leave. He spun her around, forcing her to look at him. “Do you understand, Mairi?” he demanded, his voice made savage by the despair gnawing at him. “I’m the one who’s weak. I’m weak without you. I’m without hope, and I’m blind, deaf, dumb without you. So goddammit, take pity on me again.” His voice broke. “Please, take f**king pity on me and stay—”
“I can’t.” Mairi wept hard at the way Damen was begging, every word causing more pieces of her heart to turn brittle. “I’m not the one you need—”
“You are. You are, Mairi. The only thing I need.” Damen pressed something in her hands. “Read this, matakia mou. If you could just read this, maybe you’d understand…” Never had it felt harder to speak, the pain in his chest becoming more agonizing with every second that passed and Mairi’s desire to leave him didn’t seem to falter at all.
“Please.” The whispered word was the best he could do, the pain and fear of losing Mairi crippling. “Please…it’s all there. Please.”
Slowly, Mairi looked down at what Damen had given to her.
A book.
Fingers trembling, she flipped it around to see the cover, and another choked sob rushed out of her throat as she saw the title.
The Art of Catching a Greek Billionaire.
Oh God, oh God, oh God.
Slowly, she opened the book.
This is dedicated to my wife, a woman I was blessed to have found me.
She caught me all right, but in truth I couldn’t slow down enough for her to catch me.
“I don’t understand,” Mairi whispered.
Damen’s hands closed around hers. “Catch me. Keep me. Make me your Greek billionaire forever.” He started speaking fast. “The outcome of the voting? It doesn’t really matter. I borrowed money from Sallis and Manolis, and I used it to buy a company that I turned around on my own.”
Around them, the sound of gasps, murmurs, and fingers tapping on phone screens rose, everyone itching to find out what company Damen was talking about.
Damen’s tone became urgent when Mairi still didn’t speak, only continuing to cry silently. “Do you understand what I’m saying, sweetheart?” He laid out all his cards on the table, uncaring that it made him appear like he was desperate to be caught. Why the f**k would he care when it was the truth?
He tipped Mairi’s chin up. “I’m a billionaire again, Mairi.” His voice was raw. “So please…please. Catch me again and never let me go.”
But when no word passed from Mairi’s lips, Damen knew then that he had lost.
He knew it, but he still tried anyway because having her was the only reason he existed, and he knew that now. He would never forget it again. “Please...” Fear had him choking off, but he forced himself to continue. “I’m begging you…please.”
Mairi clapped her hands over her mouth, trying her best to keep more sobs from coming out. The urge to give in was overwhelming, but she struggled to resist it.
The pain etched on Damen’s face forced her to close her eyes. Why was he trying so hard to keep her? Why couldn’t he just forget about his honor and be with Alina?
She lowered one hand to her stomach, her way of letting her baby know when Mairi was talking to him or her. You understand I’m doing this for you, don’t you, little one? I don’t want you to grow up seeing your mother so weak and your father—
Her head shot up, her stricken gaze flying to Damen.
Damen’s affinity and empathy for children was one of his little-known traits, something she knew he had developed from having been raised by two self-absorbed parents. It was why he was overly protective with Diana, why he strove to be his sister’s surrogate parent. He hadn’t wanted the young girl to feel the same emptiness that had marked his childhood.
Damen would never be the type to give up his child. When it came to children, to innocents depending on him like Diana, Damen would stop at nothing to protect them, his honor, his reputation be damned.
So why wasn’t he stopping her from leaving him, knowing it meant Mairi would be taking their baby away from him? Why was he allowing her to do what would hurt him most terribly?
Dimly, Damen heard women in the background crying, and he knew it was probably because he was that pathetic. He didn’t give a shit. His eyes never leaving Mairi, he said hoarsely, “You don’t have to come back right away. Just…stay. Let me show you I’m a…” The ache to hold Mairi and keep her from leaving had Damen stumbling all over his words.
Mairi held her breath, waiting for him to talk about their baby, to have him throw her selfishness in her face for choosing to raise her child without two parents.
Damen’s nerves were stretched so taut he had a feeling he would collapse the moment Mairi turned her back on him. But he continued stubbornly because the alternative was far bleaker. “I won’t force you to see me or talk to me. Just let me…just give me time to prove to you I can be a great catch again.”
Mairi whispered past dry lips, “Why…aren’t you saying anything about me taking our baby away from you?”
Damen stilled.
“Why, Damen?”
Damen didn’t answer.
And that was when she knew.
If he had spoken, she might not have believed him. Words came so cheap, and the pain of his betrayal was so great that she had a feeling no words could ever make her believe him again.
If he had told her now he had not been cheating on her with Alina, she wouldn’t have believed him. Even if he had Alina say the same thing, even if he threatened to kill himself if she didn’t believe him, she would still think he was lying.
But this…
Damen, not telling her what they both knew because he didn’t want her to feel guilty.
Damen, not saying anything about his ability to fight for custody because he knew if he did manage to take their baby away from Mairi, it would kill her.
And so he had chosen to kill himself instead.
He had chosen to risk making his child think of him as the one thing he despised the most, and that was an uncaring parent like Esther Leventis.
For her.
Because he really loved Mairi.
“Just catch me one more time, and I won’t ever give you a reason to regret it. Just please make me yours—”
Mairi threw herself at him.
Damen’s arms wrapped around her waist instinctively the same time Mairi’s arms curled around his neck.