The Art of Loving a Greek Billionaire by Marian Tee

they could tackle each other again, the hotel’s guards were already there, pinning their arms behind their backs as they were escorted into the back of a police car.
    Neither of them spoke during the ride, and after being booked, they were thrown into an empty cell together, Stavros and Damen standing at opposite sides.
    Being in prison caused memories of Mairi to flay his mind, and Stavros demanded hoarsely, “Why? You said you love her so why would you hurt her like that?”
    “Are you still under her spell? Wake up, Stavros! She has fooled us both! She’s nothing but a gold digger who first targeted you and then me—”
    Damen’s words worked like the missing piece in a puzzle, and Stavros slowly shook his head. “You are the goddamn fool here.” He looked at the other man, rage now mixed with pity. For Damen.
    “Are you talking about what happened between us in high school?”
    “What else?” he said bitterly. “I still can’t believe everything was based on a fucking catch-a-billionaire strategy a teenager—”
    Stavros snapped, “It isn’t like that.” Not waiting for Damen to argue with him, Stavros told the man who was once his close friend everything he knew of Mairi and the childhood she had.
    Gnawing dread ate Damen as Stavros’ words eventually painted the picture of a young girl who had dared to dream and had not let anyone’s malicious jealousy stop her from viewing the world with rose-colored glasses.
    “It was never about the money,” Stavros grated. “If she only wanted a Greek billionaire, don’t you think she would have continued to pursue me? Or Vlahos? It was about a dream…a fucking dream of true love and she thought you were the embodiment of that dream.”
    Damen said rawly, “Where is she now?”
    “She took a flight home.”  
    Everything in him demanded that he say no more, but Stavros was a fair man. Damen had been an idiot, but he had lashed out in his pain. Only a man who was so in love could be that vengeful. He said reluctantly, “It will not be simple finding her if she does not want to be found.”
    “I won’t stop—”
    “That’s exactly what you have to do if Mairi chooses to disappear. I searched for her for years, and I am no poor man without resources. Her aunts have connections and they’re…good. I only recently learned that they had studied my every movement and by doing so, they were able to prevent me from uncovering any lead that would take me to Mairi.”
    “But you found her—”
    “Because they let me,” Stavros finished. “So you must pray to all the gods that they would want you to find her, even if it’s only for Mairi to shoot you in the head for what you did to her.”
    Damen whispered, “Even if she did, it would not be enough to undo the harm I have caused her.”

Chapter Sixteen
     
    It was late morning the next day when their solicitors succeeded in getting Stavros and Damen released. The two Greek billionaires shook hands, a mutual understanding having formed between them. Damen would grovel, and Stavros would be there watching.
    “Drive me home.”
    It was a good half hour before they reached his home. As he retraced his steps to the front door, his heart began to beat faster and faster – and it was not doing so in a good way.
    With every beat of his heart, he felt like he was suffocating.
    By the time he reached the front door, Damen was on his knees.
    In his mind, the picture of the last time he had seen Mairi was complete, tortuously vivid and inescapable.  
    The remembered sound of her sobs rang in Damen’s mind, growing in volume until it was all he could hear.
    Mairi was begging.
    Please, Damen—
    A choking gasp came out of Damen’s throat, the memory tearing him open.  
    The front door flew open. “Sir!”  
    Damen pushed past the surprised-looking housekeeper, his breaths coming out in erratic gasps as he practically ran to the bedroom he once shared with Mairi.
    I love you. A vision of a happy Mairi danced