Page 45

“Finally, you had the courage to show up. I was already bored by having to deal with your underlings."

The last thing I want to do is talk.

There's a somewhat masochistic desire in me to watch him. For most of my life, the brutish-featured man has dominated my nightmares.

Now, he doesn't scare me anymore.

In fact, from a very young age, the fear I felt of him was gone, giving way to the desire to kill him, and today, especially, he seems to me nothing more and nothing less than a pathetic creature.

Even though I didn't see him on the day that my parents were killed, I could never have forgotten his voice.

When Ingvar showed me a picture of him, I couldn't match his face to his voice. In my boyhood nightmare, he was a faceless monster, coming straight out of hell to hurt my family. The connection only happened many years later, when unexpectedly, I came across him on the island.

He didn't see me, though. He never looked around, precisely because he didn't have to. The band of security guards that surrounded him ensured that no one approached.

The coward has never been on his own. Even during those months when he was on the run, he hired mercenaries to protect him.

“The only one who’s been hiding for so long is you.”

“Is this about the money? I can return what I owe you."

I cross my arms and remain standing, facing him. He may not yet know who I am, but at the very least he has discovered that I have come to collect payment for Orien's death. The bastard didn't order them to kill Ciro for nothing. He had to make sure the man didn’t give away his secrets.

My silence seems to bother him, and at the same time that he starts to pace, a hand scratches the back of his head. "You’ve come for your cousin, haven’t you? That was an accident. I only told them to scare the kid?—”

“Stop.”

As if my order really has the power to shut him up, his arms drop to his sides, but to my surprise, he starts laughing. His laugh is as out of place as it would be if I sawthe devil himself chuckling.

It's only after a few seconds that I notice that his eyes don't match the sound. He isn't enjoying himself but trying to get a reaction out of me.

“When you started chasing me, I began to think you were a smart man, but then you ended up with her.”

I feel my blood boil. I didn't expect him to involve Elina in our conversation.

“I can't deny that she is my most beautiful daughter. She’s not a pervert like Theodoro, but as you may have discovered, the girl is as stupid as a door."

I still don't move. I realize that, now he knows he won't make it out of here alive, he is trying to hasten his end.

“What kind of man hears someone talking about his wife and doesn't react?”

“Give it up, Argyros. There's nothing you can do to someone I love that you haven't already done. Elina is out of your reach now. She’s mine.”

“Do you think I care? It is the sheik you will have to deal with. He paid dearly for her.”

“I’ve spent a lot of time hating you,” I continue, as if he hasn't said anything. “Sometimes my memory played tricks on me, saying that maybe you weren't such a demon and that it could be my mind warping the facts, but the more I found out about you, the more reasons I gained to end your time in this world.”

“This isn't about Orien.”

“No. This is about a family that you burned alive about twenty-two years ago." The words run like acid down my throat. “It's about my sister begging for mercy and only receiving the reply that no one should be spared.”

Now I can see real astonishment on his face, and I can see he never even suspected that there was a surviving son in the family which he annihilated. “You are Hedda's son.”

“Don't speak her name. Even though I know how you two betrayed him, my father's memory deserves respect."

At first, he looks at me in surprise, which confuses me for a while. Then he laughs again. Unlike the other one, this laugh is a true one. “You think your mother was a traitor? Nope. Just too dumb to make the right choice. At first, I was only interested in her beauty. Hedda was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. I didn't care that she was married, of course. It wouldn't have been the first time I'd gotten involved with another man's wife."His voice conveys pride as he says that. “I went after her, but she wouldn't budge. I tried to be a gentleman while I courted her, which came as a surprise to myself. The more she resisted, the more desire I felt, until I promised what I’ve never promised any woman: to leave Cinthya and the children to be with her.”

I’m listening to every word, and it's ironic that the man who’s revealing the darkest part of my past is the same man who’s made me what I am today.

“The idiot wounded my pride, saying she wouldn't trade her family for anything. She did not even want to give me a kiss. I think the poor thing didn't really know who I was, or she wouldn't have acted that way. "

His speech is full of mockery, but all I can think about is the fact that my mother, the one I blamed and held a grudge against my entire life, never betrayed us.

“I could say that I'm sorry you grew up hating her, but that would be a lie. I like that you hate her. I hate her too, even after all these years."

“You're going to die, you bastard. The same way you killed my family. I will burn you alive. You will pay."

I think he realizes that I'm serious, because he unconsciously pulls away.

“Don't do this, Odin.”

Christos's voice surprises me. I didn't know he was in Greece. Grigori probably warned him.

“You heard what he said. Your mother was not to blame for anything. This monster is nothing but a rapist in expensive clothes. He doesn't even deserve to die by your hands."

“He killed my family.”

“Yes, he did it because he's a damn coward, but that wretchedness is in the past, my brother.”

“Get out, Christos. Don't stay here, or you will witness his death. I don't want to involve you in this."

“I'd like to ask you a favor, Mr. Odin.”

I look back when I hear the voice of Darius, the islander who is the father of Thalassa, one of the missing girls.

To my amazement, he is not alone. There are at least ten more men with him. All humble-looking. I recognize some as islanders.

“I don't know what kind of accounts you have to settle with him, Mr. Odin, but I know what he owes us. He stole our daughters, and they never came back. None of them came back, and we're pretty sure he was the one who hurt them. Now, we've come to collect our debt from this bastard, so I'm going to ask you to leave."

“You can't leave me here with them,” Leandros says, and the desperation in his voice makes me sway. It's a kind of music to my ears to hear him feeling fear.

“I can't do that, Darius.”

Christos stops in front of me and places his hands on my shoulders. “Let's go. I'm asking as your brother. The future awaits you at home. Elina is pregnant. "

“What?”

“Your wife is pregnant. Don't get blood on your hands. Think of your family. Don't you want to raise your child?"

Elina, my wife, is expecting our child.

My head, normally so analytical, has got millions of thoughts running through it at the same time, including doubts about my choice.

I know what I will do.

I'm just overwhelmed with information.

“Make up your mind. What's worth more? Fulfilling a promise to a man who lied to you, who tricked you into thinking your mother was a traitor, or going back to your family?"

“He has to pay for all the harm he's done.”

“Look around you. He will get the punishment he deserves. Just not by your hands. "

“If you leave, you will forever carry the guilt for my death,” Leandros says.

Finally, I feel myself waking up from my trance and looking back at Satan incarnate as a human being. “That's where you're wrong. Nothing that happens to you will make me lose a night's sleep. If you died a thousand deaths, it would still be insufficient to pay for all the crimes that you’ve committed."I start walking towards the exit.

“What will you tell her? What will you say to my daughter when she asks why you left her father behind?"

“Is she your daughter now? You didn't think of that when you abandoned her to a woman-beater, to a rapist. As for what I will say, the answer couldn't be simpler: the truth. She'll know that the evil you've done has finally come back on your own head."