Magnolia abruptly stood up from the piano. He was amazed at how perfect she had looked sitting at his impulse buy. He hadn’t realized that she was so musically gifted. True, her father was a renowned musician and song writer, but during their time together, Magnolia had done nothing more than play around with an old guitar and sing all the time. He hadn’t realized her knowledge of music extended to other instruments. Magnolia worked behind the scenes. She was a road manager, not a musician, but she played the baby grand like a virtuoso. He had seen all the top soloists in the world, and not a single one of them had brought forth the tones and music she had produced before he walked in.
He had once hoped to play in an orchestra such as the London Philharmonic or the Boston Symphony, but the demands of his penurious family had outweighed his personal ambitions, so he had gone into finance instead of music. However, when he saw the white baby grand on display in a showroom in Paris, he knew he had to have it. He used the excuse of his relationship with the soloist Irena Cosnova, but in his heart the instrument had always been his.
Seeing Magnolia sitting there, playing music that would please the most fickle god, made him realize that fate had been guiding him that day.
It was a shame that Magnolia was no longer playing and storm clouds had taken over her face.
She walked up to him until she stood toe-to-toe with him and snarled too low for the children to hear over Harper’s playing. “We have to talk.”
“We will talk tonight. After we put our children to bed.” He kept his voice calm, reasonable. He liked the fire in her eyes. It was much better than the lost look she had had on the island.
“Stop calling them ‘our’ children. They are my children. Only mine.” She looked like she wanted to stomp her foot the way Harper did when she was told she could not have a sweet.
“I do not believe either one of us wants to put the children through DNA testing or a legal battle over custody. Even a fool can see that those children are mine too.
“You have them terrified of monsters. They have been regaling me with the most horrific tales. Tales that are so frightening that if they were true it would cause any court to find in my favor when it comes to custody.” He continued without pause. “You have hidden them from me and my family for their entire lives, and now you need me and you put Tamara Pappas, a woman I hold in high regard, in the middle of your machinations. How do you know Tamara? What did you do to persuade her to contact me on your behalf?”
Magnolia had paled to the point where he feared she was about to faint again.
He had not meant to bring up her past sins. He had hoped to talk them out with a professional mediator. He had to find out if her delusions could be controlled with medication. It was in the children’s best interests to have their mother in their lives, and the part of him that had once loved Magnolia yearned to protect her from herself and whatever demons her mind had conjured.
“I didn’t put anyone up to contacting you. If I had known you’d be involved I would never have come to Greece.” Her voice was getting edgy and one of the boys came over and placed his hand in hers.
Hector knew he had to deescalate the situation before they too became upset.
Magnolia drew in a deep breath and smiled at the child. “Would you like a turn practicing on the piano, Atti?”
Ah yes, curly hair, blue eyes. Atticus. Hector was thankful the boys were not identical. He would be able to tell them apart. Eventually.
“Practice or a lesson, Mommy?”
“If it’s okay with Mr. Leonides, you may practice on it for half an hour, and then it will be Elijah’s turn. It is a very nice piano and I expect you to treat it with respect.” She looked to Hector.
He was not pleased that she had referred to him as Mr. Leonides again. He knew she was trying to distance herself and the children from him, and he could not allow that to happen.
“Do you know what your mitera means by treating the piano with respect, my son?”
“Yes, Baba, it means we have to play it, not pound.” Hector had to admit the answer made him proud. Although they had an unorthodox lifestyle, they were being taught proper behavior.
“Harper, stop fooling around and run your scales.”
Magnolia gave Hector one last cock shriveling look before walking back to the piano. She had made it quite clear that she was as displeased with his ‘my son’ comment as he was with her ‘Mr. Leonides’. They would have to quickly find neutral ground before the children were adversely affected.
“Mommy, I miss my pipe.” Harper raised her pretty blue eyes to meet her mother’s matching set.
“I know you do, sweetie, Uncle Ethan promised to pick everything up as soon as he can. Until then I’ll see if we can find you another one to practice on. If you don’t feel like practicing, maybe Mist . . . Hector has some cards and we could play Fish or Old Maid.”
At least she had stopped with the Mr. Leonides and changed it to Hector, without the honorarium of ‘uncle’ attached. He would have preferred patera or basbas or the Americanized Baba, but even baby steps could complete a journey of a thousand miles when given enough time.
“Do you, Baba? Do you have cards?” Elijah bounced over to him. “If you do, us men can play Fish over on that table while Harper plays the piano and Mommy can sing to us.”
“Perhaps your mother would like to play cards also.” Nervousness, a trait Hector didn’t usually have to worry about, beset him. How could the thought of entertaining two little boys scare him? He wanted them, they belonged to him. He wanted Magnolia to admit they were his children. But suddenly his palms were sweating and his chest tightened. He wondered how long it would take his personal assistant to find him a suitable nanny to care for the children.
“No, she doesn’t. Mommy hates playing cards. She only does it to make us happy. She’d much rather sing.” Atticus assured him.
Magnolia took pity on him and sent the boys to wash their hands in the adjoining lavatory. “If you don’t want to play cards with them, it’s okay. I’m an expert at keeping them busy.”
“I am happy to play with them.” Suddenly playing a child’s card game was the most important thing on his agenda for the day.
“Okay then, if you really want to. But a word of advice. Don’t trust the little demons. They cheat. And whatever you do, don’t accept any bets. They’ll have all your money within ten minutes if you do.”
“They bet money on a child’s game?” What kind of life did his children lead?
“They are not allowed to bet, and I expect you to enforce that. You have to be strong, because they will double team you.” She shrugged her shoulders and gave him a wry smile. “They have spent far too much time with roadies for playmates.” She turned to walk away, but stopped after two steps. “I hate to ask you for any more favors, but we are short on supplies.”
“This ship is well supplied.” Hector was indignant.
“Yes, for adults. I saw plenty of condoms in the cabin and bathroom, but nothing for children to play with. Unless you want them to start having water balloon fights with lubricated condoms.”
Dammit! He felt his face flushing. “Niko travels on here often. I am sure we have things for him to play with.”
Magnolia’s face turned red. Did the mention of her half-brother still offend her as strongly as it did five years ago? It was unnatural this hatred she had for a mere child.
“Niko is fifteen years old. His toys would not be appropriate for a four-year-old. Sure, if we added their ages together we would get twelve, but Harper, Atticus, and Elijah are individual units and those units are each still only four years old.”
He was fascinated to watch Magnolia’s chest rise as she took a deep breath.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have snapped.” She smiled, but it didn’t reach her blue eyes. “I just get tired of people who expect my children to act like little adults.”
“What is it you need? The closest islands are small but have tourists markets.” He saw the hopeful look on her face and knew he had to dash it before he did something foolish. “I will send Biton ashore to purchase whatever it is you want.”
“I was hoping we might be near an island with a shopping area. The children need some toys and other supplies. Plus I was hoping to get them onto stable land for a few hours. The motion sickness medication is good, but I don’t like having to drug them too much. They need time to run around and feel the earth under them. To build castles on a sandy beach.”
“Tamara said you wanted the solitude of a long cruise while you put distance between yourself and your latest conquest. Island hopping was not part of the itinerary.”
This was surely another sign that Magnolia had set this elaborate scheme in motion. What was she after? He mentally snorted as the answer came to him. His money. It had not taken her very long to want to go shopping. Or was she playing a deeper game? Did she arrange all of this to dangle the children in front of him in the hopes of forcing his hand into marriage? Maybe he was wrong and they weren’t his. Emotions he had believed were long dead created confusion in his thought processes and he felt like a handball being constantly bounced off a hard surface. Who was the real Magnolia Brisland? The sweet innocent he had met in Hawaii or the bitch who refused to care for her half brother?
He looked deep into Magnolia’s blue eyes and remembered the woman he had made love to several times a day for a brief month. She had been fun and innocent. She had also been insatiable. He would have bet everything he owned that she loved him. Until the day she left and proved him wrong.
“That would be Callie’s orders.” Magnolia’s lovely face twisted into a grimace. “She’s making sure I don’t go AWOL. Which explains why she wanted the kids to be with me and not Joyelle. She knows I would never leave them with a stranger.”
“Leaving them with their father is not leaving them with a stranger.” His voice was harsh, but he could not pull it back into a reasonable tone. With this woman around, his control went right out the porthole.
“Callie wouldn’t know that was an option.” Magnolia hung her head.
“You claim that she is your best friend, how could she not know? How did you two manage to get Tamara’s help?”
“Mara is part of the Triad of Terror. No matter where she is she will always drop everything to be there to help us when we need her.”
Her voice was low. Apparently she was now trying to cover up Tamara’s complicity.
“So she knew I had fathered your children when I met her in Athens?”
“Hector, nobody knows you are the father of my children.” She shook her head. “Except me and now you.”
“She doesn’t know that I am the father?” Magnolia shook her head, but he couldn’t believe her. “Who does she think fathered those children?” Magnolia didn’t answer him. “Have you passed some other poor fool off as the father?” He was furious that some other man was involved with his children. “Has he been paying maintenance on the children? Are you still involved with him?”
The thought of Magnolia with another man burned an acid hole into the top of his skull and it was quickly dribbling into his good sense and abolishing it. He must release the angry steam before it caused him to do or say something he would later regret. Unfortunately, there wasn’t anyone nearby he could hit.
“No other man has laid claim to my children, nor does anyone else pay for them. I work hard and pay my own way in this world.” Her glorious blue eyes stared directly into his. “I support my own children. I have since before they were born, and I will until the day they don’t need me anymore.”
Which was a lot more than could be said for his cousin Damaris. He had been supplementing the meager income she received from Nick Brisland’s estate. Damaris said she hated to take charity, but her son needed a good home and education if he wanted to be a man.
But to be fair to his cousin, she had been raised as a wealthy young Greek woman. She had been expected to marry well and to dedicate her time to raising a family while donating her time to organizing charity fund raisers. It was unfortunate that she met the notorious lecher Nickolas Brisland. A man who didn’t have the decency to include his son in his will.
“Now that I know about the children, I will be taking care of them. You will be able to afford to share your father’s money with Nickolas. The children will not suffer because Niko is getting what is rightfully his.” He kept his tone soft, reasonable.
Magnolia’s face flamed bright red.
“How much of a share do you think I should give Niko?”
Ahh! Good. Her voice was quiet and calm. No trace of anger. The red in her face was due to embarrassment.
“Considering all the years you have refused to sell any of your father’s properties, and kept all the shares and royalties to yourself, I am sure a court would order you to give Niko seventy-five percent. However, I believe an equal split of fifty percent would be adequate.”
He was mystified by her sudden burst of laughter.
“You don’t really know what has been going on, do you? You just know the load of horse shit dear old Damaris has been feeding you.”
“Excuse me?”
“First of all, if I am to divvy up all my father’s assets, everything would have to be split into twenty-three shares. Second, I am leaving the band. No more living on a tour bus for me and the kids. That means the band is going to retire. Third, my father’s financial situation has never recovered from the six million he paid Damaris to go away. In fact, she is in breach of the contract she signed and I could drag her ass into court and demand she pay back every penny, plus interest.”
“Twenty-three shares?” He was still trying to comprehend that ludicrous number.
“That’s right. I would have to divide it between all twenty-three of my siblings.”
Her smirk intrigued him. He wanted to kiss the corner of her lips, while at the same time he wanted to throttle her.
“They cannot all be your brothers and sisters.”
“According to the DNA tests they are.” She crossed her arms over her breasts.
He liked looking at her breasts. Memories of the last time he had used them as a pillow interfered with his concentration on the conversation. She had wonderful breasts. With delicious pink nipples that made his mouth water just thinking about them.
“My father was a ho. There’s no getting around that.”
That statement jarred him out of his pleasant contemplation of her cleavage.
“In that case, your math is wrong. You should be dividing the assets into twenty-four shares.”
“I don’t need a share of nothing, but thank you for thinking of me.” A dimple appeared in her cheek. “You know, and I didn’t include myself for a share, because a twenty-fourth of nothing is nothing I’m not a math genius or financial wizard, but I’m smart enough to figure that much out for myself.”
“A share of a band like the Mangy Mutts, even split into so many slices, would still be worth a lot of money. The royalties on the songs alone must be worth a fortune.”
Magnolia walked over to him and gently took his hand. “Hector, my dear, I don’t believe you heard all of what I was saying. The band is retiring and I am buying a nice place for me and the kids to settle down. I want them to have a normal life. Breezy and the Mangy Mutts have reached the end of the road. My uncles are tired. They want to settle into retirement with fishing rods and grandchildren bouncing on their arthritic knees. They want to go to ball games. Maybe even shave.”
“Would not the singer, Breezy, still want the band to carry on, even if it meant hiring new musicians?” He could not comprehend the band no longer existing.
“That’s just it, Hector, Breezy is also retiring. She and I have been on the road for more than ten years. Sleeping in a different place every night. It is time to let the dogs out. My children deserve a healthy lifestyle.”
“There is still his music catalog . . .”
“I’m not talking about this anymore. Either we drop the subject or you drop us off at the next island.” She stuck her little chin out and he wanted to engulf the proud creature in front of him in his arms.
“When we met four years ago, you told me you had quit your job to go to college. Why did you return to the band?”
“Why?” Her tone was ironic. “I needed the money.”
“The band could have hired another road manager. You are not indispensable.” Hector pushed his anger down. There was no room on the yacht for him to turn his anger on this scrap of a woman.
“I am to the Mangy Mutts.”
“Why did you run away leaving me with nothing more than a lipsticked message on the mirror?” He sounded pathetic, even to his own ears. Hector wished he could retract the question. He hadn’t meant to ask her that.
She sighed before answering. “I woke up and you weren’t in bed with me. I heard your voice outside, so I went out onto the balcony. You were in the garden with Damaris. I heard you say you had it all covered. She would be getting her money. That’s when I realized our time in paradise had been a sham. Part of a con.” Her blue eyes looked like hydrangea blossoms crushed on white gravel. “All you cared about was the money I supposedly had.” She waved her bandaged arm in the air. “It was clear you had set out to secure the money for Damaris. So I did what you wanted. I went back to work to keep the money flowing into the greedy bitch’s bank account.”