Chapter FOUR
Three months later.
PERLA LOOKED UP for the umpteenth time as the Pantelides Inc. reception phone rang. The superbly groomed receptionist answered in dulcet tones and sliced another cool look at Perla before turning away.
Her teeth gritted and for a second she fought the urge to march over to the desk and demand she call upstairs again and get her the meeting she’d come here for.
Instead, she smoothed her hand down the black pencil skirt she’d spent her dwindling funds on and forced herself to remain seated. She’d turned up with no prior appointment, but only because her phone calls and emails had gone unanswered. And, truth be told, she’d only been waiting an hour and a half.
But being in the architecturally imposing building that bore the Pantelides name made her nerves jangle with each heartbeat, despite chastising herself that the likelihood that Arion Pantelides was in residence was negligible.
As the head of Pantelides Luxe, the branch of the conglomerate that ran its luxury hotels and casinos around the world—yes, she’d researched him in a moment of madness—Arion Pantelides spent very little time in England. And even if he were here, she’d asked for an appointment with the head of HR in Sakis’s absence, not his brother.
So, really, there was no need for her to feel as if she were playing dare in an electric lightning storm.
Nevertheless, when the phone rang again, she held her breath. Expertly waxed eyebrows arched her way and a manicured hand motioned her forward.
Sighing her relief, Perla approached the desk as the receptionist hung up.
With another glance, which was now tinged with heavy speculation, the receptionist slid a visitor’s badge along with a short silver key across the sleek glass counter.
‘Please wear this at all times. Take the last lift on the right. Turn the key and press the button.’
Perla wanted to ask which floor she needed but she didn’t want to look a fool, so she nodded her thanks and walked on shaky feet to the lift.
As it turned out, there was only one button to press. After inserting the key, she stabbed the green button that simply read AP and held her breath as the doors slid smoothly shut.
Her trepidation rose along with her meagre breakfast as she was whisked up at warp speed.
She barely had time to swallow the sudden nausea that assailed her before the lift doors were sliding open again. She started to step out, then froze as ice washed over her.
Arion Pantelides stood before her, tall, breathtaking, imposing...and as granite-faced as he’d been on the day she’d buried Morgan.
Perla swallowed. And swallowed again before she could speak. ‘I think there’s been some sort of misunderstanding. I’m not here to see you. I came to see your brother, my late husband’s employer. Or, in his absence, I asked for the head of HR.’
‘Sakis isn’t here.’ He confirmed what she already knew. ‘He’s on an extended honeymoon.’ That voice, deep, husky, tinged with a haunting quality that she’d found intriguing since their first meeting, feathered along her nerves, sending her insides quaking with emotion so strong she wanted to take a step back from it.
Perla bit her lip. ‘Yes, I know he got married last month but I didn’t know he was still away... I was hoping he was back...’ She drifted to a stop, her gaze trying desperately not to stray over his hauntingly beautiful face. A face that had featured in her dreams more times than she cared to acknowledge even to herself.
‘He would’ve got married sooner. He delayed it because your husband’s involvement in the Pantelides oil tanker crash was still under investigation. It would’ve been in bad taste to celebrate what is supposed to be the happiest day of any man’s life with events like that hanging over everyone’s head.’
The veiled mockery in his tone made her hackles rise, but it was the memory of his blistering anger the last time they’d met that made her insides quake.
She sucked in a deep breath. ‘I apologise for the inconvenience—’
A slashing gesture with his hand stopped her words. ‘He’ll be back in two weeks. Feel free to come back then.’
The lift doors started to shut. Galvanised into action, she threw out a hand to stop it just as he did the same. Warm fingers grazed hers, sending electricity zapping through her. Perla jumped back and felt her heart thunder as she caught the look he levelled at her.
‘I’m...I’m afraid this can’t wait. Just point me in the direction of HR and I’ll be out of your hair...’
As if reminded of that part of her, he stepped back and his lazy gaze trailed upward to rest on the hair she’d pulled back into a tight bun. Once he’d looked his fill, those hazel eyes, whose mesmerising flecks she recalled so vividly, recaptured hers. ‘The whole HR team is on a day’s training in Paris.’
Her stomach plummeted with despair. ‘You’re kidding, right? The whole team?’
He raised a brow at her.
‘This really is an emergency. I came here specially. I need to talk to someone.’
Just like that, he shrugged, turned and walked away.
With every fibre of her being she wanted to let the doors shut once more and be plunged back to the ground floor, back to safety. But too much depended on her trip here today. Much too much.
So she took one step into Arion Pantelides’s vast, opulent domain.
The architecture of the Pantelides Tower had looked formidable and stunning from the outside. Inside his office, the glass, chrome and steel structure blended with earthy tones made the place simply magnificent.
A wide roll-top desk, obviously an expensive antique, took up one corner of the glass-walled room, offering a breathtaking view of the river and the iconic buildings across the water. Under her feet, a deep gold carpet muffled her tentative footsteps.
She managed to take that all in in the handful of seconds before Arion folded his leanly muscled frame behind his desk.
Fighting her rising irritation, she glanced back at him. ‘Did you hear what I said? I need to talk to someone. It’s important.’
‘By all means, if this can’t wait, tell me what the problem is and I’ll see if I can accommodate you.’
He was toying with her, like a jungle animal toying with his prey. But she would not give him the satisfaction of thinking he could pounce and annihilate her again without consequences.
Even though the need to turn tail and flee stalked through her, she held her ground. Because what other choice did she have? She couldn’t exactly flounce out of here. Her situation was too dire. They needed a solution now or Morgan’s parents would lose the house in which they’d brought up their son. After what they’d been through, Perla couldn’t stand by and do nothing whilst they suffered another blow in addition to the one they’d already been dealt by losing their only child.
Pursing her lips, she reached into her bag and brought out the file she’d compiled. Stepping forward, she slapped it on the table in front of him.
‘According to these letters, neither Morgan’s parents nor I are entitled to his death-while-employed insurance pay out. That can’t be right. I know he signed on for that benefit.’
Arion steepled his fingers and watched her dispassionately over them. ‘Ah, so you’re here to collect on your husband’s death.’
She couldn’t stop herself from flinching at his tone. And he saw it because his eyes gleamed with something akin to satisfaction.
She straightened her spine. ‘I’m only asking what is rightly due to me as the spouse of a man who died while employed by your brother’s company. I’ve read the small print. I know my rights, so I’d thank you not to make me sound like a vulture, Mr Pantelides.’ She kept her voice firm because she sensed that any weakness would be met with scalpel-sharp ruthlessness.
Abruptly, he sat forward. Even across his desk, his imposing figure dominated, enclosing her in his powerful aura and making her pulse race.
Steady breaths. Just breathe.
‘Trust me, glikia mou. No red-blooded man would look at you and liken you to a vulture. There are other, more exotic creatures perfectly apt to describe you.’
Really? Perla nearly groaned in relief when she realised she hadn’t asked the question out loud.
‘I’d prefer not to be thought of in terms of creatures great or small. Are you able to help me with this or am I wasting my time here?’ she snapped.
Arion shrugged and glanced at his watch. ‘Unfortunately, I have a lunch meeting in fifteen minutes.’ He reached across and grabbed the papers from the table. ‘Are you staying in town?’
She frowned at the unexpected question. ‘No, I’m returning to Bath this evening.’
‘Then don’t let me stop you. Someone will be in touch soon.’
Something in the way he said that made suspicion rise higher. ‘And just how soon is soon?’
Another careless shrug. ‘I can get my brother to email his head of HR and get them to look into it but he’s somewhere in the South Pacific. In a state of wedded bliss, who knows how often he checks his emails.’ A shadow crossed his face, a tiny hint of what she’d glimpsed that night in the Macdonald Hall car park. Despite the need for self-preservation, her heart twisted.
‘Arion...’ He immediately stiffened and she bit her lip. Wrong move, Perla! Keep on point. ‘Mr Pantelides, I don’t have the sort of time you’re offering. Could you...would you be willing to look into this yourself for me? Please?’ she added when he remained frozen.
His eyes hardened. ‘Is this where you trot out the for old time’s sake?’
A heated flush crawled up her neck. ‘No, I wouldn’t be so crass as to refer to an occasion we’d both prefer to forget...but of course you won’t believe that about me so I don’t even know why I’m bothering. Look, I’m not sure whether you know about my circumstances, but Morgan and I lived with his parents after we got married. We were always going to move out and get a place of our own but that never happened. Two years ago, his mother was in a bad accident. Terry, Morgan’s father, had to give up his job to look after her. Times have been hard for them. Without Morgan’s insurance payment, they could lose their house. I know I’m nothing but a piece of trash in your eyes but they don’t deserve to lose their home so soon after losing their son.’
She sucked in a breath and risked a glance at him. His expression remained stone-cold. For several minutes he didn’t speak. Then he reached into his desk and slid across a small black triangular piece of gleaming plastic.
There were no markings on it. It could’ve been one of those if-you-had-to-apply-for-it-you-couldn’t-afford-it credit cards reserved for multi-billionaires she’d read about in a magazine once. Or it could’ve been a loyalty card for die-hard coffee addicts. Perla had no way of telling. She looked from the card to Arion’s face.
‘What’s that for?’ she asked suspiciously.
‘That card lets you into that lift.’ He nodded towards the small lift to one side of his office, across from the one she’d come up in. ‘The lift will take you straight to my penthouse. You’ll wait for me there—’
‘No way.’ Perla stopped what was coming before he could finish.
His nostrils flared. ‘Excuse me?’
‘I won’t do...whatever it is you have in mind. I know you think I’m nothing but some common whore but you’re wrong. What happened between us that night wasn’t cheap and it wasn’t tawdry. Not for me at least. And I despise you for thinking I’d stoop that low to get you to help me—’
‘Shut the hell up for one second and listen.’ His rough command dried her words.
Her fist clenched. ‘How dare you speak to me like—?’
‘You said you have nowhere to stay. I have a meeting in...exactly eight minutes which will last for five hours. Minimum. Unless you intend to wander the streets in the rain until I’m finished, my offer is the best you’re going to get.’
Surprise stamped through her. ‘Oh, you mean you want me to go up and just...wait for you?’ she asked.
‘Why, Mrs Lowell, you sound disappointed.’
Severely taken aback, it took her a minute to regroup. ‘I assure you, I’m not.’
He held out the card. ‘Good.’
With a hand she cursed for trembling, she took it and headed slowly for the lift, trepidation in her every step.
‘Oh, and Perla?’ he murmured mockingly.
She stopped and turned back to him. ‘What?’
‘Don’t look so frightened. You’re not going up to a den of iniquity. There’s more to my apartment than a bed and a pole for you to perform on.’
Her hand tightened on the card. ‘Wow, I’m shocked you even have those. The way you’ve been acting, I’d imagine a torture rack and thumb screws would be more accurate furnishings for the women you send up there.’
His eyes darkened and the hand lying on the table clenched into a fist. She’d scored a point in their battle of wills. Finally. But the victory felt hollow. With every word and every gesture, Arion tainted their one night together, letting bitterness fill the space where she’d known a few hours of joy. If only she could forget. But forgetting was impossible. Not when he sat there, so vital, so impossibly gorgeous.
So infuriatingly captivating.
‘I’ve never invited a woman to my penthouse. Ever.’
‘Oh, then I’ll consider myself one lucky woman. Don’t worry, I’ll try not to skip with joy and ruin your priceless floors.’ She quickened her steps towards the lift, eager to be out of his sight and escape that merciless tongue. The plastic key slid soundlessly into the designated slot and the lift whispered open. She turned and faced the office, not in the least bit surprised to find Arion’s gaze fixed squarely on her.
She wriggled her fingers in a careless wave. ‘See you in a few hours, charmer.’
He didn’t take his eyes off her, nor did he respond to her mockery as the lift door shut. But the look in his eyes sent a shiver of unease through her.
And with every hour that passed, despite having been whisked up into what felt like the lap of luxury—Ari’s personal chef had served her the most delicious three-course meal, after which she’d had a call from the concierge to find out whether she wanted a facial or pedicure while she waited—her tension escalated.
So much so that when she heard the lift whisper open she stopped breathing. She jerked up from the suede sofa and her feet hit the floor with a thud. The magazine she’d been reading—one of many supplied by the concierge—spilled onto the floor. She bent to pick it up and straightened to find him a foot away, those piercing hazel eyes pinned on her.
‘You...uh, do you have news for me?’ she blurted, more to stem the overwhelming force of his presence than a need for immediate answers.
But then she didn’t see the need for pleasantries. They weren’t friends. Hell, they weren’t even lovers. They were two strangers who’d given in to a mad moment that had returned to haunt them with merciless cruelty.
‘Is that how you greeted your husband when he returned from work?’ he rasped.
Her shocked gasp made him freeze. She watched a contrite grimace cross his face.
‘Forgive me, that was beyond tasteless,’ he rasped.
‘Not to mention extremely disrespectful. You know nothing about my life with Morgan.’ And she intended it to remain that way.
He clawed a hand through his hair. ‘No, I didn’t. I’m sorry.’
With jerky movements, he loosened then yanked his tie off and flung it on the sofa where she’d been sitting.
Not expecting his immediate apology, Perla was left floundering. ‘Apology accepted,’ she murmured, a little absently because suddenly she found herself wondering what it would be like to have a real husband come home to her.
A husband like...Arion?
Hell, no. They would drive each other homicidal within weeks.
But during that time too they would have hot, exquisite, mind-melting sex.
The heat that rushed over her made her take a step back and give herself a mental slap. She wasn’t here to reminisce over dreams that wouldn’t come true in a million years. She was here to save Terry and Sarah’s home—her home—before the bank made good on their threat of repossession.
Focus.
But then how could she, when Arion, having discarded his tie, was now in the process of undoing his top buttons, revealing the gloriously sleek muscled chest she’d explored without shame or inhibition a little over three months ago?
He caught her stare and a look passed through his eyes. One she didn’t want to interpret. One that made her rush to speech.
‘I’m sorry if I seem to be rushing you but I’m hoping to catch the last train back to Bath tonight.’
He sauntered over to the drinks cabinet and poured a large whisky. She shook her head when he indicated the extensive array of drinks with a lifted brow.
She needed to keep her wits about her. The memory of what had happened the last time she’d shared a drink with him was a reminder never to indulge around him. Ever.
‘I had Sakis’s people look into it.’
‘And?’
He knocked back the drink without taking his eyes off her. ‘You said he signed the part of his contract that allows you to receive spousal income on his death?’
‘Yes.’
‘So you’re not aware he signed the Under-Forty waiver thereafter?’ he asked.
Unease dredged through her stomach. ‘What’s an Under-Forty waiver?’
‘All employees under forty can take the option of death insurance or a yearly double bonus in place of compensation to family on death. Once an employee turns forty the option is no longer available. Your husband was—’
‘Morgan was a long way from forty when he died,’ she supplied through numb lips.
Ari nodded. ‘According to his line manager, he asked for that clause to be amended in favour of receiving the double bonus and he never reinstated the original clause. Therefore, you are not entitled to receive funds.’
* * *
Ari watched her expression go from shock to disbelief to anger, then back to disbelief. She opened then shut her mouth. Then her gaze narrowed suspiciously.
‘Please tell me you’re not toying with me or making this up because...because of...’
‘For someone who seems intent on making me believe our incident is behind you, you seem to leap back to it at the slightest opportunity.’
‘I wasn’t... I just...I can’t believe Morgan would do that to his parents.’
To his parents. Not to her. The curious statement set off alarm bells in his brain. He didn’t like alarm bells. They reminded him that he’d refused to listen to them clanging long and hard in the years before his father’s real character had been brought to light.
They reminded him that in the end he’d lived in false hope that the father he’d looked up to wouldn’t attempt to throw him to the wolves to save himself.
‘You think that the husband you were so happy to betray was less than honest with you? Need I point out the irony there?’ he bit out more sharply than he wanted to, the memory of betrayal and devastation growing rawer by the minute.
‘I didn’t betray Morgan.’ Again an expression a lot like pain crossed her face. He hardened himself against it. Much like he’d hardened himself against thinking about her all the way through his meeting. A meeting he had barely been able to control because he hadn’t been able to tear his mind away from the fact that she was here, in his living space, touching his things, leaving the hypnotically seductive scent of her body all over the place.
Theos, what had he been thinking, offering her the use of his apartment when he could just as easily have sent her across the street to the luxury guest apartments they used for visiting executives? Because he hadn’t wanted to risk her strutting into another bar, catching the eye of another hungry predatory male and offering them a taste of what she’d offered him.
Stasi!
The admonition did nothing to lift his mood. ‘I have no interest in lying to you, nor do I take pleasure in prolonging this meeting. You came here seeking information. I’ve provided it. What you do with that information is now up to you. I suggest you come clean with your in-laws and find a way around it.’
Her eyes darkened further as she stared at him. ‘Find a way around it, just like that? You think it’s that easy?’
He shrugged. ‘I fail to see how any of this is my problem.’
She raised both hands and slid them through her long vibrant hair—hair she’d released from its tight bun at some point in the last few hours.
Ari found himself helplessly following the seductive ripple. Heat speared through him as he watched her pace to the window and back to where he stood, her agitated, breast-heaving breathing doing incredibly groin-hardening things to him.
She glared at him, the beginning of fire sparking those amazing green eyes. ‘Surely I should’ve been informed of this change in his contract since I stood to lose from the amendment?’ she railed at him.
The blatant statement of avarice made bitterness surge through him. Arion’s father had torn their family apart, ripped it from its very foundations. All because of greed for money, carnal pleasure and power.
In the three months since his last encounter with Perla, he’d tried to blot the chaotic memories her actions had brought from his mind. He’d told himself that reacting to her the way he had at Macdonald Hall was because he’d been caught on the raw.
But, watching her now, he felt the same insidious desire creeping through him, damning him for being weak and helpless against his body’s reaction to her.
When he’d finally been brought to justice, his father, although he hadn’t shown an ounce of contrition, had confessed that he hadn’t been able to help himself in the face of temptation.
A wave of despair washed over Ari now as he contemplated that perhaps he had a similar trait.
Hell, no!
But even that thought wasn’t enough to stop his gaze from dropping to the hectic rise and fall of Perla’s breasts as she paced his living room.
An image of her perfect rosy nipples and how they’d tasted in his mouth smashed through his mind.
Smothering the recollection, he took a few, much needed steps to his bar. ‘It is what it is. Have you eaten?’ he asked, then wondered why he was prolonging this meeting.
She dropped her hands, her expression incredulous. ‘My life is in tatters and you’re asking me if I want to eat?’
‘Cut the melodrama. I was merely attempting to be courteous. I have nothing else to say to you on the matter of your husband’s employment. Feel free to leave. Or stay and join me for dinner.’ His hand tightened around the decanter as the invitation slipped out, almost without conscious thought.
‘Why do you snarl every time you say the word husband? Morgan was your brother’s tanker pilot, and I know things didn’t end well...’
Ari raised a brow. ‘You think things didn’t end well?’
He knew Sakis had done a stellar job in saving the company’s reputation and hidden the true extent of Morgan Lowell’s sabotage from the press. But was she also oblivious to her husband’s betrayal? Or had she merely blinded herself to her husband’s true nature, the way she’d blithely hidden the fact that she was newly widowed when she’d climbed into his bed?
‘I’m not trying to belittle what happened. I just don’t understand why you look as if you have dog poo on your shoes whenever I use the word husband!’
‘Perhaps I don’t wish to be reminded of the dead.’ Death had brought too much suffering, had left devastation in its path, wounds that could never be healed. Knowing it was death that had made their paths cross in the first place didn’t ease the vice around his chest.
His answer seemed to sober her. ‘No, neither do I,’ she said.
Her steps were decidedly less agitated when she went to retrieve her large bag from the corner of his sofa.
She was leaving, walking out of his life again. That single thought sent a spark of fierce rebellion through his stomach. He didn’t realise he’d placed himself between the lift and her until she stopped in front of him.
‘Thank you for your help, Mr Pantelides.’ Her words were polite enough and her eyes were determined enough but he didn’t miss the slight wobble to her mouth.
Ari wanted to slide his thumb over that mouth, loosen it until its velvet plumpness slid smoothly against his skin.
‘What are you going to do?’ he asked.
Her eyes narrowed. ‘I thought you didn’t care?’
‘People tend to get litigious in your circumstances. For your own sake and the in-laws you claim to care about, I would hate for you to take that route.’
She hitched her handbag up onto her shoulder, her eyes back to full glare. ‘I detect a veiled threat in there. But, from where I’m standing, I have nothing to lose so I may or may not speak with a lawyer to weigh my options.’
‘From where I’m standing, you have none. Do you have a job?’
Her gaze slid away and he got the distinct feeling she was about to be less than truthful. ‘Kind of.’
‘Kind of? Doing what?’
She carefully avoided his gaze. ‘Oh, this and that. Not that it’s any of your business.’
‘And does this and that not provide you with enough to keep a roof over your head?’
Her eyes darted back to his, defiance burning in their depth. ‘If you must know, I’m not working at the moment. But I had a job before I got married. Morgan encouraged me to take a leave of absence for a while so his mother wasn’t left alone for long periods of time. Terry was a long-haul lorry driver.’
‘Right, so your husband convinced you to abandon your career to play babysitter to his mother. And you agreed?’
‘There’s that tone again. Why the hell am I even bothering?’ She tried to move past him. ‘Goodbye, Mr Pantelides. I hope you don’t get a nosebleed from that super lofty position on your high horse.’
He caught her by the waist. The slide of her cotton shirt over her skin reminded him of how it’d felt to undress her, to bare her softness to his touch. Ari’s mouth watered with the fierce need to experience that act again.
Weak... Theos, he was weak, just like his father.
‘Let me go.’
‘No,’ he said, feeling a thread of real fear in that word. He should let her go. Forget about her. Forget how she’d made him feel that night. Because everything that had come after that moment of bliss had brought him nothing but jagged pain.
‘Yes! I refuse to talk to you when you act like I’m some lowlife who’s wandered into your perfect little world.’
‘The circumstances of our meeting—’
‘Can be placed squarely at your feet. I told you to leave me alone in that bar. But you were too busy playing the alpha me-big-man-you-little-woman role to listen to me. If you’d left me alone to have my drink we wouldn’t be in this position.’
He whirled and propelled her back against the wall next to the lift. He didn’t like that description of him. Didn’t like that he’d seen what he wanted and just gone for it. It struck too close to home, made him too similar to the man he’d desperately tried to forget all these years.
And yet, as if from another dimension, he heard his reply. ‘You mean this position when all I can think about is tearing that prissy little skirt off you, yanking aside your panties and slamming inside you?’
Her gasp was hot on his face. He welcomed it. Welcomed the excuse to plunge his tongue between her lips and taste her the way he’d been longing to taste her since she’d walked into his office today.
She pushed frantically at his shoulders but Ari wasn’t in the mood to be denied. Not until he’d taken a little bit of the edge off this insane, pulsating need. Besides, her lips had started to cling, to kiss him back.
He groaned as her tongue dashed out to meet his, tentatively at first, then with progressively daring thrusts that made his blood rush south with dizzying speed. He hitched her higher up on the wall, felt her moan vibrate through them as he palmed her breast.
God, she was hot. So damned hot. Her nipples were already hard nubs beneath his thumbs as he teased them. Her cries of pleasure made him thankful she was here with him, not in a bar somewhere being hit on by other men.
Her fingers scraped over his nape and up through his hair, then dropped back down to restlessly explore his shoulders.
Theos, she was as hungry for him as he was for her.
With impatient fingers he slid up her skirt. The scrap of lace he encountered made his blood boil some more. With a rough growl, he shredded them.
‘Oh, God! I can’t believe you just did that,’ she gasped and stared down at the tattered lace in his hand.
‘Believe it. My hunger for you is bordering on the insane, glikia mou. Be warned.’ He took her lips in another kiss, bit down on the plump lower lip and felt her jerk with the sensation.
Without giving her time to think, he sank to his knees and parted her thighs.
Her eyes widened as she read his intention. ‘Arion...’
He hadn’t had time to explore her like this last time. But this time he fully intended to gorge on her.
‘No,’ she said, but he could read the excitement in her eyes.
He managed to drag his lips from the velvet temptation of her inner thigh and the seductive scent inches away. ‘Why?’
‘Because you’ll hate yourself if we do this again. And you’ll hate me. For whatever trivial reason, you think I soiled something for you by sleeping with you three months ago. Frankly, I don’t want to have to deal with whatever that was again.’
The reminder sent a spear of ice and jagged pain through his heart. Before he could stop himself, he rose and his hand slid to her throat.
Her eyes widened, not with fear, but with wariness at the look he knew was on his face. Every condemning thought he was trying to keep at bay came flooding back.
‘Trivial? You think my reason for blaming you for sullying that day is trivial?’ Pain made his voice hoarse, his heart thud dully in his veins. He distantly registered the quickening pulse beneath his palm but he was too lost in his own turmoil to react to it.
‘I don’t know! You never told me why. You were only interested in shredding me for—’
‘For sleeping with a soulless wanton and ruining my wife’s memory for ever?’