Leaving Him: A New Adult International Romance Serial (Angelique's Greek Book 4)
Read Leaving Him: A New Adult International Romance Serial (Angelique's Greek Book 4) Online
Authors: Kay Brody
ANGELIQUE’S GREEK:
BOOK 4
Leaving Him
A Standalone Spinoff of The Greek Tycoon
By Kay Brody
Rights & Disclaimer
This is entirely a work of fiction. All people, places and events contained have been completely fabricated by the author. Any similarities to real people, places, or events are completely coincidental.
Leaving Him Copyright © 2016 Kay Brody
All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any manner or used in any way without advanced written permission by the author.
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Dedication
This book is for John.
You’re still the only one to make me swoon.
Chapter 1
Cat Island was as quiet as it always was, and every single person in Arthur’s Town had greeted Angelique by name and asked her about her handsome companion. She had laughed happily and hung onto Theo’s arm, feeling ever more comfortable with him. By the time they got to the street of her family home, a narrow road with gingerbread wooden houses and blooming flower gardens, she was exhausted with talking and wanted nothing more than to flop onto the hammock on the veranda and sip on an ice-cold juice.
Theo took her milk chocolate hand in his. “I love it here.”
She watched the golden light of the afternoon play on his face with the shadow from the jacaranda tree overhead. “I’m glad.”
“I can’t wait to meet your family.”
“I can’t wait to see them.”
Her house was the one at the end, painted a delicate shade of lilac that always soothed her. She imagined how happy her family would be when they saw her. She’d decided not to ring ahead, but to surprise them instead.
But before she even got to the gate she could feel something was wrong.
“They’re not here,” she said. “Look at the garden.”
“What do you mean?” Theo asked.
Her mother always kept the garden immaculate. There were a couple of stray tendrils, a couple of weeds pushing up from the flowerbeds—something wasn’t right.
She opened the gate and ran to the house to find out what she already knew in her heart. Knocking on the door, she peered through the windows, but there was nothing in there. It was empty.
She began to shake. No one had called her. No one had told her anything. There must be something seriously wrong.
“What the hell is going on?” She ran around the walls of the house, calling upstairs. “Josette? Mom? Cherie? Claudine? Dad?”
But no answer came.
“Try the door,” Theo said.
She fumbled with her keys and the shaking of her hands made a jangling sound. When she pushed the key into the lock it didn’t fit. “This is so weird.” She was beginning to feel seriously freaked out.
There was only one thing to do. The surprise of her arrival would have to be abandoned. She would ring her mother’s cell.
As she heard the ringing in her ears and waited for her mom to pick up, she felt tears spilled down her cheeks. Theo put his hand on her shoulder and gave her a look filled with strength, which was exactly what she needed.
There was no answer from her mother, but there was no way she was giving up. She redialed and waited, her eyes scanning nervously over the family garden she had once adored.
“Hello?” her mother’s voice said, and relief flooded through her body.
“Mom,” she said, her voice thickening with tears.
“Is everything okay?”
“I’m at home, Mom,” Angelique said.
Her mother gasped, then slowly began to chuckle.
“Oh, no.” She called out to the rest of the family. “Angelique’s back at home.”
“So where are you?”
“By Mermaid Hole.”
Angelique’s frown fell away and a huge smile spread across her face. Mermaid Hole was her favorite place in the world, hands down.
“Do I still have time to come over before you guys leave?”
Her mom chuckled. “I would think so, considering we live there now.”
Angelique gasped. “No. No way.”
“Yes, my dear. That’s why we wanted to keep it a surprise, because—”
Angelique didn’t give her time to finish. She broke into a delighted scream and jumped around the garden. Theo watched her, light in his eyes.
“Mom, please tell me you’re not kidding me, right?” Angelique said. “It’s really true, we live at Mermaid Hole now?”
“That’s right!”
“We’re coming over right now!” Angelique squealed.
“Who’s we?”
Angelique smiled. “Aha, you’re not the only one with surprises.”
Mermaid Hole was within walking distance, and Angelique and Theo found themselves holding hands as they strolled along the palm fringed streets.
“So tell me about it,” Theo said. “Mermaid Hole.”
Angelique breathed a deep sigh of satisfaction. “It’s so beautiful. It’s like a botanical garden complex, with waterfalls, and a flower garden, and a stream. The best bit is where they’ve engineered the river so it wells into these running pools, and you can bathe there in the middle of the jungle. The flowers are all around you, and butterflies, and little birds. And it just feels like you’re in paradise itself.”
“Wow,” Theo breathed. “It sounds great.”
“I can’t believe we live there now,” she said. “I was always there when I was a kid. And when I would come back from Little Ekali that was the first place I’d go. I just felt … so at peace there, you know?”
“Sure,” Theo said. “You know, before I made all this money, when I was back in my younger days, I found my own place like that. I bet it was nowhere near as nice as Mermaid Hole, but it was the only place I had. Where I lived was so busy; all the shacks were crammed together and there wasn’t an inch to move. So I used to run away sometimes, all the way through the little forest at the back of where we all lived. It was so steep I had to step on the little trunks as I went up. And then at the top there was a plateau, with a stream running over it, before it went down the other side of the hill. And when things got hard for me I would just go up there to be by the stream. Things didn’t feel so hard up there.”
“
Exactly
,” Angelique said, squeezing his hand tighter. “It’s like you go there and your troubles… well, they don’t fall away exactly, but they fade into the background.”
She already felt like her troubles were falling away since arriving in Cat Island, the Bahamian island she called home. Though she had loved Dubai, and Hawaii, and the prospect of opening a spa hotel under Carla and Atreus’ Kostas Hotel Group, the reality had turned out to be a lot more difficult than the vision.
Angelique was the type of girl to press on through every difficulty, just to meet her goal, but somewhere along the line the fire had left her. She was no longer sure she was doing the right thing. She needed some time and space to regroup and reconsider.
She looked over at Theo and knew she had made the right choice bringing him here. The fact that she lived in Mermaid Hole now only made things a hundred times better.
“I really hope you like it,” she said.
“If it’s anything like this,” Theo said, gesturing around them at the blooming bougainvillea and painted wooden houses by the roadside, “I’m going to love it.”
Soon they turned off the main street onto a bumpy stone road that seemed to lead right into the jungle itself. There were only a couple of houses on each side.
“Ooh, Mrs. Lavantille has painted her shutters,” said Angelique. They used to be a fading white, but now contrasted the mint green wooden house in a delicate shade of pink.
Theo laughed out loud. “You sound like a little old lady,” he joked.
Angelique laughed along. “That’s what life is like on a tiny island,” she said. “You notice everything new. Everyone you see you know. If you don’t know them, they’re tourists or someone’s cousin, and the next person you see will know.”
“I would love that kind of life,” said Theo.
Angelique almost opened her mouth to tell him to stay, but knew it was too soon. She had already rushed into everything with him, she didn’t want to jump into another big commitment just yet. It was so hard, though. Being with him felt so natural. She felt totally approved of, like she could be herself.
Theo grinned at her, somewhat teasingly. “I bet it keeps you good. When everyone knows you, you can’t really do anything bad.”
“Maybe that’s why we have no crime,” she said.
They followed the bend in the road that led deeper into the forest. The path was shadowed by the canopy, and the air was full of the chirping of birds. Already the blissful happiness that surrounded her when she was in Mermaid Hole was closing in.
She looked over at Theo and thought she couldn’t be more glad that he was there to share it with her. She was about to tell him that when she caught some movement out of the corner of her eye, further down the path. She looked, and saw her mother and her youngest sister Claudine.
“Mama! Claudine!” She turned Theo’s hand loose, smiling at him, then sprinted over to them, pulling her blue linen maxi dress to her knees so she wouldn’t trip.
Her mother and sister were beaming from ear to ear.
“Come here, baby,” her mother said, pulling her close. Claudine, even though she was eighteen now, acted like an excited little kid, bouncing up and down on her toes and squealing. “Hey, Ma, give me a turn!” she said.
They all laughed as Angelique broke away to hug Claudine.
Claudine whispered in her ear. “Mm, mm, mm, now just
who
is that?” Her tone left no doubt that Claudine thought Theo just as dazzlingly attractive as Angelique did.
“Don’t you dare try anything,” she whispered back. “I’m serious about him.”
Claudine rocked back, mock offended, her hand to her chest. “Moi?”
Angelique swatted at her. “Mummy, this is Theo. Theo, this is my mother, Anna Felix, and my youngest sister Claudine.”
Theo held his hand out to shake Anna’s hand. “Pleased to meet you, Mrs. Felix. And you, Claudine.”
“I want him to stay with us for a while,” Angelique said.
Theo shifted on his feet. “Or I can book a hotel, if it’s too inconvenient.”
Anna laughed and put her arm around Theo’s shoulders, leading him further down the path. “Listen to him. Why book a hotel when we have spare rooms? Pa ni pwoblem.”
“Mummy!” Claudine giggled.
“My mum’s from St. Lucia,” Angelique said. “Pa ni pwoblem means it’s no problem.”
“That’s right,” Anna said. “But once I took a good look at their father, and saw how well-established his business was here, I decided to stay. He is head of an insurance firm. What is it you do for a living?”
“She’ll be asking you how much money you make next,” Claudine said, giggling. “It’s the Mummy test for prospective boyfriends. If you think this is bad, wait for the Daddy test. I’ve given up on love, I’m telling you.” They all laughed.
As they turned a corner and saw a big painted sign affixed to a large gate, around which flowers bloomed in an abundance of vibrant colors.
Mermaid Hole.