Read Online The Tycoon's Son by Cindy Kirk - Free Book Online

Still, Theo could tell Katherine had something on her mind.

    He’d been watching her closely, and she was definitely more withdrawn than she’d been last night.

    “Is something wrong?” Theo asked her pointedly after the espresso had been poured. “You seem preoccupied.”

    “I’m afraid I have to get off the ship tomorrow in Naples,” Katherine said, true regret in her voice. “Father called this morning. He insists I meet him in Athens tomorrow to discuss some last-minute changes in the new publicity campaign we’re getting ready to launch.”

    “You couldn’t discuss it over the phone?” Theo knew it was futile before the words left his mouth. From what he understood, when Elias Stamos called, you answered.

    “’Fraid not.” Katherine grimaced. “When it comes to business…”

    They hadn’t really discussed Elias Stamos and Theo had been thankful for that. But now he found himself curious. Could this last-minute meeting in Athens simply be the man’s way of cutting short Katherine’s time with him? “Did your father know you and Helena were meeting me?”

    Helena took a sip of her mimosa. “We told him.”

    “He was supportive,” Katherine said, answering the unspoken question in Theo’s eyes.

    “That surprises me.” He wanted to trust what Katherine had to say but he couldn’t help but be suspicious. After all, how could a man who’d spent his entire life pretending he didn’t have a son suddenly do a three-sixty?

    “For all his faults, family is everything to him,” Helena said.

    “Not all family,” Theo said flatly.

    “His refusal to have anything to do with you is puzzling,” Katherine observed. “He certainly could have pushed for visitation since he was paying child support, but he never did. I’m not sure why.”

    Theo frowned. What kind of game was Katherine playing? His mother hadn’t received child support. Money—or lack of it—was the only reason his mother had left him with his grandparents.

    Tasia had been far from the perfect mother but she’d never have done something so…selfish. Was Katherine trying to drive a wedge between his mother and him? Or had Elias lied to his daughters, not wanting to lose their respect?

    “I was there once when your mother came to see him.” Remembrance lit Helena’s eyes. “Neither of them knew I was in the house.”

    “When was this?” Theo kept his tone offhand.

    “A couple years ago,” Helena said. “She wanted him to publicly acknowledge you as his son and to make sure you shared in his fortune.”

    “What did he say?” Theo asked.

    “He told her that if you wanted a relationship with him, you should contact him, he was through dealing with her.” Helena’s lips quirked up in a humorless smile. “I’d never seen my father so angry. He said he wouldn’t be surprised if she’d spent all that child support money on herself, not you.”

    “Though I’m sure that didn’t happen,” Katherine hastened to add. “It was just his anger talking.”

    A band tightened around Theo’s chest making it difficult for him to breathe, much less speak. “What happened then?”

    Helena bit her lip, suddenly appearing unsure. “She left.”

    “He never mentioned you directly to us and we didn’t feel it was our place to ask,” Katherine added. “Not until this spring. He told us Mother had encouraged him to contact you but he never had.”

    “So your mother knew about me?”

    “That’s what he said.” Helena took another sip of her drink. “I think he wanted us to know he’d always been honest with her. And he insisted that once he met our mother, he’d never so much as looked at another woman.”

    “You believe that?” Theo asked. These were sophisticated women. It was hard to accept they could be so naive.

    The two women exchanged glances and nodded.

    “You’d have believed it, too, if you’d seen them together,” Helena said, her eyes unnaturally bright. “They were so much in