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“But perhaps you think the salass “That I am as selfish and coldhearted as every other man in my family” He looked up at the beautiful, tranquil villa “I hate this place”

“This?” Holly looked up in bewilderean Sea She shook her head wryly “You should have seen the house I grew up in A two-bedroo wallpaper and a heater that broke down in winter”

“After my parents’ divorce, my mother and I briefly lived in a homeless shelter in Boston”

He’d never shared that little tidbit with anyone She looked shocked

“How is that possible?” She pointed toward the villa “There’s no way you could be homeless Not with a father as rich as that!”

“He cut my mother off without a penny in the divorce”

“How could he?”

“He found a way” A huot tired of all his blatant cheating, he was too spiteful to even pay her the paltry aave her a choice—if she voluntarily gave up that incoree” He took a drink “The last thing she wanted was to leave me here with him”

“He cheated on your mother?”

Stavros snorted “You think randfather worse still He irandritted her teeth and pretended it wasn’t happening” He shook his head “I don’t even know allbetween randfather and one of the maids”

“Oh,” she said lamely

Looking toward the sea, he said softly, “But eneration She couldn’t put up with it forever Seeing her suffer broke my heart I vowed I’d never be on either side of it”

“Never love anyone?”

“Or let them love me Love always has a winner and a loser A conqueror and a conquered” He gave a so I never wanted to be either”

Holly looked past the villa’s ashed terrace, illuht from the villa behind them, to the black moon-swept sea beyond