The Secret Heiress (25 page)

“So I have a twin sister?” she said, astounded.

“Yes,” Adrian said. “And Nikos and Larissa Papadaki were your real parents.”

Ariadne started to ask another question, but he quickly picked up the thread of his story and continued. She decided to hear him out before asking anything else.

“ ‘Take this child,’ Nikos ordered me. ‘Leave it somewhere with strangers who don’t know who she is. Tell my wife nothing. Nor anyone else.
Nothing!
’ He’d reached into a trouser pocket and pulled something out. ‘See that the child receives this. It is her mother’s.’

“He thrust a small jewel-encrusted Byzantine cross on a gold chain into my hand,” Adrian said.

Ariadne felt for the chain around her neck and pulled it out. A cross, just as he’d described, dangled from the end of it. “It was this, wasn’t it?”

Adrian looked at the small cross she held in her hand. With a touch of awe he said, “So you still have it after all these years.”

“My mama in Greece made sure I took it when I was brought to America,” Ariadne said. “It’s all I have left of them except for memories.”

“And it belonged to your real mother,” Adrian said. “Larissa Papadaki.”

Ariadne fingered the small cross before finally letting it hang loose around her neck again.

“I’d received many strange commands from Nikos over the years,” Adrian went on. “He would have bouts of . . . madness. I don’t know what else to call them. Normally, I didn’t question him, but I truly found myself flustered when this happened. As Sugar and Angelo know, Nikos could be . . . well, terrifying. His rages were legendary, but this was one time I couldn’t simply follow orders without knowing what was happening.

“I asked him why the child was being taken away,” Adrian continued. “Why must she disappear?

“ ‘Twin heiresses are a curse!’ Nikos bellowed at me.

“That night, I thought Nikos was demented. I could see the zeal of the village peasant in Nikos’s eyes. And something else as well: fear. I knew it was useless to argue with him then. He didn’t even want to touch the baby that he had given me.”

Ariadne swallowed. He was obviously referring to her. She was the baby her own father had been afraid to touch.

“I asked Nikos how he could possibly be certain which baby was which. How could he possibly know that one of them was evil? He just roared he’d used his own judgment, and that everything he’d slaved for and built would—poof!—disappear into thin air if he didn’t get rid of you.”

Adrian paused again, and cleared his throat. “As I’ve said, there was no use arguing with him when he was having one of his spells. He pulled me over to the cliff side of the terrace and pointed down to the cabin cruiser I’d come on. I’ll never forget it. ‘Now go! Take that cursed creature and get it out of my sight!’

“I asked him where, and he said he didn’t know or even want to know. He said he’d set up a generous allowance for the baby’s care for me to administer. Said it could be a hovel for all he cared, so long as no one, above all you, Ariadne, ever learned your true identity. Then, in typical Nikos fashion, he made me swear to it. I figured I could argue with him when he came back to his senses. And I did. For years and years. But he was always convinced that he’d made the right decision. He truly believed in the curse.”

Adrian sighed wearily. “I had never disobeyed him, so I swore to him that I would do as he said.” He paused and looked at Ariadne. “I took you down the steep path to the boat. I remember I stopped on the path at one point because your blanket was soaked, so I took off my jacket and covered you with that, too. Anyway, I set off with you in the boat.”

Adrian drew a deep breath, coughing to clear his throat. “Within a week, I located a middle-aged couple on Hydra,” he said. “They lived on the almost-uninhabited part of the island, as far away from the town as you could get. They were childless and thrilled to accept Ariadne—
you
—into their home as their daughter. I sent them a monthly stipend over the years, from the fund that Nikos had set up.”

“But then why was I taken away from them?” Ariadne asked.

Adrian drew himself up straight, like a responsible executive. “I’d argued with Nikos over the years about whether or not he’d made the right decision, and I finally convinced him that you should be brought here. I knew that if you remained with the Megas family on Hydra, you would never be prepared to take control of PPHL if it ever came to that. You wouldn’t be properly educated.” His voice took on more passion as he continued. “I also thought you should be able to claim your birthright. You’ve always been Nikos’s heir as much as Niki is. Believe it or not, Ariadne, I was trying to do what was best for you. I even convinced Nikos to go get you himself. I thought he might have a change of heart if he saw you. But he didn’t. He was still afraid.”

There was so much information to digest all at once, Ariadne didn’t know what was best for her. “It sounds like something out of a Greek tragedy,” she murmured.

“What do you know about the Greek tragedies, young lady?” Angelo asked her, not unkindly.

Before Ariadne could respond, Adrian said, “I assure you that I arranged for the best education possible for Ariadne at one of the best boarding schools in the Northeast, and then she got into Williams College.” He addressed Ariadne as he added, “You’re not going there on scholarship, by the way. Your father set up a very generous bank account for me to use for your care.”

Ariadne didn’t appear to be listening. A faraway look had come into her eyes. “So . . . I have a sister,” she murmured reflectively. “I can’t believe that I never knew.”

“Yes. An identical twin,” Adrian replied.

“And a real mother and father?”

“Both unfortunately dead now,” Adrian said. “Your mother, Larissa, died in a car crash after your parents divorced, and Nikos, your father, died a few years ago of heart disease.”

Ariadne was overwhelmed by all this information. Finally, she said, “And my sister really is an identical twin?”

“Yes,” Sugar said, “but Niki is a very ... difficult sort.”

“She’s a monster, in my opinion,” Angelo said harshly. “I don’t think you’re anything like her. You certainly don’t seem to be.”

There was a long silence while Ariadne digested all she’d been told. The pieces of the puzzle that had been her past were beginning to fall into place at last.

“Now I understand why my father came to Greece for me,” she said. “Why I was brought to Connecticut, and now why you had Matt bring me here. Nikos Papadaki, my real father, made the wrong choice, didn’t he? Mr. Coveri said that my sister’s a monster. You hope to replace my twin sister with me. You want us to trade places. That is it, isn’t it?”

Adrian wasn’t surprised by her quick grasp of the situation. He inclined his head, acknowledging the truth of what she’d said.

“And what about her? What is her name . . . Niki?”

“Nikoletta,” Sugar said, “but nearly everyone calls her Niki.”

“Does Niki desire to be replaced?”

Adrian heaved a sigh. “I imagine not.”

Sugar snorted in laughter. “You might as well be completely honest, Adrian. Like hell would Niki want to trade places.” She turned to Ariadne. “Sorry to have to tell you this, sweetheart, but your sister is the worst kind of megalomaniac,” Sugar said. “Sometimes I think she’s inherited Nikos’s madness.”

“Worse, she’s like a disease,” Yves added, “leaving poison everywhere she goes. She’s bought some of the most notorious toxic-waste companies on the planet.”

Adrian did not mince words. “Well, I think Nikos—mad or not—was right about one thing. One twin
was
born good and the other bad. The only problem is, it seems your father picked the wrong sister.”

Solemnly Ariadne asked Sugar, “And you believe this to be true, also?”

Sugar nodded. “I do. I’ve given her the benefit of the doubt, but Niki’s history has proven it over and over again.”

“And you?” Ariadne inquired of Angelo. “Do you also believe this to be true?”

“With all my heart,” he replied heavily. “Your sister as good as murdered my only child, my daughter. And why? Because Nikoletta wanted the young man my daughter loved. She wanted him as a toy for herself.”

“So you see our dilemma,” Yves cut in. “We feel we must honor your father’s wishes and do everything we can to keep his empire intact. We cannot continue to let Nikoletta destroy everything. As long as she’s in power, there’s nothing we can do to stop her. That’s why we’ve come to you, Ariadne.”

Ariadne took a deep breath. “I . . . I was raised simply. First on the island, then by my foster parents in Connecticut . . . in a sheltered environment, and now I find myself thrust into . . .
this
. It’s . . .” She lifted her hands and then let them drop. “It’s overwhelming.”

“We’re asking you to make a decision,” Adrian added. “Whether or not you are willing to take Niki’s place is not a decision to be taken lightly. But ultimately the decision has to be yours, Ariadne. We can’t force you. Consider us your counselors, if you will, much as we’re supposed to be to Niki. But that’s our only role.”

“I don’t know what to say,” Ariadne said.

“We must also warn you that Nikoletta is a formidable enemy,” Adrian said. “That’s one of the reasons we’ve kept you a secret from her.”

“So she doesn’t know I exist?”

Adrian shook his head. “No. When Nikos died, she inherited immense power and wealth. International prominence. She wouldn’t want to share any of it with you or anyone else. Do you see?”

“But she possesses all of these things now,” Ariadne said.

“Of course she does,” Sugar said, “but her ambition knows no bounds. You must believe us when we tell you that she would not want to share
anything
with you. She would most likely hate you for even existing.” She took one of Ariadne’s hands in hers. “You’ve never known anyone like her because of your upbringing, Ariadne. For Niki, the world is not enough. What Adrian and the others say is true. Niki would never share anything. Not since the day she was born.”

“Believe it or not,” Ariadne said, “I have met some fairly wicked people. Even in the boarding school and at college. Terrible gossips and backbiters. Girls who are jealous or greedy. Even really nasty teachers.”

“I doubt that any of them are capable of the cruelty your twin is,” Angelo Coveri said.

“And what if I went public?” Ariadne ventured. She saw Adrian Single turn ashen, and Sugar Rosebury gasped.

Adrian steepled his hands. “First, you would be risking your life,” he said. “And make no mistake about that.” He thumped his hand on his chair for emphasis. “Second, you wouldn’t be able to help us save your father’s legacy from destruction. Not only saving his legacy, Ariadne, but saving the
lives
of people who live in those parts of the world where Nikoletta is now doing business.”

Ariadne listened intently as Adrian explained the ways in which Nikoletta had changed PPHL and the directions in which she was taking the company. In great detail he described the environmental and human costs of her policies.

Angelo supplied added emphasis. “We can bring it to an end, though. Think about it. If you were to become Nikoletta . . .”

Ariadne sat in stunned silence. She’d already realized that they wanted her to change places with her sister, but when the momentous proposition fully registered upon her consciousness, she said, “You mean . . . I would no longer be Ariadne? I would have to shed my true self?”

“Only in a sense,” Angelo said with a nod. “Your essential nature will never change, I’m sure. But to all outward appearances you would become Nikoletta Papadaki, and there would be no going back.”

“But why not?”

“Because for Ariadne to become Nikoletta,” Adrian interjected, “Nikoletta would have to disappear, just as you yourself once did.”

Ariadne felt a chill run up her spine. To do something like this to her sister was repugnant, but at the same time, if what they said about her was true, she would have the opportunity to help make the world a better place. Plus, for all these years her true parentage and inheritance had been stolen from her. Now she would have a chance to regain what was rightfully hers.

It was a dizzying prospect, and it almost made her physically ill.
I have so much to think about. What they are offering me is a new identity, a new life entirely. A life of adventure and excitement. Of incredible opportunities.

 

 

 

 

S
teaming water spilled from a gold swan’s head into the large onyx bathtub in Nikoletta’s master bathroom. Nelly, her personal maid, poured in three capfuls—no more, no less—of a foaming mineral muscle soak of sea salts and aloe vera. She tested the water with her hand to make certain that it was the temperature Nikoletta liked. Nelly didn’t want to think about the possible repercussions otherwise. Nikoletta might turn on her like a virago, giving her a tongue-lashing of epic proportions and threatening to fire her, or she might brush it off with a flick of a wrist. Nelly never knew what to expect.