He was silent so long that bile rose up in her throat, and she knew, she knew, there was more. She knew something else had happened, something he’d never told her. “Drakon, agapo mou, please, please tell me.”

Drakon shifted his weight, muscles ripping across his shoulders and down his back, and then he turned toward her, the moonlight glancing briefly over his features until he’d turned his back to the window, with the light behind him, shadowing his face again. “Your father came to me asking for help after you’d left me.”

Pain shot through her. Tears filled her eyes. “You gave him more money.”

Drakon’s lips compressed. “He was your father. He needed help.”

“How much did he ask for?”

“A billion.”

“Oh, my God.” She pressed her hand to her mouth. “Drakon, no. You didn’t …”

“What was I to do, Morgan? He was in trouble. I was his son-in-law, and I loved you. Family is family—”

“But I’d left you!”

“But I hadn’t left you.”

She ground her teeth together, tears blinding her, her stomach churning in bitter protest. “I can’t believe this.”

He laughed hollowly. “When your father came to me, telling me he was in trouble … that he had investors who needed their money back, but he didn’t have the liquidity to give them their money … I thought it was my chance to win you back. But I didn’t have that kind of money sitting in an account, no one has money like that, so I took loans from banks, as well as other resources, to come up with the money for your father.”

“And you didn’t get me back, did you?” she whispered.

For a minute there was just silence, and an almost unbearable pain, and then Drakon shook his head. “No. I gave him the money but Daniel refused to tell me where you were. Said that you’d contact me when you were ready.”

“And I couldn’t contact you, not at McLean.” She blinked to clear her eyes. “And then what happened?”

“The economy started crashing. My creditors and lenders began to call their loans. But there was no money to give them. There was nothing I could do but file for bankruptcy, and fold. And I was fine with that, because without you, I didn’t care.”

“You’re breaking my heart,” Morgan whispered.

“I was pathetic. Bron said you’d find me pathetic—”

“Pathetic? How could I find you, who sacrificed everything for me, pathetic?” She rose up on her knees. “You were a hero. You loved me. You fought for me. You were willing to sacrifice everything for me.”

He turned and looked at her, his face still shadowed but she felt his intensity. “I don’t want to live without you, Morgan. I don’t like life without you. And maybe that’s weak—”

“Not weak,” she said, leaving the bed to go to him, wrap her arms around his waist. She held him tightly, chilled by what he had told her, as well as chilled by the reality of her parents taking her to McLean and leaving her there when they knew Drakon wanted her, when they knew Drakon loved her. She didn’t understand their motivations, but then, their lives were about money and appearances and Morgan knew she’d embarrassed them by coming home from Greece, heartbroken and hysterical.