Merido's Daughter by LJ Maas 15 page

Casey had no idea what to do, but the action was without thought anyway. She thought she heard her father calling her name, but she could barely hear over Tessa's screams. Casey rushed up to the man holding onto her friend and kicked him hard in the shin. The startled young man yelped in pain and shoved Casey away from him roughly, knocking her to the ground.

Casey's fall was broken by something soft and when she rolled over to discover what it was, she came within inches of what was left of the face of Tessa's father. More than half his face was missing from the force of the gunshots and suddenly Casey realized she was covered in blood. The young girl let out a terrified scream just as another man grabbed her by the neck and pulled her up.

Tessa's grief turned her into a wild animal. She watched as the man who held the small blonde, slapped the girl in the head. That's when what little awareness was left in Tessa, snapped. She bit down hard on the man's hand trying to cover her mouth and kicked back sharply, feeling the heel of her boot connect with the man's knee.

He immediately released his hold and Tessa flung herself at the man holding Casey. The dark-haired girl kicked and bit until the man dropped his small blonde bundle to grab at Tessa. Both men took hold of Tessa and the older girl shouted.

"Run, Casey!" It was only a fraction of a second, but the tiny blonde realized her friend had sacrificed herself so Casey could get away.

"Run!" Tessa shouted again.

This time the blonde moved so fast the men didn't know she was running until her short legs had carried her halfway back up the rocky hill.

"Get her." Meridio shouted.

Casey turned around only once, when she reached the top of the ridge. When she quickly looked back she watched as her father struck the girl that was now held securely between two men.

"Niko!" She screamed, even as she turned and continued running until her five-year-old legs refused to run any longer.

"Niko!" Casey screamed.

Tessa was almost dozing in the leather chair, a book lying open in her hands. She bolted up and the book flew out of her lap. Rushing through the door, she wasn't prepared for the sight that met her. Casey was screaming as if completely unaware of her surroundings. The dark-haired woman flipped the light switch and grabbed the young woman, who started sobbing against Tessa's chest. Casey cried for nearly an hour and Tessa simply held her tightly, allowing her to purge the violent images from her mind's eye.

"Niko?" Casey finally asked weakly.

"Yes, baby...it's me."

Part 5

"Oh, God, he killed him, there was so much blood." Casey cried tearfully and Tessa realized now why the young woman had developed an aversion to the color red.

"I know, sweetheart." Tessa said quietly, gently stroking the blonde head.

"I don't understand...why didn't you tell me that we knew each other?"

Tessa took a deep breath and sighed. She brushed away the damp tendril of hair from the young woman's face. "When you were twelve, you and I met, do you remember?"

Casey shook her head back and forth trying hard to remember and amazed that she could have forgotten the young girl who, in one day, had come to mean so much to the small blonde.

"I was visiting my mother at your father's estate and you came running into the kitchen from outside. You'd been to the beach and I remember how sunburned your cheeks were. I was just leaving and I opened the back door, and you ran right into me. I had short hair and I was wearing sunglasses. I just graduated from high school and was getting ready to start at Oxford."

"And you took your sunglasses off and stared at me." Casey added, suddenly remembering that day.

"Yea. You looked at me and for a second you acted like you were going to say something, but you just smiled and introduced yourself. You had no idea who I was...it broke my heart." Tessa said sadly.

"My mother said that you never remembered what happened that day. She said it was a gift from the virgin and she made me promise that if I cared anything about seeing you grow up healthy and happy, that I would let the past go. So, I did. I could never let you go completely, though. Sometimes, when I was home for the summer I would follow you just to see what an amazing woman that tiny five-year-old grew up to be. I could never even explain to myself why, but I couldn't get you out of my mind."

Both women were crying by this time. Casey finally looked up and in a voice so soft that Tessa barely heard her, she said, "Can I still call you Niko?"

"Yes, love," Tessa replied just as softly. "I'd like that."

"Niko, who was your mother? You said you're were visiting her that day. Did she live on the estate?"

Tessa smiled a rather bittersweet smile and saw no reason to hold back the information at this point. "Casey, you've known my mother all your life."

Casey pulled away slightly to look into her lover's eyes, still filled with tears. She searched Tessa's face and began to see the answer etched in the lines of a face that had become so beautiful to her. The same proud, angular features, the hair streaked through with gray now, and the term of endearment that had obviously been passed from mother to daughter...little one. Casey smiled with recognition when she thought about the one other person who ever called her that name.

"Olympia is your mother." Casey said slowly, more as a confirmation to herself than to ask if she was correct.

Tessa smiled too, once the young woman fit the puzzle together.

"Oh, Niko...I'm so sorry. My family has caused the two of you so much pain."

"There is another side to that, love. You have been responsible for so much of our happiness also. During the years when my mother was ashamed to admit she even had a daughter, you were there for her to love. And just when I thought I would spend the rest of my life alone, never knowing what it felt like to be in love; to have someone love me, you were there."

"I don't understand, why do the two of you work for my father, how could he even hire you, doesn't he remember who you are?"

"Casey, my mother never knew what happened that day. Meridio's men took my father's body to the docks and it was made to look like he was murdered during a robbery. It was a great many years later before I could bring myself to tell her the truth. By then, what could she do? She is an Old World woman who tries to live her life in a male dominated society with as much dignity as she can. Besides, your father paid very well for my silence. He was the one who had me sent to England. He paid for my education all those years." Tessa admitted.

"But, when you agreed to work here, didn't my father try to explain or justify his actions at all?" Casey asked in amazement.

"By then I had become the woman I told you about, I hid my emotions well. I was told not to take it personally, that it was just business."

Tessa ran a hand through her long hair and her sudden silence and accompanying frown said more than words.

"There's more to this, isn't there, Niko? More you're not telling me." Casey asked.

"Yes, and I don't know about you, but I'm bone tired. Lets talk more in the morning, okay?" Tessa responded.

Both of them lay back on the bed, emotionally exhausted. They settled in to sleep, facing one another, their arms entwined around the other. This time is was Tessa's nightmares that kept them awake. The dark-haired woman cried out in her sleep and each time Casey ran a comforting hand along the woman's back, calming her. Once the small blonde thought she heard the larger woman murmur, "Run, Casey!"

At length Casey slept and in keeping with the night, dreamt about the last piece in the puzzle.

"Never again, Andreas...never again. I'm taking my daughter and we're getting as far away from this place as possible."

Casey's mother sat on the child's bed and ran a hand through the golden locks. By the time they found the girl huddled in a corner of the stable, the youngster was in shock. When Eva Meridio saw the blood covering the girl she screamed in fright, thinking it was her daughter's own blood. The doctor had been called and the child was given a mild sedative, but even through the medication, Casey could overhear her parents as they spoke above her bed.

"Wait just a minute Eva, this is my daughter we're talking about too." Meridio whispered sharply.

"My God, Andreas, what if Cassandra had been hurt. What if she never gets over this?"

"Don't even think that. Do you think I want my daughter scarred like that?"

"Poor Olympia, what will she and Tessa do? How could you have, Andreas?" Eva started to cry as she stroked her daughter's head.

"It was business!" He answered sharply. "Olympia will be provided for, as for that hellcat of a daughter she has, I'll make sure she gets shipped off to a good school. I won't let Olympia suffer because of her husband's disloyalty."

"Please, Andreas...if you've ever loved me, let me take Cassandra away from this life. I give you my word that she can return to visit as often as she likes, but please...let us go. It isn't safe for her here."

Meridio turned away from his wife and daughter to stare out the window. He knew he should be strong and demand that his wife stay; his father would have, but he knew that his business put anyone he loved in danger.

"Every summer." He at last whispered in defeat. "I want Cassandra here every summer." Saying that, he turned and walked out of the room.

"Hey, you got up without waking me." Casey remarked to her lover, leaning down to kiss the tan cheek.

"Sorry, but I wasn't all that quiet and you still wouldn't budge, so I thought it was meant to be." Tessa answered. "Kafé?" The seated woman asked.

"Yes, thanks."

The silence was deafening and Tessa finally raised her head to see tears rolling down Casey's eyes.

"Oh, honey, please don't." The taller woman left her own chair to kneel in front of the small blonde. "Casey, none of it was your doing.

"I'm sorry I didn't recognize you...I should have remembered you." She answered with a growl.

"Casey, you were five years old, cut yourself a little slack here. The human mind is a lot like a computer, when too much is fed into it at once it doesn't know how to process it and it shuts down. A five-year-old brain just wasn't equipped to handle what happened out there that day and it shut down. I still think it was the right thing to do; not telling you. You were able to grow up without the visions I've had to see in my head every moment of everyday since then. I always thought you were the lucky one."

Tessa ran the backs of her fingers across the young woman's cheek and her smile was so filled with sadness and pain that Casey had to know.

"Last night you said there was more. What aren't you telling me, Niko?" Casey asked.

The pained expression deepened. It was the pet name that added to the hurt. Tessa knew that she was about to betray her lover's confidence and trust in her, but she knew of no other way to pay her debt. It was a matter of honor and she was afraid that Casey would never be able to understand that; betray her lover or her father's name those were the two choices she was now faced with. The dark-haired woman stood and crossed to the other side of the patio table, looking up into the cliffs. She squeezed her eyes closed tightly and rubbed the back of her neck.

"Do you know what it was like for me, Casey? I had just seen my father murdered, I couldn't tell my mother for fear of what she would try to do, and I was shipped off to a foreign country; strangers everywhere. Every single day the vision of that afternoon replayed inside my head, some days it was all there was. Pretty soon it was the only memory I had of Greece. Then one day I made a vow, and after the words were uttered I was finally able to focus on something else. I was able to concentrate on my studies, talk to my mother, and finally remember what my homeland looked like, all because of one thought; one thought that was able to keep me going for twenty years."

"Revenge." Casey whispered solemnly.

Tessa looked at Casey and saw the realization that was dawning on the young woman bit by bit.

"It became all that I had. It was the only thing to keep me company during school breaks when other children would go home to be with their families. It gave me a focus and a will to live again...it became my whole life; the only reason I had for living."

As Tessa spoke her voice turned hard and determined as if she were focusing all that energy on getting through every day, just putting one foot in front of the other, like she did as a young girl. Casey didn't want to know this; she feared her lover's answer yet she had to ask the question.

"You're going to kill my father, aren't you, Niko?"

Tessa turned her head in her lover's direction; she at least owed her that much.

"Yes, I am." She replied softly.

More silent tears welled up in the green eyes and spilled over onto tan cheeks. "When Mr. Armstrong said my father would go to prison, that was just a lie then?"

"You were right about them the first time, Casey. They're not much better than the people they fight against. Their purpose may be higher, but they use the same methods. Once Jack has your father's connection, Andreas Meridio becomes expendable and Jack doesn't care too much what happens to him."

"You would do this to me, Niko?" Casey could think of nothing else to say.

"Oh God, Casey, I don't want to. I made a vow, it's a matter of honor." Tessa said weakly.

"I thought you loved me. I know you never said the words, but I thought you felt it."

"Oh baby, this is the hardest choice I've ever had to make." Tessa explained as tears filled her own eyes. "I never expected any of this to happen between the two of us. In a million years, I never would have thought it possible that you would love me."

Casey rose and the two women stood facing one another in the sunlight.

"It's a matter of my honor." Tessa repeated.

"Murder is not honorable, your father would be the first one to tell you that." Casey said sharply.

"It is payment for a hahré!" Tessa shouted, slamming her hand down on the table.

The hahré was a Greek term for payment of a debt, but the kind of debt that ran deep. When someone vowed hahré, the repayment could not be questioned in any way. You accepted what the person gave you and never refused to allow the payment, it would be the ultimate dishonor for both parties.

Tessa used the ancient Greek term and turned her back, once again looking out onto the cliffs. Cassandra knew there would be no arguments that could convince her lover not to take the action she had envisioned for twenty years. If not exactly a woman of honor, Tessa was a woman of her word and Casey knew that her father's life was already over, he just didn't realize it yet.

"Does Olympia know what you're planning?"

"No, and I'd prefer she didn't find out."

"I don't know what to do about this." Casey said with uncertainty.

"Don't do anything." Tessa replied, her back still facing the young woman.

"I can't just...let this happen, Niko."

"Please, Casey, don't interfere...I don't want you to get hurt."

"You...you would hurt me?" Casey seemed amazed at the admission.

Tessa wheeled around and faced the woman whose tears matched her own. "Never," she hissed. "I would never hurt you, Casey."

Casey wiped the tears from her cheeks and returned the bittersweet smile. "Only by breaking my heart." The young woman rasped, turning quickly and rushing into the house to pack.

Tessa heard the patio doors slide closed and slumped down into a chair. She held her head in her hands and let loose the sobs she had been holding back.

She had wanted it to go on forever, this wonderful feeling of loving and being loved in return. She had taken it as far as she could and finally the day she cursed had come. How could she go back on her word and refuse the hahré now? If she lost her honor, what would she have left?

Not one word was spoken between them. Their bags were packed and Tessa placed them in the car. On the pretense of having forgotten something, Casey ran back inside while Tessa placed their luggage in the trunk.

The young woman simply wanted to take one last look around. Her glance fell on the rug by the fireplace where they made love and she turned to see two pair of eyes looking at her through the patio doors. Mahogany and Cinnamon stood there, their little tail nubs twitching back and forth. Casey wondered in her heart if she and Tessa would ever return here together. It would never be the same, she would never be the same, and the ache in her heart was so intense that she simply wanted to lay down and die.

Tears filled her eyes and she brusquely wiped them away. She refused to cry anymore, not in front of Tessa. If the Karê could be strong and heartless, she could be too. She pulled the door closed and Meridio's daughter walked to the waiting automobile.

The moment they walked into the house, Olympia knew something had gone wrong between the two young women. It was obvious they both had been crying and the pained expressions on their faces were like matching bookends.

"Your father is away for the rest of the week, Miss. He asked that you ring him at this number should you need him." The older woman said.

"Thank you, Olympia. Will you excuse me please? I have a headache and I think I'd just like to lie down for a while."

"Of course, Miss. Perhaps some of the Karê's tea?" Olympia suggested.

Casey raised a pain filled glance in the dark-haired woman's direction. "No, I think I'll just ride this one out."

Tessa stood silently watching beside her mother as Casey walked the flight of stairs to her room. Olympia made sure she heard the door to the young woman's room close shut before she spoke.

"Tessa, what have you done?"

It had been many years since the older woman saw her daughter cry, but Tessa sobbed into her mother's arms just as she did twenty years ago. Olympia couldn't get a straight answer from the young woman as to what happened over the weekend, so she held her and petted her, and let the tears flow until Tessa had no more tears left in her.

"Do you love her?" Olympia asked her daughter.

"With all my heart." Tessa answered. "It's circumstances...Casey can't be with who I am right now." Tessa answered as honestly as she could.

"Tessa, you need to leave this life. We need to leave this place, you and I and Casey. You need to take her somewhere far away where Andreas Meridio cannot find you."

"It's not that easy. I can't just ask Casey to give up her life for me; to leave everything she knows."

"Would Casey go if you asked her?" Olympia pushed harder.

"Yes," Tessa answered in defeat, running her fingers through her hair. "Yes, I believe she would."

"Does this life hold that much for you then, Tessa, that you would give up this chance at happiness? With a woman as wonderful as Casey?"

"You don't understand!" Tessa hissed. "It's just not as easy as all that." The dark-haired woman finished, walking into the guesthouse bedroom and effectively ending the conversation.

"Nothing is ever that hard, little one," Olympia whispered to the empty room, "if you want it badly enough."

A knock at her door brought Casey out of her thoughts.

"Yes?"

Olympia opened the door carrying a small tray with a pot of tea. She deposited it on the table where Casey was seated and the small blonde noticed the koulourákia, small decorative sweet rolls.

"I brought you some hot tea; just a few herbs in it to ease the headache. Probably due to stress, eh?" The older woman stroked the blonde's head.

Casey looked up at the older woman and now saw it so plainly. They were indeed Tessa's eyes looking back at her. The young woman's eyes filled with tears and they spilled over to run down her cheeks.

"Tessa told me who you are...I'm so sorry, Olympia."

"Nonsense. Come here, little one." Olympia sat on the sofa and patted the space next to her.

Casey sat tentatively next to the older woman. When Olympia gently placed her arm around the young woman it loosed a new flood of tears and Casey was soon sobbing into the woman's arms just as Tessa had done earlier.

"My father ruined your life." Casey began.

"Cassandra...Casey, look at me." The small blonde raised her eyes and Olympia lightly kissed her forehead. "I'm going to tell you the same thing I told you when you were eight years old. Remember the summer that you refused to wear a shirt because the boys went around without theirs on? You wanted to go around without a shirt on to prove they were no better than you."

Casey smiled weakly at the memory. She remembered distinctly the older woman chasing her around to get a blouse on her tiny figure. When the cook finally caught up with her she sat the young girl down and had a sincere talk with her about the birds and the bees and why boys and girls were different.

"And, when you still complained, do remember what I told you?" Olympia questioned.

Casey's smile was tinged with sadness as she nodded. "That's just the way life is." She repeated the woman's words from so long ago.

Olympia wrapped strong arms around the smaller woman. "Well, that's just the way life is, Casey. If you want to experience the good, you have to be willing to accept the bad as well. Tell me something, little one...do you love Tessa?"

Casey was surprised and a little embarrassed at confessing her feelings for the Karê to the woman's mother of all people. "I--I..." She stammered.

Olympia chuckled at the young woman. "I'm not a fool, Casey. I think I knew before the two of you did. That day when you met, it seems a hundred years ago now, doesn't it? Through all of Tessa's grief over her father, every day she would ask about you. When your mother took you away and Tessa went off to school, her letters would always ask if I had heard from you or your mother yet. I'll never forget the day you saw her in the kitchen. You, an awkward young girl just becoming a teenager and she was already a young woman of the world, but if you could have watched how her heart broke when she realized you didn't remember her. I think it was fated before the two of you were even born that you would be together someday, in some way."

"I do love her, Olympia," Casey admitted. "I love her so much it hurts. I can't be with her...not--" Casey paused unsure of what to say to explain herself or the rift between she and Tessa.

"I told you I wasn't a fool, Casey," Olympia responded to the sudden silence. "I think I know what has come between you. I think I've known what Tessa had planned all along, but I didn't want to believe it. I want to believe it even less, now. I find it hard to accept, knowing how much your heart means to her, that she would choose revenge over your love."

Casey underestimated the woman all these years. She was wise beyond the young woman's understanding. She knew her daughter and what Tessa was all about better than Casey did.

"Things change, little one. Don't give up on Tessa's heart just yet."

Casey slowly opened the door to her father's office and peeked in. The Karê's voice could be heard from the other side of the door and Casey wondered who her unfortunate victim was.

"Goddamn it, Alex, see that they sign it this time! You tell those assholes that if I have to come down there it will be a sorry day for them! Go on, get out of here." Tessa growled.

Alex walked to the door just as Casey was pushing it open. The young man rolled his eyes to the small blonde and she smiled, laying a gentle hand on his arm as he passed by. Her look said that she was sorry.

Casey stepped into view and the hard lines in Tessa's face softened when they looked up at the small blonde.

"Is your head feeling better?" Tessa asked.

"Yes, thanks."

The dark haired woman rose and moved to the other side of the desk. Standing in front of Casey she tried to touch the smaller woman, but Casey pulled back. The hurt in Tessa's eyes was mirrored within the green of Casey's.

"I do love you, Niko, that hasn't changed, perhaps it never will. But, if you choose to follow this path, I...I can't be with you...I can't be your lover."

"He killed my father, Casey." Tessa said passionately. "He deserves to be dead."

"I'm not sure I disagree with you." Casey said and Tessa raised surprised eyes in the woman's direction. "The things he's done are unforgivable and you have every right to wish him dead, but it's not up to us to play god, Niko. We aren't the ones who should be judging whether he lives or dies...it's not our place."

"I'm making it my place!" Tessa growled.

A few more moments of silence reigned before Casey gave voice to what they both knew would come next.

"I do hope that once the hahré is repaid your life becomes everything you wish it to be, Niko, but if you go ahead with this plan of revenge, I won't ever be able to share that life with you."

"So be it." Tessa lashed out with words to hurt in the same manner that she was hurting.

"So, that's the way it's to be with us then, Karê?" Casey asked with a cold edge to her voice.

"That's the way it's to be, Ms. Meridio." Tessa returned just as callously, walking out the door and leaving Casey standing in the middle of the room looking very much like that scared, confused child from so long ago.

The stand off lasted for three days, each woman carefully avoiding the other. Casey sequestered herself in her room preparing for the first phase of the dig to begin. She e-mailed and telephoned, but it was soon apparent that she would have to start spending some time in Athens. She hated the idea for more than one reason. Athens would always remind her of Tessa now and the only apartment she had was the one that belonged to the Karê.

The young blonde sat and thought a lot about her father also, wondering when the moment would come. Would Tessa put a bullet in his brain as she'd demonstrated that day they were on the boat. She said that was the only way a real gangster would kill a man, when he could see it coming. She pondered on the man that she realized now, she barely knew; actually didn't know at all. She came to realize that he was the kind of man who could kill in cold blood without a thought or a trace of guilt. If her father ever felt remorse over his crimes, he surely didn't show it. He killed Tessa's father right in front of her and then has the audacity to hire her later saying it wasn't personal...it was just business. What kind of a monster does that?

Tessa kept herself just as preoccupied behind Meridio's office door. She worked long hours, then shut herself up in the guesthouse, usually drinking until she fell asleep. The previous night she had been so drunk that Alex had to literally carry her from the Kástro, back home. She felt like she was being torn in two, her love for Cassandra and her thirst for revenge, pulling her in opposite directions.

Tessa rose and walked to the safe and deposited the books and the money as she did every evening. She was just leaving when Casey walked into the office, nearly colliding with the tall woman.

"I'm sorry, but I needed to speak with you a moment." Casey said, wondering how the two of them could be so distant with one another when they'd made love only a few days before.

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 484