“Thank God. You finally answered your phone,” Priscilla Strathmore exclaimed in relief.

“I’m sorry. I’ve just been terribly busy the past few days.” Leandro Christopoulos sounded genuinely apologetic but also genuinely distracted.

“I’m sorry if I caught you at a bad time, but you see I’m in this new class…”

Leandro did his best to rein his impatience in. He reminded himself that it was Priscilla who had given him his second chance with Bobby. He should at least attempt to listen to her. The only problem was that she always attended new classes and workshops all the time, and all of them seemed to be a waste of money as far as he was concerned.

“So I just wanted to ask, now that everything seems to be going well with Uncle Orion, is it okay if I clear things up? You see, according to my New Age Spirituality professor, I need to cleanse myself and purify my conscience…”

“Whatever you think is best,” he said, his attention mostly focused on reading the news from back home. He swiped to the next page on his iPad, and more good news awaited him. His father was recovering well according to the news, and his father’s scion – which was Leandro – was doing apparently just as well overseas. Public approval of his relationship with Bobby was at an all-time high. Most times, they thought him undeserving of the Christopoulos name.

“…so I’m glad that you’re totally supportive of my decision. I thought you wouldn’t be, but I’m glad I’m wrong.”

He forced himself to concentrate on his cousin’s words. “Whatever makes you happy, Priscilla.”

When the call ended, Priscilla beamed happily, and her reflection on her bedside mirror beamed back at her. That had gone better than she expected. Now, the next thing she needed to do was to schedule a call with Bobby Granger. That was the last step to clearing her conscience and after that, she would be able to enjoy peaceful nights and look more beautiful every day because of it.

Leandro was about to put his phone away when it vibrated in his hand. He frowned when he saw a message from an unidentified number.

GO TO THIS PLACE SO YOU KNOW WHY I HATE HER GUTS. NOW YOU’LL KNOW WHY YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE GOTTEN BACK TOGETHER WITH THE SLUT.

* * *

“You’re really back!” Bobby exclaimed as she rushed to go around the table to give her unexpected visitor a hug.

Sean Blackwood smiled at her. “Yes. I’m truly back.” His voice sounded carefully controlled, as was typical for deaf individuals who had mastered the art of lip reading and using it to speak on their own.

They took their seats, and even then she couldn’t stop looking at Sean happily. He looked so gorgeous – so unlike the last time they had seen each other, when he had found out the woman he loved had betrayed him. He was dressed impeccably like always, but he looked even more sophisticated now – certainly more than any fresh graduate of Molecular Physics had the right to be.

Sean had been her first and only sign language teacher, and he had been a very strict one, not communicating with her in any other way but gestures, forcing Bobby to check her sign language dictionary for every word he acted to her.

It had only been when he was truly convinced of her determination to talk to him that he had allowed himself to soften towards her.

“How have you been?” Sean asked with a smile.

She told him everything, even the things that she had tried to keep from him in the past because then he had been too vulnerable. Letting him know about her troubles would have just hurt him even more.

Sean suddenly whitened. “Valerie Martin?”

“Yes. Why? Do you know her?” She was alarmed when Sean paled even more at her confirmation. “What is it?” She gestured as she spoke, feeling like Sean was so disturbed right now he might not be able to read her lips properly.

“It’s because of me,” he said grimly. “I am the one she thinks you stole away.”

“You?”

“She must have seen us together all the time and because no one knows about us…” His hands moved, a sign that Bobby knew was roughly equivalent to ‘goddamn motherfucking shit’.

Bobby agreed silently. No wonder Valerie hated her. She gestured to him, Don’t blame yourself. She played around. You didn’t. She just thinks you did.

I should have told her about you.

She should have asked first---

“Hello, mégaira.”

Bobby jerked. Leandro?

She looked up and there he was, still dressed in his leather jacket and dirty pair of jeans and causing a commotion everywhere. Most didn’t seem to realize that it was Leandro Christopoulos in their midst, their disdainful expressions telling Bobby that they were all going to request management to throw Leandro out.

Bobby hastily got to her feet, not wanting Leandro to be involved in any kind of newsworthy incident that could hurt his father’s chances. “You’re causing a commotion, kópanos.”

Leandro stiffened. This time, the Greek term did not sound like an endearment. This time, it did sound like exactly what it meant – a jerk. Or better yet, an arrogant jerk, a stupid asshole for swallowing Bobby’s every word as truth.

Bobby’s smile started to waver when Leandro only looked at her, his stormy blue eyes cold. “L-Leandro?”

“Congratulations,” he said bitterly. “We’ve both successfully fooled each other.”

She shook her head in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

He gritted out, “Who is he? Can you tell me that at least?”

“Lower your voice. People are looking---”

One of the waiters approached them. “Ms. Granger, is this man bothering---Mr. Christopoulos!” The waiter’s exclamation had shock rippling through the engrossed crowd as they realized that this was no quarrel between an heiress and biker scum. It was something far more delicious.

“I don’t give a fuck what they hear. What’s there to be ashamed about? We both played each other for a fool---”

His words finally sunk in. “Y-you played me for a fool?”

Leandro laughed hollowly. “Are you fucking serious? You have the gall to look hurt when I’ve just caught you with another man? Valerie---” He saw both Bobby and her unknown date stiffen at the name and he said coldly, “Yes. It was Valerie who told me that I’ve an unfaithful bitch for a girlfriend.”

“And you?” she asked hoarsely. “H-have you been unfaithful to me, too?”

“You really think you have right to---”

“Answer the question!” she screamed.

He shouted back, “No. I wasn’t unfaithful. I just never loved you in the first place.”

She stumbled back at his words, and she would have fallen if not for the other man being there to catch her.

“Don’t touch her,” Leandro lashed out before he could stop himself, but the words didn’t even seem to register, the other man’s every moment speaking of fierce protectiveness towards Bobby.

Bobby didn’t want to cry. She hadn’t even shed a tear when Blaine had dumped her so publicly in high school but oh God, this…she really had thought it was real. “I’m going to answer you now,” she whispered. “Sean is deaf.”

His heart almost shattered at what that meant. That was why she felt so close to deaf children then. “So you built a foundation for him?”

“Yes,” she agreed tonelessly. “Because I love my half-brother that much.”

No.

How could he have gotten it so wrong?

By the time Leandro got past the painful shock of how fucking mistaken he had been, Bobby and her half-brother were out of the restaurant. “Bobby?” He ran out, his heart beating furiously. He had to make her understand that he had just been so out of his mind with jealousy that he had leapt to the wrong conclusions.

He needed to make her understand---

Leandro skidded to a stop when he saw Bobby standing at the curb while her brother took the keys to his car from the valet.

He said hoarsely, “Bobby.”

She turned to him, and that was when Leandro saw she was holding her phone.

Bobby said dully, “I just received a message from Priscilla – your cousin. She’s been trying to call me but since she couldn’t get to me, she thought she could text me everything about what you did. She’s so very sorry, you see.”

The phone dropped from her fingers, as if Bobby was too weak to hold on to it.

And Leandro’s heart dropped with it, knowing that there was a good chance his heart wouldn’t ever recover from seeing the pain that he had caused Bobby.