Page 81 of Modern Romance September 2025 1-4
The arrow in my heart worms its way deeper with that thought, sending pain spearing through me. I’ve already left one woman. I can’t put at risk my relationship with this one, especially when it’s the only one I have left.
So all I say is, ‘Congratulations, little one. Are you happy?’
Her eyes widen, as if she’s not expecting me to say that, then she blinks and her expression eases. ‘Thank you. And as to happiness…that’s a complicated one. I think so.’
‘I hope you are,’ I tell her. ‘That’s all I ever wanted for you, I hope you know that.’
She stands there a moment, staring at me in surprise, then abruptly she walks over to me and puts her arms around me. ‘I know this is a shock, Ulysses. But, when it’s all over, I promise to tell you everything.’ She hugs me tighter then looks up at me. ‘You’re really not going to drag me back to Greece?’
I hold her slight form gently. ‘No. This is your life now, Olympia. You should live it.’
She smiles at last and for a second I feel better, the arrow in my heart blunted for the moment. Then she frowns. ‘You look tired. Is everything okay?’
No, it’s not okay. I turned my back on a woman I shouldn’t have. I let her go even though she told me she loved me. Even though she looked at me as if I was worth something, as if I was precious to her, and it’s been so long since I was precious to anyone. Now I’m wondering if I’ve made a terrible mistake, but it’s too late now. It’s too late to go back…
‘Yes,’ I say out loud. ‘I’m fine.’
But Olympia’s gaze holds mine and I can see she doesn’t believe me. It’s not the time to tell her about Katla, though, and I know she’d be furious at how I walked out on her. The strong, confident woman she is now would definitely not let me leave without a lecture. And I have no stomach for that now.
‘Goodbye, little one,’ I say, giving her one last gentle squeeze. ‘Keep in touch, hmm?’
‘Ulysses,’ she says, gently but very firmly. ‘What is it?’
For some reason, I say, ‘I met someone.’
Olympia’s eyes widen as she hears the emotion I tried unsuccessfully to keep from my voice. ‘A woman?’
‘Yes,’ I say. ‘But…it didn’t work out. I had to let her go.’
Olympia blinks. ‘Why the hell not?’
‘It’s complicated,’ I tell her. ‘I have you to look after and—’
‘Ulysses,’ my sister interrupts impatiently. ‘Wait. So you met a woman and it didn’t work out because…what…you have to look after me?’
My heart is tight and I can’t seem to draw a breath. ‘Yes,’ I force out.
She stares at me, her gaze searching my face, reading me the way Katla reads me. Then she lets out a long breath. ‘Oh, my God,’ she whispers. ‘It’s happened. You’re in love with her.’
I don’t move. I don’t breathe. It can’t be true. I don’t have the capacity to love someone else, not when Olympia takes everything I’ve got to give.
And yet… I think of the pain I felt when I told Katla I didn’t care. The pain I still feel at the thought of her standing in my kitchen telling me her truth, telling me she loves me, and knowing what that must have cost her.
My ice queen. My volcano—rare, beautiful and brave. Cool as water and hot as lava. The only person ever to look at me and see the truth of me, no matter what I did in the past, no matter the boorish bastard I was to her when I met her…
I can’t speak, but Olympia reads the truth in my silence.
‘You’re an idiot,’ she says succinctly. ‘And I don’t appreciate being used as an excuse.’
‘I’m not—’ I begin, but she doesn’t let me finish.
‘I’m not the only one who’s been stifled by our past,’ she says. ‘You have been too. You need to get a life, Ulysses, and I mean that quite literally. I’ve found mine, now it’s time for you to find yours.’
I’ve grown used to not listening to my sister’s histrionics, because she’s nothing if not dramatic. But there’s quiet truth to what she says that resonates inside me. I have stifled her—I know it—and now I can also see that I’ve stifled myself too. The life I live, the life I have now, is narrow, tied as it is to her, and it is empty. As empty as my villa when I came on Christmas Day to find Olympia gone.
Except it wasn’t totally empty. Katla was there with me.
My chest is tight, the arrow in my heart burrowing deep. ‘I will hurt her, little one,’ I say. ‘You know what I was. You know what I’ve done. I can’t drag her into that with me.’
