Page 125 of Modern Romance September 2025 1-4
‘But…if he said no to you marrying me and if you didn’t need a marriage to seal the truce, then why let Thanasis and Lucie marry?’
‘I didn’t need the marriage but your family did.Youdid. I knew I couldn’t press my wish to marry you without exposing our weekend together and causing you pain, but I couldn’t walk away from the negotiating table without making sure you were protected. When my father refused to let Athena marry Thanasis, I nearly gave up, but I was able to turn him round to the idea of Lucie marrying him.’ His laughter was a little less awful this time. ‘I couldn’t have predicted that encouraging their marriage would lead to such near-disastrous consequences for Tsaliki Shipping too, but it wasn’t the business I was thinking of when I was so angry with your brother for confessing the truth to Lucie—it was you. It’s always you. Everything I’ve done since that weekend has been for you.’
Turning his back to her, he poured himself another large drink. ‘I prepared myself for the wedding. I knew I would have to avoid you. At that point I thought there was no future for me with you. You would never choose me over your family, I knew that, and I was trying to forget about you, but just hearing your voice…’ His shoulders rose sharply. ‘You called me a bastard. The first words I heard you say in three months was a rant to your brother about listening to“that bastard Alexis”.’
He took another large drink then turned back to face her. ‘And then you told me you were pregnant.’ He shook his head and closed his eyes. ‘I couldn’t even process it. Not to start with. And your demand that I marry you? And you were so matter-of-fact and cold about it. The passionate, warm, affectionate woman who’d lodged herself in my heart had gone and you were treating me with the same contempt as your brother, and I was so angry with you for that. So fucking angry and wounded you would not believe. But you know what the worst thing is?’
She shook her head dumbly.
‘When I demanded a real marriage, I was bluffing. I would have still married you if you’d refused it and given you the terms you wanted because there is nothing I wouldn’t do for you. Even when I’ve been furious with you and hated you I would have still walked on broken glass for you.’ The laughter that came from his throat this time was bitter and yet made her want to cover her ears and howl more than the awful nails-on-chalkboard laugh. ‘I could walk on that broken glass and you’d still believe I was walking to someone else because you’re too damned scared to trust me.’
She shook her head. ‘I do trust you, Alexis, I do. You said that nothing happened with Angeliki and I believe that because you’re not a liar.’
His voice hardened into granite. ‘Your instinct is to distrust me. Your whole life has been spent hearing poison about my very name. You see what you want to see and believe what you want to believe. I know you have feelings for me. You’re as jealous and selfish for me as I am for you but unlike you, my angel from Hades, I’ve not been running away from commitment, I’ve been running to it but my running stops now because I no longer trust you. You clearly want out of this marriage…consider your wish granted.’
‘What?’
‘Don’t look so shocked. This is what you want, and have I not made it clear enough that I would do anything you want? It just so happens that this is what I want too. When you told me you were mine, you didn’t mean it.’
‘Ididmean it. When I married you I believed I was committing myself to you for life.’
‘But you never really wanted it and you never believed I was doing the same.’
‘Can you blame me? If you’d told me all this before then—’
‘Then what?’ he demanded roughly. ‘Can you really put your hand on your heart and say you would have believed me?’
‘We’ll never know now because you never gave me a chance with the truth!’
‘The truth about my love for you didn’t need spelling out. It was there the whole time—you just refused to see it. You were never prepared to give the whole of yourself to me because of who I am, and you still won’t. When you tell your parents about us, I don’t want you making excuses for being with me and begging their forgiveness, I want you to stand proud beside me and tell them,This is my husband, the father of my child, and I choose him of my own free will because I love him and nothing you can do or say will ever stop me loving him. Can you do that, Lydia? Can you stand up to your family and be honest about your feelings for me?’
She shook her head in bewilderment. ‘You know I can’t do that. They would never forgive me.’
‘And I know I will never forgive you if you don’t. It seems I have my limits too. I don’t want half-measures, Lydia, I want everything from you, your love, your faith and your trust, and I no longer trust I will have any of it, so I will settle for nothing because I never want to hate you.’ The flicker of a smile played on his lips. ‘As they say, it’s the hope that kills you. Well, I’m out of hope. I will buy you a house like I originally suggested and put it in your name. Tell me what you want for maintenance and I will pay it. If you choose not to tell your family about our marriage then I will respect that but I will not—and let me be very clear about this—I will not be denied my role as our child’s father. Once our child is born you will tell your parents that I am the father and I will be involved in his or her life and neither you nor your family, if they stand by you, will stop me.’
‘I wouldneverdo that,’ she said vehemently.
‘Good. Then we won’t have a problem.’ He finished his drink, put the glass on the bar without looking at what he was doing, stretched his neck and strode to the door. ‘I’m going out.’
‘You’re what? You’re going outnow?’
‘I cannot be here when you leave so I’m going to check into a hotel with a fully stocked bar and get very, very drunk. I’ll get my team onto finding a temporary place you can move into first thing in the morning, just until you find a home you’re happy with.’
He really did want her gone, Lydia thought dimly, the coldness in her chest she’d barely felt until then spreading. None of this felt real, like she’d fallen into a waking dream.
He turned to face her with twisted lips. ‘However, my advice to you is to return to your family. I would imagine that with the business saved they’ll be in a frame of mind where they just might forgive you for sleeping with the enemy.’ Now his whole face contorted. ‘It’s just a shame that you will never have the courage to fight to make them believe that I’m no enemy to them and that I have never been an enemy to you—but then, to have that courage you’d need to believe it yourself, and we both know you don’t have any belief in me or courage in yourself.’
He closed the door softly behind him but the sound had the same impact on her as if he’d slammed it.
All the lights in the Antoniadis house were on, shadows flickering in the windows. The taxi driver one of the maids had called for Lydia drove past the dozens of cars parked outside and followed the driveway as far as it would go until he reached the small white cottage where the only illumination came from the outdoor sensor light.
Dressed in her usual slouchy top and jeans, the top button of which had refused to do up, she treaded heavily to her front door and let herself in. Once she’d paid the driver, who’d kindly brought her suitcases in, she gazed around at the walls that felt so much smaller than they had eight days ago.
Was that really all the time that had passed since she’d last been in her cottage? Only eight days? It didn’t seem possible.
In her bedroom, she looked in the mirror and then, unable to bear the dullness in her eyes and the strange ashen colour of her skin, looked away, brushing her hair and tying it back without looking again at her reflection.
The noise coming from the main house filtered into the night air when she was halfway through a walk that felt twice as long as it ever had before, and suddenly it came to her that she was free. Free from Alexis. Free from a marriage she’d never wanted. Free from all those overwhelming emotions being with him made her feel: the jealousy, the possessive need, the tortured thoughts. Her family was saved and she was saved too. The plan she’d originally made to get through the pregnancy and then tell her family about her baby’s father was viable again…
