Page 144 of Modern Romance September 2026 Books 1-4

‘The will wasn’t specific enough. That was my father’s fault. He had a blind spot where Carlotta was concerned. Or perhaps he was guilt ridden, because of his affair and my existence,’ he proposed.

She shook her head, immediately dismissing that idea and silently damned the people who’d ever made Javier feel as though he owed the world an apology just for having been conceived.

‘Even the money he had earmarked for me quite clearly, she had re-provisioned, so that I wouldn’t see a cent until I was twenty-five. He died when I was just seventeen.’

She let out an angry breath.

‘She didn’t just want me gone. She wanted me destitute. She wanted to know I would suffer.’

Astrid felt the colour draining from her face. She thought of Carlotta and Otto. She tried to marry this version of them to the people she knew and failed. Then again, how well did she know them? She was well aware of people’s duplicity where she was concerned. Most people she met exuded a falsity, because they wanted to please or impress her.

‘She sent me to a boarding school in Spain. I stayed there all year. She didn’t send for me in the holidays. I had no money to do anything else.’

Astrid closed her eyes, hating to think of that.

‘It was a difficult time, but then it was also the making of me. I graduated with top marks and took a summer internship at a tech firm. By the end of those few short months, I’d taken an idea, turned it into an app and was making money hand over fist. From there, I focused on investing and building. On creating an empire that would rival my father’s. That would rival the fortune and work I’d been denied.’

Admiration shifted through Astrid. She’d known he was wealthy and successful in his own right, but naturally, she’d always presumed the Diamandi name had something to do with that. Discovering that he’d built everything on his own was incredibly impressive.

‘Carlotta meanwhile set about restructuring the business. She took the whole thing public. She said it was for growth but it was really about keeping me out of it and taking what she knew I wanted most in the world.’

Indignation spread through her.

‘I wasn’t even twenty-two before I set my sights on reclaiming it for myself.’

Astrid wrenched her gaze back to his face and shivered at the look there. Not just a look of determination, but of ruthless rage. His eyes glittered with it, reminding her once more of a Viking king. All strength and fire, indomitable and fearsome. Not that she was afraid, but she could see that he was driven by emotions that were larger than almost anything she’d ever known. Emotions she herself would run a thousand miles from.

‘I could accept a lot, Astrid, but not that. He wanted me to have it. He spoke of it often. I knew it. They knew it.’ Javier’s nostrils flared and his eyes were looking at her with a burning intensity. Almost as if he were pleading with her to understand. ‘And so I began a creeping acquisition, buying up shares, when I could. A few here and there, always through a shell company. Nothing that would arouse suspicion and nothing that would require me to declare myself. I’ve been in negotiations for the last six months to take control of another ten per cent stake, which will turn me into the single majority shareholder. The company will be mine to run, to do what I want with it.’

‘Isn’t Otto the CEO?’

His nostrils flared once more. ‘Your point?’

She pulled a face at that. No one spoke to her in that tone and particularly not Javier. He ground his jaw, held a hand up in apology. But it wasn’t necessary. Even in his anger, she found him addictive and justifiable. She felt everything he did, deep in her core.

‘Won’t he try to stop you?’

‘He can’t. I signed the paperwork last week. There’s no going back.’

‘So you came here to tell them?’

He just stared at her, his determined look all the confirmation she needed.

‘You’re here for revenge,’ she murmured, shifting a little in her seat, as she factored that into what she knew of this man and layered it over the top of their relationship. ‘You’re here to hurt them because they hurt you.’

‘It’s my birthright.’

A shiver ran the length of her spine. She didn’t disagree with him, yet she’d heard that phrase so often in her life, often directed at her to explain her duties and obligations. ‘You hate them,’ she said, softly.

‘I will enjoy taking this from them. Making it mine.’

A shiver ran the full length of her spine then.

I will make you mine…

‘Like you did with me?’ she said, pulling her feet away a moment and curling them under her, needing to think straight and finding that almost impossible. Between his sensual touch and the two glasses of champagne she’d enjoyed, her brain was fuzzy around the edges. Only she knew he’d just admitted something important, something that made her feel as though she was standing on a house of cards.

He sat very still, his expression unreadable, yet there was something in his eyes that told her she was right. That he hadn’t expected her to put two and two together and get four.