Page 200 of Modern Romance September 2026 Books 1-4

Panos stopped midstep. Hospital?

‘I’m fine. That’s not going to happen. I’m not pregnant now. The circumstances are completely different. I’m perfectly healthy.’

He swung around to see her plough her hand through her curls before propping her head up with one hand, her elbow on her updrawn knee. Her shoulders were slumped and he felt unwanted sympathy stir.

Sitting on the edge of the terrace, she looked small, defeated. Not the fiery termagant who’d confronted him in Tahiti, the unrepentant woman who’d stolen his child.

Silently, he closed the door behind him and walked away. But he couldn’t put the conversation from his mind. It had been easy to despise Dido when he dwelt on her sins. But seeing her weak and worried made him uneasy. He didn’t like it.

That was a conundrum he refused to ponder, but she’d given him plenty of other things to consider.

* * *

‘Where were you living when Athena was born? In the same building as your aunt?’

Dido swallowed and put down her water glass. Since coming here, their conversation had revolved around their daughter. She should have known Panos’ announcement that they’d eat together wasn’t an olive branch. He wanted to interrogate her. Why?

But she had nothing to hide and needed to defuse his prejudice against her to stand a chance of keeping her baby.

‘No. I had a bedsit on the other side of London.’

‘Bedsit? A one-room apartment?’ His expression conveyed surprise, or was that confusion?

‘It’s an expensive city.’

She didn’t add she’d been lucky to find it. Before that she’d shared a flat, but couldn’t imagine bringing a baby home to a place she shared with two others.

‘You didn’t live with your aunt?’

Dido frowned. Why did he want to know about this? ‘My aunt went to Bolivia soon after you and I met. She didn’t move back to the UK until later.’

‘Bolivia?’

He looked startled and she couldn’t resist adding. ‘It’s a country in South America.’

Two tiny grooves curved around the corners of his mouth, hinting at the sense of humour she’d once so enjoyed. The impact was electrifying. She even caught sight of a slashing dimple in one cheek. Dido remembered stroking her finger along that line, finding his laughter attractive.

She still found it attractive. That unnerved her because despite everything, part of her yearned for the man she’d once known. It was easier when he was grumpy and unreasonable or just plain furious. She didn’t want him likeable.

‘So I’ve heard. What was she doing there?’

‘Working for a charity, teaching English and computer skills to disadvantaged kids.’

‘That’s very laudable.’

Dido shrugged. ‘She’s done that sort of work for years.’

‘The pair of you are close?’

‘We lived together for a year after my parents died. I was seventeen and she came back to the UK to be with me.’

Flavia had been a lifesaver, providing the stability Dido needed to get through that first twelve months when the world she knew fell apart, courtesy of black ice and a speeding truck on the motorway.

‘You care for each other.’ His voice held a note she couldn’t identify.

For a second she hesitated, wondering what he was getting it. ‘We do. Why are you asking?’

He skewered a prawn with his fork. ‘Just curious. And the rest of your family?’