Page 213 of Modern Romance September 2026 Books 1-4

‘Just pausing before I have seconds.’

Her huff of laughter danced across his skin, making him wish she laughed more often.

She used to, when you first met.

Why should she now? You’ve bullied and demanded, even if you also managed to seduce.

The Dido he’d known these past days didn’t match the grasping liar he’d despised for three years. Something was out of kilter. Physical compatibility didn’t prove moral fibre, but it was clear there was more to her than he’d thought.

More he should have found out about.

Panos dolloped some of Evadne’s special dip on his plate then reached for some prawns. ‘You said you hadn’t seen your half-siblings for a decade.’ Across the small table he sensed her movements still and looked up to see her features frozen. ‘That doesn’t fit with what Charles Fitzallan-Jones told me just after we married.’

Her cutlery clattered to the table. ‘You’re accusing me of lying again?’

Holding her gaze, he slowly shook his head. ‘No. I’m doing what I should have done years ago. Asking your side of the story.’

Even admitting that was a huge concession to a man who’d grown up as he had. Forced to rely only on himself, burying emotions deep and guarding against revealing weakness because that was how people sneaked under your guard and made a fool of you. Life had taught him not to trust and to cut from his life those who tried to manipulate him.

In the case of Dido, his reaction to her lies had been profound. Because he’d believed, before Fitzallan-Jones set him straight, that she was the one person who didn’t give a damn about his fortune. That she really cared.

She looked like she might shove her chair back and leave. Then she drew a shuddering breath and slumped back in her seat. It was only when she spoke that Panos released a breath he hadn’t known he held.

‘What do you want to know? We don’t get on. I saw them at my parents’ funeral and not since.’

‘Why don’t you get on?’

The woman he’d once known, the woman so popular today with both staff and kids, was more likely to keep a relationship with siblings than destroy it. He recalled her talking about the importance of family and how she missed her parents.

‘Does it matter?’

Panos took in the defensive way her arms wrapped around her ribs.

‘I think it does. That relationship was at the heart of why we broke up.’ He paused, searching for words, and leaned forward. ‘For Athena’s sake, it will be best if we’re honest with each other.’

‘Honest?’ This time her laugh held a jarring note.

He preferred the joy he’d seen shining in those bright eyes earlier. But this conversation was long overdue. He’d put it off because talking about that time still made him feel vulnerable.

She looked away as if beguiled by the faint moonlight glimmering on the sea. When she turned back it was as if a shutter had come down. Her expression was blank.

‘We were never close. Charlie and Felicity were my father’s children by his first marriage and are around a decade older than me. I only met his first wife twice. Cordelia was disapproving. She didn’t have time for people like us.’

‘I don’t understand.’

‘Cordelia came from a privileged family, titled and moneyed, though I gather the money had run out. My dad was a successful entrepreneur. When they split he married my mother who’d grown up without any sort of privilege apart from a loving family. She had no prestigious connections. But they fell in love and were happy.’

Panos saw her eyes shine and felt something give, deep inside.

‘Cordelia thought he’d come down in the world, marrying a working-class nonentity when he could have stayed with her.’ That sounded like a quote. ‘Dad took a big financial hit in the divorce, settling the big London house and other assets on Cordelia and paying huge amounts for child support. But he was a good businessman and, despite the economic downturn, his company did well. He put aside a nest egg for me and Mum in case anything happened to him.’

Her voice wobbled. He wanted to reach for her but her next words stopped him.

‘The nest egg disappeared. Dad had left money to my half-siblings as well as me in his will but somehow when the estate was finalised there was precious little for me and everything passed to Charlie and Felicity. I was only seventeen. I didn’t understand the detail and Flavia was initially away overseas. But I don’t think it would have mattered. Cordelia and Charlie had close contacts in the legal firm that handled it all.’

‘You’re saying they stole your inheritance? That the lawyers acted corruptly?’

She nodded. ‘It would have taken money to hire lawyers to challenge the disbursement. Flavia wanted to do that but I wasn’t handling my bereavement and she worried about me coping with a dragged out process. In the end we decided to make a clean break and move on with our lives.’