Page 55 of Modern Romance September 2026 Books 1-4

Chapter Eleven

When Axel returned to the villa later, he was still refusing to believe what had happened. Hope. Standing in front of him with tears in her eyes telling him she loved him.

Him. Axel Drakos. Whose own parents hadn’t even loved him or his siblings. Whose own brother had looked at him accusingly because he’d failed him. Whose sisters had been shy around him because they’d never really had a chance to get to know him.

She didn’t love him. She couldn’t. Because she hadn’t seen the hollow void inside him. The void he’d filled up with her for these past few weeks. As if he were some kind of a vampire, gaining strength and validation from her goodness.

He was well aware that Baros and his wife had taken one look at Hope’s pure soul and by association it had raised him in Baros’s estimation. He hadn’t even had to do anything.

The cynicism that Axel used as a protective armour had brought her down. As it should bring down anyone with any kind of moral centre or smidgeon of integrity.

He should never have brought her here. He should never have plucked an ordinary girl out of the real world and expected that it would work. But then he chastised himself because Hope was no ordinary girl. She was extraordinary. He was the pedestrian one, moving around his palatial empty properties painted in muted colours. Suddenly everything seemed utterly drab.

The villa was quiet. Lifeless. He went into the living area where the previous night there’d been signs of her presence. Shoes, a throw. The brochures from her sightseeing.

It was all gone. He went upstairs and the door to her room was ajar. He pushed it open and stepped inside, not even aware he was holding his breath. The bed was flat. Made up.

He turned on a light. Everything was cleared away. He went into the dressing room and saw the dress she’d been wearing hanging up. The jewellery was carefully laid out.

Axel didn’t have to check to already know that she’d taken not one item of clothing or jewellery with her. She’d have left with a minimal amount of clothing and her own personal effects. Because she was proud.

She’d basically done this for him, for free. He’d stopped paying her when she’d told him she couldn’t take payment if they were sleeping together.

A great pressure was building inside Axel—something he couldn’t begin to understand because he’d never felt it before. Chest tightening, skin prickling, hard to breathe. Sweating.

He undid his bow tie as if that might ease the constriction but it didn’t. It was her. He needed her. When he’d needed no one.

Slowly, his breathing became regular again and the pressure eased but not the sensation of a dull weight inside him.

It was good that she was gone. Because she’d got under his skin and he cared for her. And, as he well knew, he failed the people he cared for. He couldn’t protect them.

She would realise that it wasn’t love she felt. It was the sex. Infatuation. She’d been dazzled for a bit, that was all. She would see that and she would meet someone who she could love and who would love her. And she would have children and they would be loved and happy and she would have all of that and Axel really wanted her to, because she deserved it.

And you don’t? Axel shook his head. Why was her voice in his head? He didn’t deserve it. And that was OK. He didn’t want it. He wasn’t capable of it.

* * *

A week later in his Athens office Axel was staring into space. He couldn’t seem to get a handle on what was the next important thing to do. He’d called off the meeting with Baros on his island, and the man had said, ‘If you change your mind, let me know. We’d like to meet Hope again and get to know her better.’

Axel hadn’t had the heart or guts to tell the man that she was gone.

‘Axel?’

And now nothing seemed that important any more. Urgent.

‘Axel?’

Axel looked up and saw Michalis standing in front of him on the other side of the desk.

‘What is going on with you? You haven’t shaved in days.’ His nose wrinkled. ‘Have you even…washed?’

Had he? Axel wasn’t entirely sure. ‘What time is it?’

Michalis said, ‘It’s four p.m. Axel…you’re freaking me out. Do I need to get a doctor?’

Suddenly he did remember something urgent. ‘Did you do it? Put it in her name?’

‘Yes, we’ve started the process, but we will need her to sign a form. Also, there’s an email from the housekeeper, something about a delivery to the island villa for you?’