Page 49 of Modern Romance December 2025 1-4

Evangeline blushed with pleasure. The green and gold dress Athena had sourced for her was the perfect fit for her fuller figure, flatteringly showcasing her curves without drowning them. Her mousy hair had been highlighted and cut into a chic bob that added volume, and the touch of make-up she’d trusted Athena to apply highlighted her pretty grey eyes. She was the best version of herself she could be and Athena had no doubt that when she walked into the hotel ballroom she would walk tall.

Her phone buzzed. She answered the video call with a bright smile.

‘Are you sure this lipstick works?’ Grace immediately asked.

‘Stand further under the light,’ Athena ordered, then nodded once Grace had done as asked. ‘Yes. That dress needs a bold colour. Now, put your phone on a shelf so I can see the whole of you… Perfect! You look gorgeous! Josefina won’t be able to keep her hands off you.’

Grace blushed as hard as Evangeline had done. ‘Shouldn’t you be getting ready?’

Athena shrugged, suddenly finding it a struggle to maintain her happy demeanour. ‘I guess so.’ The last thing she wanted was to attend the launch party. The only thing making her go was that this would be the perfect opportunity to network for her new business. Oh, and seeing Rebecca’s face when the new name for Tsaliki Shipping was revealed.

The biggest reason she was going, though, was for Cora. She’d promised her, and tonight, in front of hundreds of Athens’ wealthiest and most powerful people, she would make her allegiance known. It wouldn’t be the mother who’d left her that she’d stand with or Rebecca, who made the Queen inSnow Whiteseem like a loving stepmother, but Cora Manolis, the mother she’d chosen for herself.

If she could only stop herself from missing Cora’s son, she might consider herself happy.

Inside, she felt dead. She didn’t even cry any more. She’d shut down emotionally, just as she’d done as a little girl, but this time with a determination not to let the awful, bitchy Athena who’d taken her over get a foothold once more.

She would never be that Athena again. If she couldn’t be happy then she would fake happiness until real happiness found its way back to her, however long it took.

With Evangeline’s help, she climbed into the red cocktail dress she’d found in a high-end charity shop. Strapless, it skimmed her cleavage like a heart and fell to her ankles, a modest slash at the side displaying flashes of leg, but not so much that everyone would be able to see the colour of her knickers.

As a thank you for styling her, Evangeline had insisted on paying for Athena to have her hair cut and dried for the party, and her blonde hair had been styled into soft waves. She applied her make-up with care and subtlety and then put on a pair of gold earrings shaped like dreamcatchers in the forlorn hope they would protect her from the nightmare of seeing Draco again.

With her feet in a pair of gold stilettoes, she was physically ready.

Emotionally, she was as far from ready as she’d ever been.

The ballroom of the Dionysus Hotel glittered both from the multiple chandeliers and the jewellery gleaming on the guests filing in.

Draco’s team had pulled out all the stops to make the party work, and as a string quartet played jaunty music, high society mixed with select employees and scions of the shipping industry, sipping champagne and nibbling on the canapés that would sustain them until the meal was served. Holding court, Georgios Tsaliki, the man who’d spent decades at the forefront of Greek shipping, a maverick and innovator who, from his body language, was expecting to be eulogised that evening.

Draco couldn’t even bring himself to care about how the bastard who’d destroyed his mother would react when the new name was revealed. He was too busy scanning the growing crowd for Georgios’s daughter.

His heart thumped a beat before his eyes locked onto the vision in red walking through the door with a woman who looked much like his finance director.

From across the crowded room, her gaze lifted to his, eyes locking together for a beat long enough to make his thumping heart ache to fly to her.

She’d never looked more beautiful.

She broke the lock first, turning to another guest.

He took a deep breath. He needed to play this right. He couldn’t go charging to her and throw himself at her feet. Not yet.

Draco and his guests circulated and greeted each other a while longer until everyone was invited to take their seats.

It was nearly time.

Whoever had done the seating plan deserved to be shot, Athena thought miserably. The way the round tables had been set out meant she could have been placed anywhere and facing any direction. Instead, she’d been placed directly below the top table where Draco, Cora, her father and stepmother, and the seven other most honoured guests were seated, her view a direct line to Draco. Not even seeing the expressions on her father and stepmother’s faces at their recognition of Cora could lessen the sting.

She picked at her food, made small talk with the rest of the table, and willed time to speed up. As soon as the speeches were over, she’d be gone.

Time, however, refused to play ball, crawling torturously.

Every time she glanced Draco’s way, which was roughly every three seconds as she was helpless to stop herself looking at him, her eyes would catch his.

She didn’t feel dead inside any more. Now she felt only despair.

Finally, the desserts were finished. Merciful escape was only a speech away.