Page 51 of Modern Romance December 2025 1-4

Later, cheek to chest and fingers threaded tightly, Athena and Draco moved as one slowly on the packed dancefloor. Her engagement ring gleamed as brightly as the gleam in her heart.

Dancing close to them, Lucie and Thanasis, and Alexis and Lydia. Her other siblings, who she hoped with all her heart would one day find love, too, were hidden in the crowd, but they were there, and that made her happy. It made her even happier that they’d all chosen to continue working for Draco under the Corathena Shipping banner. Even her father and Rebecca had stayed to party. As selfish and vile as her father could be, Athena still loved him, and his tight embrace and whispered congratulations had meant more than she’d thought it would.

A fresh start for all of them.

In the periphery of her vision was Cora, in deep, animated conversation with a suave German shipping magnate. As if she felt Athena’s stare, she turned her head and caught her eye. And then she smiled and raised her champagne flute, and Athena was thrown back in time to when she’d seen a photo of Cora’s adolescent son and determined to marry him so she could have Cora as her mother.

Some wishes did come true.

Draco had made all her secret wishes come true.

She would love him for ever. And he would love her for ever too.