Page 128 of Modern Romance September 2025 1-4

The rain had stopped.

Lydia opened her eyes to the sun burning through the clouds. Its warmth bathed her skin.

She laughed and lifted her chin even higher. She loved Alexis. She loved him. She was his and he was hers, and she would do whatever it took, fight any fight needed, to make him understand and believe that she was his for ever.

Lydia let herself into her parents’ house. Her running clothes were still damp from the rain but she didn’t want to go back to her cottage and change, not until she’d done what needed to be done, now, before her father left for work.

They were both in the dining room finishing their breakfast, her father dressed in his suit, her mother still in her dressing gown.

‘I need to talk to you,’ she said without any preamble.

Her mother’s lined face…the last year had seen those lines turn into grooves…furrowed. ‘What’s wrong,baba?’

‘Before I tell you, I want you to know that I love you.’

‘You’re scaring me. Are you ill? Come and sit down. Petros, pour her a coffee.’

‘No, no coffee for me, and I’m not ill, it’s nothing like that, although I think you might prefer it if I was. I’m fourteen weeks pregnant with Alexis Tsaliki’s child.’

Stunned silence.

Lydia opened her mouth and launched into the whole sorry story right up to the night she’d left Alexis, the only omissions the details no parent needed to hear about their child.

When she’d finished speaking, more stunned silence bounced loudly between the dining room walls.

After for ever seemed to pass, her mother rose unsteadily to her feet. ‘Get out.’

Lydia closed her eyes, sucked in some air and ground her feet to the floor. Only when she was steady in mind and body did she open her eyes. ‘I’m sorry. I know this is your worst nightmare come to life but Alexis isn’t who you think he is—he isn’t his father and he doesn’t deserve to be blamed for his father’s sins. If you want to thank anyone for saving the business, then it should be him. He’s a wonderful man and he loves me and I love him, and he’s going to be a wonderful father.’

‘Get out and never come back.’

‘I’ll be out of the cottage by the end of the night.’

She’d reached the front door when a hand gripped her arm. ‘He might not take you back,’ her mother said with a viciousness that’s sting was lessened by the tears in her eyes. ‘And what will you be left with?’

Lydia smiled sadly. ‘The knowledge that I fought for him just as he’s spent the last three months fighting for me.’ And then she kissed her mother’s cheek and walked out of the door.

Alexis approached the booth he’d slid into the first time he’d spoken to her.

Voices echoed.

‘So, Lydia Antoniadis. Tell me why the youngest member of the family at war with my family is here alone in my hunting ground.’

‘Catching my prey, of course.’

He could never have guessed in that moment how deeply and entirely she would catch him.

A hostess passed carrying a large bucket of chips. Just to see them and remember Lydia’s love of them was another punch to his guts, and he made a sharp turn to the bar, unwilling to wait until he’d taken his seat at his personal booth.

He glanced at the tequila on the top shelf…

Only the good stuff.

‘Get me a large Scotch,’ he told the barman, and indicated for him to keep pouring until the liquid was a fraction from the rim. He drank half of it, looked at the remainder and then thought, to hell with it, and downed the rest before pushing the empty glass back to the barman and telling him to refill it. He hadn’t touched a drop of alcohol since that first night he’d drunk himself into oblivion, though God knew he’d wanted to. It didn’t numb the pain but, if he was lucky, it might numb his senses enough to get through a few hours of partying before he could make his excuses and leave, and return to a life now empty of all meaning.

Lydia climbed the wide, rounded stairs to the VIP section. The bouncer guarding the roped barrier checked her name off the list she’d maxed out her credit card to get on and let her through.

‘Is Alexis Tsaliki here yet?’ she asked with a brightness she had to dredge from the pit of her stomach to achieve. The Alexis she knew would never let a friend down—she doubted he had ever let anyone down in his life. He’d promised his friend he would host a party for him that night, and so he would be there to host it. Despite her knowing this, it still came as a relief when the bouncer nodded in answer.