Page 173 of Modern Romance May 2026 Books 5-8
Ari would go on her way.
And then…what?
She sighed, sounding sad and lost again. “Why indeed,” she murmured.
Leaving him feeling unmoored…because he didn’t have an answer to his own question.
They stayed in Paris for five days. Zervou never once stepped foot in the room downstairs again. Ari trained during the day alone. They went to dinners and parties. Stories and pictures about them made their way around Europe. Engagement rumors swirled.
Without discussing it, they did not share a bed or anything more intimate than a quick kiss or embrace for the cameras. Everything they’d been went back to being very…businesslike.
A relief, really, Ari assured herself. Proof there was no addiction, no mistakes. Just enjoyment when it suited.
Even back in Corfu, in his grand estate, they managed to see very little of each other privately. And in public, it was always an act, a farce. With a strange new distance she didn’t understand and did not want to.
What was not a relief was the persistent nagging feeling of…something changing. Shifting inside of her. This idea of something more or beyond when her entire life had been two things: survival most of all, and the hope to someday end her father.
Now, Mother was safe, at least for the time being. Ari was fed and more than well taken care of—again, momentarily. She still got to throw herself into the job she loved, which would last long beyond Zervou.
She knew all these things were fleeting, and still she could not picture a life with her father in jail, Zervou no longer here and going back to nothing but survival. She knew that was what was next, but…
Right now, she was happy. Not with everything but happier than she’d ever been. More settled. And it allowed her to see beyond revenge and survival. It allowed her to see herself and her life as a whole, not just day after day to struggle through.
And so she found herself asking questions she’d never had time to consider before.
What would it take to be happy? In the real life she had coming for her once this fake life was over?
Zervou appeared in her peripheral vision like an answer. When he could never be.
She lifted a glass of water to her lips and pretended not to see him until he stepped up to the table on the patio. A glimmering Corfu morning spread out beyond him.
“Good morning,” he offered.
They had existed as strangers since returning. She had half thought of trying to go back to her apartment just to see if he would notice.
But then she’d catch Bacchus out of her periphery vision at the gym. She was being watched or watched after, whichever way she wanted to view it. And since she wanted to have no conflict, she’d simply gone along with staying put.
But he’d made a habit of not seeking her out in the mornings. Letting her go to the gym and about her day before requiring her presence in the evening for whatever public event he had lined up.
So she tried not to shift or act uncomfortable with his appearance now, even if she was. “Good morning.”
He said nothing else, but he placed a small jewelry box on the table next to her plate.
She stared at it, confused for a moment.
He didn’t seem to have his usual patience this morning. “Open it,” he ordered.
Frowning, she took the box and opened it. Only realizing it was a ring box when she saw the contents.
It was so beautiful. If she had thought of what a fake engagement ring from Zervou Kritikos would look like, she would have imagined something flashy. Something that would photograph well—big and loud. Beautiful, of course, but more show than substance.
Instead, the ring in this box was understated. Beautiful, ridiculously expensive no doubt, but it felt made for her.
And that was ridiculous.
“You will wear this at all times,” he said, an order meant to be followed and a reminder this was all just part of the plan. The only reason she was even part of the plan was her bloodline she did not wish to recognize.
She looked at the sparkling gold, the pretty green jewel. She didn’t even know what kind it was. Which was a reminder ofwhoshe was. “What about when I am boxing?”
