A throat clearing on the edge of the terrace interrupted me. Sophia, now Andreos’s official nanny, had travelled with us to Thailand, and she looked supremely nervous.

‘What is it?’ Axios demanded.

‘There’s a call from Switzerland for Kyria Xenakis. They say they’ve been trying to reach you.’

I felt the blood draining from my face as Axios frowned. Dr Trudeau, tired of waiting for me to contact him.

‘Tell them I’ll call back tomorrow,’ I said hastily.

The second Sophia hurried away, Axios’s gaze sharpened on me. ‘Why are you getting a call from Switzerland?’

‘I still have business there,’ I replied, hoping he’d let it go.

For a terse moment I thought he’d push, but then he sighed. ‘What were you going to say before? For the sake of what, Calypso?’

For the sake of unrequited love.

Mercifully, the words remained locked deep inside me, the only hint spilling out in my strained voice as I fought to remain upright, to fight for this vital chance to do this on my own terms.

‘I can’t—I don’t want anything long-term. I want to be free.’

To fight for the chance to return whole. Even to dream of starting again with a clean slate.

Hope dried up as Ax’s face turned ashen, his eyes darkening with something raw and potent. Something I wasn’t sure I wanted to decipher, because it resembled the helpless yearning inside me.

But that couldn’t be. Axios not only hated what my father had done to him, he despised what my family had done to his grandfather. I was the last person he could be contemplating hitching himself to for the long term. Which meant that whatever his proposal was it still had an end date. That even if Dr Trudeau had a sliver of hope for me I might not have a chance with Ax.

Nonetheless, temptation buffeted me until I had to hold on to the edge of the table to keep from falling into it.

‘Free to live your life? What about our son, Calypso?’ he demanded scathingly, his voice ragged. ‘Do you intend to drag him along on another freedom jaunt? Are you so blinkered to his needs that you would rip him from me to satisfy your own needs?’

‘Of course not!’

The searing denial was the final thread holding my emotions together. I felt the hot slide of tears and could do nothing to stop it. So I stood there, my world going into one final free fall, and set the words I despised but needed to say spilling free.

‘He...he’s happy in Athens. He’s a Xenakis. You love him. He belongs with you. You can...’ Keep him. Love him. The way I might not be able to.

The final words dried in my throat, the final selfless act of handing over my precious son unwilling to be given voice. But still he knew.

Knew and condemned me absolutely for it.

Brows clamped in horror, he stared at me. ‘Are you—?’ He stopped, shook his head in abject disbelief. ‘You’re leaving him behind? Your quest for freedom is so great that you intend to completely abandon your son?’