My heart twisted at the anguish in his voice. ‘I...’

What could I say? I’m sorry? Would Axios even believe me? What did it matter? My father had cunningly used the past against him. Against both of us.

‘I didn’t know any of this.’

His jaw rippled. ‘My grandfather was my mentor. He taught me everything I know. But he withheld the extent of how bad things were until it was too late. Until I had to watch him wither away.’

After an age of losing himself in the bleak past, his eyes zeroed in on me.

‘Why? If you didn’t know all this, why present yourself to me at that altar like a sacrificial lamb?’

The cynicism was back full force. ‘I’m not a lamb!’

One corner of his mouth lifted. ‘No, I’m learning that my initial impression was mistaken. But I still want to know why,’ he pressed with quiet force.

How could I tell him without speaking of the very thing I’d done all this to avoid? If my father had managed to pressure a powerful man like Axios Xenakis to do his will, what would he do to my mother if he found out I’d been divulging family secrets?

‘Perhaps I had something to gain too,’ I responded truthfully, knowing how it would be viewed.

True to form, his eyes slowly hardened, and that disappointment I’d briefly spotted at the altar flashed across his face.

As one of his hands slowly rose to cup my face, it seemed he wanted to delve deeper, perhaps even attempt to understand how we had become caught in this tangled web. But then he slowly withdrew, his demeanour resigned, even a little weary.

An urge to soothe him spiked through me. I managed to curb it, barely managing not to fidget under his piercing scrutiny.

‘Did the agreement stipulate that we needed to...to consummate the marriage?’ I asked.

He froze, and a sizzling, electrifying look entered his eyes. I got the feeling that he’d been waiting for this...that somehow coming to this point was what that sense of heightened expectancy had been all about.

‘Not specifically, no.’

‘But you don’t know that it won’t be held against you...against us...further down the line?’

He gave an indolent shrug even while his eyes continued to pin me in place. ‘He’s your father, Calypso. You tell me.’

I couldn’t rule it out. And I suspected Axios knew that.

‘Maybe he will. Maybe he won’t. But I can’t take the risk.’

With my mother’s words echoing in my heart, my hunger for freedom grew with every second.

He took a slow, steady step towards me. His hands at his sides, he simply stared down at me, his only movement the deep rise and fall of his chest.

‘What does that mean, Calypso?’ he queried softly.

‘It means I want there to be no room for misunderstanding later.’

Slowly, his hand rose again, his knuckles grazing my cheek. My shiver made his eyes darken.

‘I need to hear the words, so there’s no misunderstanding now.’