never expected anything different.
Yes, it hurt to love unrequited, but Chloe now knew how much more it hurt to walk away from that love. Especially when his lack of emotional commitment to her had not shown itself until she’d read those divorce papers.
Ariston had done marriage really well.
She couldn’t change the past, though. No matter how much she might want to. She couldn’t say, “Oops, maybe I should have waited to walk out.”
Even now, knowing everything, she was still fairly certain she’d done the right thing.
She dashed at eyes now spilling. She had to get herself together. And get out of this limousine.
He made an exasperated sound and she looked up at him.
“Stop looking so damn tragic. If you become pregnant and carry my child to term successfully, I will marry you.”
“What?” Nothing was making sense here. He had not just offered her the world on a platter. Him and a baby, too. “You said not marriage.”
“I told you, a modification of our original agreement.”
“That agreement was never between you and me.” And hadn’t that been part of the problem? “We were our family’s pawns.”
“I do not play chess, Chloe. You know this. I will never play the pawn.” He reclined against the opposite seat, his body’s relaxed pose belied by the tension in his blue eyes.
“But you only married me because your grandfather wanted great-grandchildren.”
“Considering all that he has done for me, is it so strange I should seek to give him what he wants? Even now?”
So, it was still about his grandfather. She could not be surprised. The fact that Ariston wanted Chloe to be the mother of the grandchild he was determined to provide the old man was, however.
“You are so sure I would be willing to marry you in that case?” Even she didn’t know what she’d do in that case.
“You will sign an ironclad contract to that effect, one that will guarantee you lose primary custody of our child should you refuse to do so,” he said with the air of a man who had recently discovered his biggest bargaining chip and had no hesitations about using it.
“I—”
“Come, you know you were content enough to be my wife before. In certain cases, even passionately so.” The look he gave her said he referred to their incredible compatibility in the bedroom. “Do not deny it. You walked out because you thought I planned to divorce you. This is our chance at a do-over.”
“You did plan to divorce me, and I walked out because our marriage was a business sham.”
“Our marriage was more compatible than any I’ve seen based on so-called love.”
“Rhea and Samuel—”
“Are on the brink of divorce.”
She couldn’t deny it. “But there are loads of people who are happily married and love each other.”
“Not in our world.”
“Even in our world. What about Leiandros Kiriakis and his wife, Savannah? They’ve been married for nearly a decade and are still very much in love.”
“You barely know them. You only see the surface of their relationship.”
“It’s real. The love between them is real.” Even knowing them as little as she did, she couldn’t doubt it. “Besides, they aren’t the only ones. There’s Demitri and Alexandra Petronides. You remember the scandal around their marriage, but they weathered the storm and are still very much in love.”
Ariston frowned. “We aren’t talking about our acquaintances right now, Chloe. We have things far more personal to discuss.”
“What is more personal than love?”
“For us? A great deal.”
She stared at him, trying to understand why he was so against the concept of marital love. His parents had a lot to answer for, she knew, but after what he’d shared in the restaurant, she wondered if Shannon might have even more to do with it.
But if he wanted to focus on them, that’s what she’d do. “If I had been content, I never would have left Athens without you.”
“Your father instigated that, and now I have to wonder if he didn’t do it on purpose.”
A shard of pain went through her heart as Chloe realized how very real that possibility was. Her father had made his plans and her marriage wasn’t going to stand in the way. “It doesn’t matter. He didn’t make up the divorce papers. You had them drawn up.”
“Surely you expected nothing else. You prevented any hope of our marriage lasting beyond the three years by preventing the conception of my child.”
She’d come to that conclusion herself and found it no less palatable having him say it aloud. “I did not think