Chapter One
Afresh start, nota divorce.
That was what Leonidas had been planning to propose when he called this meeting. Frankly, to offer this was a leap of faith for him. But he had never been a coward, and he certainly had no plans of acting like one now—especially when it was his wife who had taken the first leap of faith, the first one who had believed in him.
She designed the system with you in mind.
That was one of the things Aivan had revealed in their meeting. And it had discomfited him, but also humbled him, to realize how little he knew and understood the woman he had been living with for the past eight years.
All this time, he had looked at her as if she was his...ward. All this time, he had cared for her, but now it also made him wince, when he thought of how at the back of his mind, he had always thought he was doing her a favor, not the other way around.
He had never been accused of modesty, but it was now galling to admit how blindly arrogant he had been in the past eight years.
And that was why...
A fresh start.
He wanted that for both of them. He wanted...to give their marriage a try, no matter how strange and uncomfortable it would be. She was already his wife anyway, and in all honesty...he could not imagine himself spending the rest of his life with anyone else.
The realization had come to him somewhere between Aivan’s revelation and this moment, standing in his penthouse office with Athens spread below them like a glittering circuit board. Afternoon light poured through the floor-to-ceiling windows, turning everything gold—the marble floors, the minimalist furniture, even Lexina herself as she stood near his desk with her hands clasped in front of her.
She wore cream today. A simple sheath dress that made her look impossibly young, impossibly fragile. Her dark hair was caught in that low bun she always wore, a few tendrils escaping to frame her face. She wasn’t looking at him. Hadn’t looked at him properly since she’d arrived ten minutes ago.
He’d asked her here to discuss the racing project. To tell her that he wanted her involvement, her brilliance. That he needed it. Needed *her*.
But as it turned out...
“I want a divorce.”
A fresh start was the last thing on his wife’s mind.
Leonidas stared at Lexina in disbelief. “Parakalo?” The Greek spilled out instinctively, rough with shock. “Come again?”
The words seemed to unlock something in Lexy. She felt like she was about to burst with all the things she wanted to say—eight years of things, an ocean of things—but instead she found herself avoiding his gaze. Avoiding conflict by turning toward the window, her sensible flats silent on the marble. And it sickened her.
How did she not notice that the past eight years had turned her into a wimp? Her mother used to throw her hands up in surrender because of how stubborn she could be. And yet here she was, unable to muster the strength to—
Strong fingers suddenly encircled her wrist from behind, and all she could do was gasp as Leonidas turned her to face him in a blink.
His touch was warm. Too warm. She could feel her pulse hammering against his palm.
“Did you just ask me for a divorce?”
She managed—barely—to lift her chin and meet his tawny eyes, which were now blazing with something that looked like anger but felt like more. The light from the windows turned his hair to molten gold, made the leonine planes of his face seem carved from bronze. He was too beautiful. Had always been too beautiful. And she had never stood a chance.
“Yes.”
The single word came out steady. A small miracle.
