Page 222 of Modern Romance September 2026 Books 5-8

Livia had no idea what Adele saw in her expression, but her sister’s eyes widened. “You’re in love.”

Maybe she was. But she had left him. Livia blinked back that ridiculous urge to cry. “It’s complicated.”

“Let me guess. You decided to leave so that you and I could run away to that island in Greece and start over, and he wasn’t happy about it?” Her sister raised an eyebrow, but her smile was sympathetic. “How very you of you.”

Livia gave a little laugh.

“You could have talked to me,” her sister added quietly. “We made the plan before you married Gustav.”

Livia opened her mouth to say it made no difference, but as she flashed back to those last moments on the boat with him, as she told him she was leaving, she thought about the sadness she had seen underneath his anger. He had demanded that she stay by his side. And at the time, the comment had infuriated her—that he was ordering her to play the role that her father had created for her. And yet now she could see that there was a possibility of another meaning. He had wanted her to stand up for him. No one had been in his corner, and he had hoped that she would be. Her lips began to tremble, and pressed them together. There would be time for crying later, after she got them out of this mess.

“What if we both just said no to our parents, Livia?” Her sister sat down in the empty hallway.

Livia sat next to her, and the scent of polished wood felt like a familiar friend. “You know that Father will get mad, and Mother will make us feel guilty, and then you—”

She couldn’t complete this sentence. The last time things had gone so very badly wrong, and her sister had barely made it out of that.

“And then what?” Her sister’s voice was soft, but insistent.

Livia shook her head.

Her sister put her hand over Livia’s. “I’m not that child anymore. I know our parents don’t control my future.”

Livia could no longer hold back the tears. They spilled onto her cheeks, too many to wipe away. “I won’t let it happen again. I won’t leave you alone. I went away to college, and without me here…”

She would never risk that happening again.

Adele put her arms around her, pulling her close. “I’m so, so sorry that I scared you. And I have so much guilt about you dropping out of college to be with me.” Her sister’s voice faltered, and she sighed. “I’m strong enough to stand on my own now, and I have been for a while. Please don’t sacrifice your love for Gustav for me.”

“It doesn’t matter,” said Livia, even though the words felt like lies. “He wants revenge on his family. He has plans to take down everyone around him. What kind of life would that be?”

“And there’s absolutely nothing that you could do to stop him?”

Livia shook her head. “He told me that if I left, I shouldn’t come back.”

“Sounds like he was really hurt when you left.” Her sister laced her fingers with Livia’s. “You were doing what our parents wanted, and then you planned a future around what you thought was best for me.” Her sister squeezed her hand. “What do you want?”

Livia thought about her sister’s question long after she had hugged and kissed Adele goodbye. All her sister asked of her were updates on the rogue phone. Livia was free. It felt…strange.

As she sat in the cool, dark car on the way back to the airport, Livia wondered if she would ever stop worrying about Adele. Probably not. But she also had to trust her sister, too—for both of their sakes.

“I was told that we were to pick up someone here and then continue to the Greek islands,” said the driver, interrupting her thoughts. “Do we need to pick this person up at some other location?”

“No, thank you. It will just be me.” Just her, in a small villa on the island. Maybe her sister would join her when she turned eighteen, or maybe she would do something different. Wasn’t this exactly what Livia had wished for? She could start over and live her own life.

But she didn’t want to start over. Her life was a complete mess, and yet she felt herself clinging to it harder than ever. She couldn’t let Gustav go. She couldn’t let go of the tentative glimmers of hope and trust that they had built—and then so quickly destroyed. But they weren’t gone. They were still inside her, battered and battle-weary but persistent.

Livia could feel just how hard she would fight to convince him to turn back from this path to self-destruction. She would remind him that the blame for his mother’s path did not lie at his feet. She would convince him that there were far more satisfying uses for his power than vengeance. She would tell him that she loved him, even if he didn’t believe her. She would make it clear that he was exactly what she wanted.

Had Gustav’s meeting with her father and the king ended? If it had, it would be too late to stop his plan. It would take a lot of effort to undo the mess, to build a truce with all parties that still protected the nation’s financial interests. But it could be done, Livia knew, if she could convince Gustav to change his mind, convince him to soften his heart, the way she had seen on the boat.

Because she knew him.

Maybe she would return to find more chaos. Maybe he would stay true to his word and send her away. But regardless of what she found when she landed, Livia would fight as hard as she could for him. For them.

“Actually, there is a change of plans,” she said to the driver. “We are not going to the Greek island I gave you coordinates for. Take me back to Isrikesland.”

* * *