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Polly didn’t answer right away. Because she had believed that.
Just as she’d felt trapped in a marriage that was nothing like what
she’d expected or wanted it to be, she’d assumed he was equally trapped by her pregnancy. If Polly ever had considered divorce in that first year, those thoughts were stopped cold by the discovery she carried his child.
She’d owed her daughter the best form of stability she could give her.
Polly had always believed Alexandros had felt the same.
He stared at her, like reading her thoughts on her face. Maybe he was. Even her own mother told Polly she wore her heart on her sleeve.
Unless she was channeling her Anna persona, but that crutch had been harder to lean on lately.
With a curse, Alexandros strode across the room and swept Polly into his arms. Then he sat down on the love seat where Polly liked to give Helena a cuddle while she read to her daughter. This time it was Polly sitting on Alexandros’s hard thighs, his arms steel bands around her. Like he was afraid she’d disappear if he let go.
She dismissed the fanciful thought, and said, “I think me getting pregnant with Helena was a wake-up call for both of us.”
She’d realized her marriage was something she had to make work. And he’d… Well, she thought he’d realized pretty much the same thing.
“My wake-up call came last weekend at my mother’s home.”
Polly gasped.
It was the first time he’d referred to the family villa as being his mother’s home and not his as well. Even after they’d moved to the country, he referred to the family villa as home.
She was so stunned that it took a few seconds for the rest of what he said to sink in. And she almost smiled. Almost. Because it hurt a little. That she’d been right. That believing he wasn’t measuring up to his own brother as a husband had sparked the amazing transformation in Alexandros’s viewpoint toward his marriage and Polly.
“Nothing to say?”
“Not a lot, no.” She had realized she had to make their marriage work, even if it meant changing her own expectations, when she was pregnant the first time.
Regardless of whether or not his ego had prompted it, Alexandros had come to something of the same conclusion a week ago.
“Better late than never?” she tried.
He grimaced. “You consider your role of my wife as a job?” he asked, proving he was still stuck on that point.
“What would you call it when I have a list of duties to perform that have nothing to do with our personal relationship? When I have a set of expectations for how I must spend my days?” The bitterness in her own voice surprised her.
But he’d opened this Pandora’s box in their marriage.
She’d shut the lid tight on her personal dreams and expectations when she realized that no matter how much she fought him, she was trapped in a marriage that wasn’t anything like she’d thought it would be. That whatever else her husband felt for her, it wasn’t love and that no matter what, their unborn child deserved a stable and content homelife.
“I…” He let his voice trail off, without a ready response.
If she could believe it. And she found that very difficult. He was never without a ready response.
“So, you don’t like the charity work?” he asked finally.
“It’s not that black-and-white.”
“Isn’t it?”
“Do you like spending time with me and Helena?”
“You know I do.”
“So, sell off your company and spend all your time with us.”
