Chapter 369

That evening, when Calix returned, he felt hot and sticky and cross with himself for having gone into Athens. A visit to his mother hadn’t helped his mood. She was as cold and wrapped up in herself as ever. He didn’t need to remind himself that she hadn’t even bothered coming to the wedding. His own family had been in woefully short supply. After making sure she had everything she needed, he left. which she’d barely noticed.

When he’d been born, as an unplanned late arrival, ten years after the youngest daughter, his parents had only been happy for the fact that they’d finally had a boy, and a proper heir. Their own interests always had been in themselves, not their children, and Calix’s sisters had all been married by the time he’d been in his early teens. He’d long ago shut himself off from the pain of his family’s indifference.

Climbing up the hill to the villa in his four-wheel-drive he found his thoughts straying in an annoyingly familiar direction. Cassia. Wondering what she wou