For the twins, a preschool designed to meet international standards had been built on the island, and Kyr had taken on the responsibility of driving them to and from school. Normally, Dio would be the first one to leave his side upon reaching school, but today was different. Ella was the first one to kiss her father goodbye and skip into class while Dio stayed behind, a visibly troubled look on his face, and with his hands clasped behind his back, the young boy looked too much like a brooding miniature of Kyr, it was uncanny.

Crouching down, he asked, “Is anything wrong?”

His son didn’t speak right away.

“I can’t help you if you don’t let me know what’s wrong,” he said gently.

Dio chewed on his lip before saying reluctantly, “I saw Mama crying in the bathroom.”

Ah.

“I don’t like seeing Mama sad,” the boy added fiercely, his gaze bright with tears.

Kyr patted his son’s head. “I understand. I don’t like seeing Mama sad, too.” But the problem was, he knew the reason behind his wife’s sadness…and it was him.

Looking into his son’s eyes, he said seriously, “I’ll do my best to cheer her up when I get back home.”

Dio frowned, as if not entirely trusting his father was up to the task. “Promise?”

He almost smiled. “Promise.”

“Okay.” Dio’s reluctance was obvious in his tone, and watching his son enter the school’s premises, he knew by the way Dio still had his head bowed that the matter hadn’t been completely settled in his mind.

Returning to the limousine, he surprised his chauffeur by telling him to drive home instead of the resort. Settling back in his seat, Kyr closed his eyes, unable to stop himself from thinking back on the months that had gone past.

Several months had passed since her birthday, and he knew now that he had not been as successful as he thought he had in hiding his emotions from her.

She might not have known why he had changed, but she had noticed that he had changed.

And it started, he thought heavily, the night of her birthday, when she had told him about Ana’s divorce.

That night, he had made love to her almost mechanically, arousing both of them with practiced ease, but Kyr had known his heart hadn’t been in it. He had hated himself for it, but he hadn’t been able to stop it.

Ana was getting a divorce.

The words had repeated over and over in his mind, and he had lain awake that night, thinking about a thousand what-if scenarios. They varied a lot, from Ana crying on his shoulder, to him pretending to bump into her in Beverly Hills. But one thing that all those scenarios had in common was that if he did anything to contact Ana, it would break his wife’s heart.

Even if he only wanted to talk to his ex, even if he would never betray Polly, he knew that his wife would never understand, and a part of him started to resent her for it.

The more rumors he heard about Ana’s controversial divorce spread, the more he wanted to talk to Ana, and the more he began to hate the shackles of marriage.

But of course he hadn’t told Pollyanna anything about it, because even he himself knew that he was being unfair.

When he came back home, panic stirred inside him when the butler told Kyr that his wife was not at home.

“And where is she?” It took everything in Kyr to keep his voice even. If his wife had left him, he thought, what would he do?

Then he heard the butler say, “She is visiting her godparents, Master Kyr.”

“I see.” Relief had him swinging almost clumsily around as he sought to hide his expression from the other man. She had not left him. Kyr sucked his breath in. But she could still leave him, if he didn’t make it up to her.

When he made it to the Floros, Ezio was waiting for him at the porch. “She’s at the greenhouse with the wife.”

He nodded stiffly and remained there, knowing that the older man had not waited for him for nothing.

“She was crying,” Ezio said finally.

“I’ll make it up to her.”

“Does it have anything to do with our daughter?”

He didn’t answer.

“You should tell her the truth before she finds out any other way,” Ezio warned quietly. “I know none of the locals will talk. They owe their livelihoods to you, and certainly we would never want to hurt her for anything. But secrets like this…they always end up exposed, sooner or later.”

He knew Ezio meant well, but Kyr also knew he would not be able to follow the older man’s advice. Pollyanna was just too sensitive. She would never understand, and he would never risk their marriage for anything.

When he entered the greenhouse, Dinah was the first one to see her and she automatically excused herself. He thanked her quietly, but his eyes were on his wife, and he didn’t miss the way she had flinched at the sound of his voice.

Ah, psaraki.

I’m sorry.

When he came to stand behind her, Pollyanna’s shoulders had already started to shake, and when he said rawly, “I’m sorry,” the way she audibly struggled to keep the sound of her sobs from escaping filled the greenhouse.

She moved as if to leave him, and he didn’t let her, hauling her to him. He tightened his arms around her, and he kissed her hair, saying hoarsely, “I’m sorry.”

She cried in his arms, shaking her head fiercely when he tried to make her face him.

“I’m sorry.”

“Tell me what’s wrong,” she sobbed, “what I did---”

“You didn’t do anything,” he said fiercely.

Then why had he changed, Pollyanna wanted to cry out. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew something was wrong. He hadn’t cheated on her, somehow she was sure of that.

But something was wrong.

She just couldn’t make herself ask, feeling too relieved to have him back, terrified to lose him again.

This time, when her husband tried to turn her to face him, she let him, and the moment she saw his beautiful face, she started to cry again. It felt like it had been forever since she had seen that light in his eyes, and she knew that whatever had changed her husband, he was back, and he loved her again.

And maybe it was fate, maybe it was coincidence, but that night Kyr and Pollyanna conceived their third child.

The discovery left her shell shocked, but Kyr welcomed the news. For him, it felt like a message from God, telling him that he could start anew with his wife.

But when they emerged from the clinic, he had taken one look at his wife and knew also that some things didn’t change. The knowledge that she was expecting seemed to have flipped a switch inside Pollyanna, and her sunny nature disappeared with it.

One of life’s strangest miracles, Kyr mused.

“You won’t want to be with me again,” his wife said darkly beside him.

Bending down, he brushed his lips against hers, saying, “See if you can keep me from your side.”

As it turned out, Pollyanna’s second pregnancy proved to be a lot more fun than the first one, mainly because he had his twins to share the experience with. One day, he came home to the sound of what seemed like a heated argument between mother and son. It was a rare thing, considering how much Dio secretly adored his mother, and Kyr swiftly made his way to the dining hall.

There, he saw his wife glowering down at their son, hands planted on her hips. Dio had a mutinous look on his face while Ella, seated across him, simply sipped her soup, looking utterly unaffected.

Ella was the first one to see him. “Papa!” She jumped off her seat and he bent down so she would have an easy time kissing him. After walking her back to her seat, he placed a kiss on his wife’s cheek and accepted a kiss from his son.

Straightening, he raised a brow. “Well?”

“Mama wants Dio to finish his meal,” Ella reported helpfully.

Ah. This was a common problem, with Dio being so active that there were times he couldn’t stay still long enough to finish eating his food.

But right now, Dio was shaking his head firmly. “No, Papa. It’s Mama’s fault. She says if I eat more, I will stay cute like a kid.” His lip curled, making it obvious that he no longer considered himself a kid.

When his wife turned red at their son’s words, he thought, Interesting. He nodded for Dio to go on.

Dio took a deep breath. “And then Mama said if I do not eat, I will look old and handsome like you, Papa, and she says another girl will take me away and that she will be all alone.”

Kyr burst into laughter. What the hell?

Pollyanna shot him a hurt look, saying dourly, “But it’s true.”

“No, it’s not true, Mama, and I’m already like Papa.” Dio’s chest puffed with pride as he dropped the bomb. “All the girls in my school have a crush on me.”

Pollyanna burst into tears.

Dio paled, and when his mother showed no signs of stopping, he hastily got off his chair and went to hug his mother by the waist. “I’m sorry, Mama. I’ll eat now.”

“Promise?” his mother sniffed.

He nodded vehemently. “Just don’t cry, Mama.”

Over his son’s head, he told his wife in French, “You’re a sly one.”

To which, she replied innocently, also in French, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

When she gave birth to their child, it was a completely uneventful delivery, but seeing their child for the first time was as magical as the instance they had first glimpsed the twins.

They named their third child Leo.

And life went back to its perfect, fairytale-like state, until the day Pollyanna told him she would like to fly to New York to work.