Chapter Six
TWO WEEKS LATER, Aliyah arrived at her home to get married.
The Andros Villa had always been a place of distant perfection—manicured lawns, grand archways, sprawling gardens that seemed endless, blooming with the kind of beauty that could only be constructed.
A space that wasn’t a home, but rather a stage. For Aliyah, it had always carried the weight of absence—her parents’ neglect, her brother’s death.
Beauty without warmth. A shell dressed up in grandeur.
And yet today, the stage had been transformed.
Constantine had filled it with life. Even his considerable ruthlessness couldn’t stand against her father’s desperate pleas to have it there, apparently. And yet, he seemed to have gotten into the spirit of making it beautiful for her.
Roses spilled over marble urns, lanterns glowed under the arched walkways, soft candlelight flickered against stone columns. Strings of lights shimmered in the trees, catching in the late-afternoon sun.
The villa breathed with a romance she had never associated with it, almost daring her to imagine new memories in place of the old.
Music floated across the gardens, lush and aching—the unmistakable sound of a world-famous string quartet. How Constantine had managed to get them to perform at their wedding ceremony…for once, Aliyah was thankful for the reach of his power.
The notes had wrapped around her like silk as she walked down the aisle on her father’s arm, embellishing the moment with impossible beauty.
That the quartet was her favorite group, she realized only later with a jolt, could only have come from Rose. Which meant Constantine had gone to her daughter, had cared enough to ask what Aliyah would love.
No wonder Rose’s latest texts about him had been less sharp, less biting than usual. That he cared enough to ask Rose moved through her like a crack in the armor she had spent years fortifying.
The wedding ceremony itself had been everything she’d once dreamed of. For a moment, standing in the gardens with Constantine at her side, she could almost believe in the fantasy she’d once spun for herself.
Her dress of delicate silk and lace only heightened the illusion, hugging her waist just so and falling in a soft cascade to the ground.
It shimmered under the light, the flowers around her seeming to lean in, drawn by the perfection of the moment.
The guests would see nothing but fairy-tale splendor.
But for Aliyah, the perfection struck a different chord. It didn’t feel hollow today. Not entirely. Against her better judgment, she felt the faintest flicker of something she hadn’t let herself feel in this place.
Hope.
And then came the kiss—the moment that made that fragile hope feel undeniable. A force in itself.
When the ceremony was over and Constantine lifted her veil, his mouth on hers wasn’t strategic or dominating, like at the engagement party.
It was softer, almost tender. A kiss that wasn’t a declaration but a quiet, private moment between them. An echo of all the tender, intimate kisses they had shared in the same place years ago. Not a hollow one, either, but full of new promises.
It left her trembling violently, her body unsteady from the unexpected rush of warmth. Constantine steadied her, hands gripping her shoulders gently, holding her to him as if to make sure she didn’t slip away—as though he felt the strange surrealness of the day.
But pleasure was only fleeting. And it didn’t change anything.
This wedding was still a strategic move on both their parts.
Now, as she looked at herself in the mirror in her old bedroom, her bright, feverish eyes stared back at her, still full of a kind of foolish, audacious hope. Her hands trembled as she touched her face, her skin still flushed from the kiss.
She felt the deep ache of wanting him, of feeling alive, like she hadn’t felt in years, when he was near. That truth was harder to deny the longer she stayed in this house, where their future had once seemed so full of possibility. So full of love and connection that she’d craved and found in him.
Maybe she shouldn’t keep castigating herself for this weakness. After all, he was the only man she’d ever loved. The only one she had given herself to, body and soul.
The door creaked open, breaking her indulgent reverie. Her mother stepped inside, studying Aliyah with an assessing expression.
Aliyah ran a hand over her stomach, almost tempted to tell Noor to leave her alone.
She felt on the edge of something already, without her mother pushing her off of it.
Of course, no one could say no to her mother when she was clearly in a mood, which she was, given the triumphant glitter in her eyes.
Dressed in a beige-colored pantsuit that made her look regal and elegant, Noor closed the door behind her and stepped inside. “Where is the wedding night to be?” she asked, jumping straight into the fray.
Turning her gaze away, Aliyah tried to regulate her breathing.
The last person she needed to talk to about the upcoming night with Constantine, and everything that it made her feel and want, was her mother.
Even her stepdaughter, Rose—as inappropriate as it might have been—would be a better choice.
At least Rose wouldn’t judge Aliyah for being weak.
“I don’t know,” Aliyah said, thankful that her voice sounded steady.
How could she still be that little girl at heart who wanted her mother’s attention and affection? How many more beatings did she have to take to grow up? A frustrated sound escaped her lips, filling the silence around them.
“I hope you don’t intend to spread your legs too easily for him, like you did the last time.” Noor’s words cut through the air like a blade.
Shock threaded itself over Aliyah in infinite pinpricks.
“Stop it, Mama,” she managed to say, every nerve trembling with anger. “I do not wish to discuss our married life with you. Not any part of it.”
A short, almost cruel laugh escaped her mother’s lips.
Aliyah stared in both shock and dread. There was a strange hysteria to the sound her mother was making. For just a few seconds, she could set aside her own frustrations and fears, and see her mother for what she was in the moment—a little broken, and maybe even a little sick.
“I knew it,” Noor said, spittle flying. “I knew that you would be foolish and eager to fall for his charms again. Isn’t it enough that he gave you up for your father’s wealth once?”
Aliyah shook her head. “It helps no one to dwell in the past, Mama. I am a different woman now, and I am doing this for Rose. I know how to handle Constantine—please, believe me. I am getting what I want out of this marriage, and it’s the only way I will survive it.
Have some grace for me, this is hard on me too. ”
“Grace, you fool!” Noor’s voice sharpened. “What do you mean by grace? I thought you would know better.”
“Know better what? What are you talking about?” Aliyah said, just giving in.
“Use his madness for you to topple him, Aliyah. Have a backbone for once. Pay him back for what he did to you. Once again.”
Aliyah stared, her mouth falling open. Apparently, her mother’s idea of revenge had no limits. “What? That’s not why I am back,” she said, gathering herself. “I have no intention of doing anything to Constantine. He is helping me. Are you forgetting that part?”
Her mother made a dismissive sound. “Oh, please. As if you really care about that brat. One look at her, and I can tell you she’ll be better off if you throw her into some boarding school, or even under her uncle’s iron-fisted discipline. You can see, she is—”
Aliyah’s anger flared brighter now. “Stop talking like that about Rose! She’s everything to me. How dare you?”
For a moment, her mother’s cool facade faltered, her expression shifting from indifference to shock. She blinked, clearly not accustomed to Aliyah’s defiance. For a moment, it felt almost like victory, but it was fleeting.
“What is it you’re getting out of this marriage, Aliyah?” Noor’s voice was still sharp, but there was an edge of something softer, more curious now. It was the first time she had ever asked, as if for a moment the veil of hate had lifted and she was trying to piece together Aliyah’s choices.
Aliyah didn’t answer. There was so much she wanted to say, and yet, in this moment, her mind rushed to a quiet conclusion.
Her mother was too far gone in her bitterness, too set in her ways.
To answer her mother’s question honestly would only open a door Aliyah wasn’t sure she was ready to walk through.
A soft sigh escaped her, realizing that the closeness and connection she wanted with her mother was never going to happen. A loss, yes, but also a relief, for she could finally jettison the weight of those expectations too.
She moved toward the small vanity, eyes drifting across the room, where the light still poured in from the windows, casting soft shadows over the old, familiar furniture.
Her eyes settled on the mirror—her reflection almost distant to her in the moment. Everything in her room was the same and yet she was not. While neither of her parents had noticed that, he had. And she drew strength from that, even as the naked challenge in his eyes made her belly quiver.
Although to give her father credit, the toast earlier that morning, delivered with such genuine pride, had been unexpected. He had praised her and Constantine, speaking of how far they had come.
Could this truly be a new beginning? Could she and Constantine actually have something more than this arrangement they were bound by? Could their marriage, against all odds, come to mean something real? Constantine himself had been shaken by her father’s speech.
“I noticed that Papa is doing much better,” she said, turning to her mother.
Noor was watching her closely, eyes narrowed.
Aliyah took a deep breath. “I’m sorry I didn’t come back as soon as I heard about the heart attack. You must have felt very alone, by his side at the hospital. I should have been here to lend you support.”
Noor scoffed. “Your father brought it on himself. Decades of losing himself in work, ignoring me, even after my precious Julian died.” Her voice had an edge to it, like the bitterness had been carved into her soul over the years.
Aliyah’s throat tightened.
“And no, I never stepped into the hospital. All that sterile environment, the smells I can’t tolerate.
Anyway, I didn’t have to. He was there the whole time.
Night and day.” Noor’s tone shifted, a darker note creeping into her voice.
“Worried that your father would die before he took over the board completely, I’m sure. ”
Aliyah stepped back, the words hitting her like a cold wave. “Constantine? He was with Papa the whole time?”
“Who else?” Noor’s voice was dismissive, but there was something in her gaze—something calculating.
“That sniveling Adamos Galanis from the board visited me, planning a coup behind your father’s back, but of course, Constantine thwarted it.
At least, your father’s faith in him is rewarded, I guess. ”
Aliyah wasn’t surprised that Constantine had looked after her father during that time—it felt right, somehow. The relief too was undeniable, a soft clearing in her chest, as if the lingering doubts she’d held about Constantine were slowly unraveling.
For the first time in a long while, Aliyah felt a tiny bit of hope again.
She leaned forward, pressing her lips gently to her mother’s cheek in an effort to soften the air between them. “Now that I’m back here for a while, we should spend time together,” she said softly. “How about a spa day together? Then Papa, you and I can—”
Noor jerked away from her touch. “I see that you’re still a naive fool, Aliyah,” she sneered. “When you told me about your engagement to him, I hoped that you would take control of him.”
Aliyah’s stomach dropped at the venom in her mother’s voice. “To what end, Mama?” she asked, her own voice trembling.
“For stealing your brother’s place? For not saving his life?”
“Julian died in a car accident that he caused because he had been driving drunk. How is Constantine responsible for that?”
Noor shook her head, as if Aliyah’s words couldn’t even filter through the hate bubble she had built around herself. “If you won’t do it, then I will. Again.”
Again… The word came at Aliyah like a punch to her stomach. Her breath felt like it was floating out of her as she whispered, “Do what, Mama?”
“Make Constantine pay. Take away his happiness. Ruin him again.”
Aliyah took a step back, her mind racing. “What do you mean? What weakness does Constantine have?”
Noor’s lips curled into something that was almost a smile—savage and satisfying. “You,” she declared.
Aliyah’s breath caught in her throat.
“You were always his weakness,” Noor said, looking at her as if she lacked basic intelligence.
“You believed me when I said he made a choice to give you up last time and you fled. But he hadn’t yet.
I told your father about your sordid infatuation with him, and he was angry.
Theo always did like his control. He gave Constantine the ultimatum in the middle of the night. And you…”
Noor’s face twisted in cruel satisfaction as she relived that moment.
“You were gone before he made a choice. He was…devastated. I saw it that very next morning. He went…” She paused, savoring the memory, and Aliyah felt a cold shiver go down her spine.
“Mad. Unhinged. For a second, I thought he would walk away from it all. From my family. My husband. My son’s place.
But the bastard remained standing after all. ”