“No, I didn’t. But the money was nothing to me and on the off chance she was telling the truth, I decided to take the risk. I took my time observing you. Wanted to make sure you weren’t your mother’s daughter before I went through the trouble of having the test done.”
I try not to linger on the part where Zeus says I wasn’t my mother’s daughter and shake my head. “But how-”
“Took a toothbrush of yours when you visited once. You’d be surprised how much DNA a toothbrush has on it.”
“Apparently enough to have a test done.”
He smirks at me. “More than enough. The test was 99.9% conclusive that you’re my daughter.”
“It’s a little late for me to get you a Father’s Day card,” I tell him, aiming to sound unbothered but I fail. My voice cracks, it sounds thick with emotion and I hate how I wear my damn heart on my sleeve. Why can’t I be calm? Law would think of something reasonable to say. He’d pretend none of it mattered and you would believe him. Even my shitty mother would think of a witty one-liner and keep moving.
But me?
I sound like the pitiful kid who wishes desperately for a father to rescue her from the crappy childhood I’d been dealt.
I look at Zeus and he tuts as he plucks a folded linen napkin off the table. He holds it out to me. “Don’t cry. This is an unexpected event to be sure, but it is a joyous occasion.”
I take the napkin because I don’t know what else to do with my hands and dab at my eyes.
“What do you want with me? I don’t understand. I-I’m twenty-six years old. I’m not a kid anymore. I don’t understand why you’d claim me now.”
Zeus tilts his head to the side, eyes moving over my face slowly. “Family is forever, Honey. That’s real power. It’s immortal and unyielding in the face of an ever-changing and fickle world. You didn’t learn that from your mother, did you?” I don’t answer him. I’ve never really had a family. The only person I’ve thought of as mine has been Law. I shake my head and Zeus continues speaking. “Where I’m from, family is very important. You are the only child I have, and that makes you incredibly valuable to me.”
“Why?”
“Because all of this,” he says, gesturing around the room before he points at me, “belongs to you. It’s going to be yours one day. Every inch and brick of the empire that I’ve built will be yours.”
“But why involve Law?”
“To keep you safe. I only hire the best and he is, of course, the best at what he does. I knew if I wanted him it would have to start here in the club. It was a necessity to keep you safe. You understand that now, don’t you? I was a father protecting my child. Your mother would have been happy to watch you rot in the city. I stepped in when necessary, but nothing too noticeable. Not until the truth of who you are could be revealed.”
He is right. There have been moments when things had aligned just right for me in the club. Windfalls here and there that let me get to my next paycheck, connections, things I hadn’t paid much mind to in the moment but now, looking at it from this light…
It had been Zeus all along.
I shake my head. “I’m no one,” I whisper. The words I’ve been telling myself for so long come easily, but he shakes his head.
“You are my heir. That makes you everything.”
“I-”
“My entire empire is going to be yours.”
Zeus is my father.
“‘No one’would not inherit my entire world.”
I suck in a sharp breath. The impact of his words turns my world upside down, rocks it to its core and I grip the arms of the chair I’m in so hard I am surprised the wood doesn’t splinter.
“I-I need a minute. This is all a lot.” My words come out hoarse, like I haven’t spoken in days and not just seconds before. I feel like my throat is closing up on me. I want to ask him why he is doing this now. Demand the truth of it all. Why and how had his world and my mother’s collided long enough for me to come to being?
It just doesn’t make sense. How can the fairy tale all powerful father I’d made up in my head be real? How is it that he’d watched over me from afar like my younger self had wished?
I don’t ask any of those things. I stay quiet while Zeus speaks. He adjusts the cuffs of his shirt and moves back from me, hands up as he does, like he is soothing a spooked animal. I guess I am in that moment, if the panic and confusion of being his daughter is showing on my face. It has to be. I’m a shit liar. Never can play poker because of how open my face is.
“I understand. You’ll no doubt want to rest.” I give him a stiff nod and push myself up from the chair. My body aches, my limbs and joints feel stiff, like I haven’t moved in years, not the hour I’ve spent staring at my plate while people I don’t know ate their fill. “I’ll have dinner sent to your room.”
I shake my head, prepared to tell him I don’t want anything, but he gives me a sharp look. “You are my heir and you’re wasting away over a man. I won’t have it. You’ll eat.” There is a bite to his words that tells me it doesn’t matter how he gets me to do it. I am going to eat one way or another, so I give him a nod.
