“You’ll need jewelry,” he says, giving me a once over. “But this will do for now.”
I nod and follow him inside the restaurant. The last time I’d been here with Law, he’d whisked me away to a private room. He’d laughed with me and fed me dessert with an easy smile. Now, Zeus and I sit at a table by the front windows, prime real estate for anyone wanting to be seen. I guess that is what we are here for. Zeus isn’t the kind of man to make an appearance without it counting for something.
I wait until the server has taken our orders and brought out drinks before I ask, “Why did you tell them it was my birthday?”
Zeus’ eyes move from the drink that had just been placed in front of him to me. “Because it is.”
I raise an eyebrow at him. “You know it’s not.”
“It is when it comes to your rebirth intomy world.”
A shiver runs down my spine at Zeus’ words. “I don’t understand what you-”
Zeus picks up his drink and cuts me off with atsk.“There are a great many things you do not understand about what it means to be my heir, but we’ll remedy that soon enough. Your introduction into society is the first step.”
I blow out a sigh and lean back in my chair. I am tired of people talking to me like they know more than me, which yes, is true, but only because they’d made it so that I don’t have a fighting chance.
“Why the fuck does this sound like a debutante ball or some shit?” I ask him.
The corner of his mouth lifts. “There’s my daughter. It’s good to see some spirit to you, Honey. I’m glad to see you have the Vlahos temper after all.”
I glare at him. “I get that you like being secretive and all-knowing because that’s kind of your whole bag, but I’m fucking tired.”
“Spirit is good, but you will show manners when addressing me. I am your father.”
I grit my teeth at those four little words, but force myself to stay calm. “Please, tell me what’s going on.”
Zeus lets out a satisfying hum at my please. “You will be introduced as my daughter. My heir to society tonight.”
“What society?”
“Anyone that’s important enough to be useful to us,” he answers without pause. “That includes the city’s most influential and wealthy citizens. Each and every one of them will be attending in your honor.”
I shake my head. “But why?”
Zeus sips his drink and gives me a sigh. “Because you are important now, Honey. This city is in my grip,” he says, holding up his hand as he speaks, “do you not understand that?” he asks.
I swallow hard at his question. It is a fair question, given the severity of things. I know Zeus is powerful, but that is within the confines of the club. How deep and wide his influence goes, I don’t know.
“I-I-” I stammer and he shakes his head, setting down his glass with a frown.
“Tonight the city’s elite will bow to you,” he says, dark eyes meeting mine. “My heir.”
I shake my head. “I don’t-”
He leans forward, cutting me off. “Those that you waited on, the upper crust, the blue bloods, the ones that made you feel small, are beneath you now. Every last one of them that affected the shift and sway of all things in this city will try to win your favor for the sole fact that you are mine.”
My fingers tighten on the edge of my seat and I tuck my hands close to my thighs. I don’t want the city’s elite to do anything for me. What Zeus is talking about is bringing a city to its knees, and for what? Me? I swallow hard and try to ignore the way my interest turns at the mention of people that had made me feel small.
It is a novel idea. Thinking about the people I’d served and waited on. The ones that had always found something wrong with their orders or rolled their eyes at me when I’d placed their drinks in front of them a second too late for their liking. I’d taken the job with the app to blend into the background. I like people, and there are enough good ones to keep doing it. The coffee had been a perk. Besides, there was the way that no one ever truly saw the person making their coffee. We were scenery. Just another little cool backdrop in the hustle and bustle of the city that completed the picture of New York.
I’d been an object to the kind of people Zeus is talking about right now. What kind of power does he truly have to make them bend to his will like that? I shift in my seat and shake my head at him. He’s been calling me his heir since he’d told me he is my father. The entourage he surrounds himself with know who I am to him and act accordingly. There isn’t a thing I want that they don’t jump to get me or anticipate that I might need. It is unsettling. I’m not used to that kind of attention.
Nor was I going to pretend to be okay with the kind of power Zeus is talking about. That’s his. Not mine. No. I am good, especially because the little detail that Zeus called mehis.
“I don’t need a party and I never really liked my birthday,” I tell him. “Two of them just seems excessive for a day I’m not fond of.” That much is true. My birthdays have always just been another day to me without anything special, and that was if I’d been lucky. I didn’t want to think about the ones I’d gotten excited over just to realize I was going to another one of my mother’s shows or spending the day doing errands for her.
My first real birthday had been when I’d settled into New York. It had been small and with a few of the others in my apartment building. They’d bought me a cake and everything. I smile thinking about how Juana had sang to me in Spanish, how the twins had gotten me keepsakes from the markets and Elaina had gotten me a bottle of red wine from the bodega down the street. We’d drank wine together on the roof while the twins danced to music I’d played from my phone.
