Page 116 of Ungodly Rich

She reached into his mind, filling him with the urge to break into Julia’s room.

Then she fell back onto the pillows and closed her eyes, exhausted.

As she’d expected, Julia had come downstairs in search of Ares. Where she stumbled across the tableau that Aphrodite had so painstakingly arranged for her.

Now Ares stared at Aphrodite in utter horror. “No. It wasn’t Julia who came to my room in the middle of the night, was it? It was you.”

“You went to Ares’s room?” Hephaestus had been watching their exchange; everyone had. His features were etched with hurt. “Are you sleeping with him again?”

“No,” Aphrodite said swiftly. “It’s not like that!”

“You impersonated Julia and came to my room in the middle of the night.” Ares put his hands over his eyes and groaned. “Julia must have walked in on us! That’s why she ran off, risked herlifein a deadlystorm, because she thought I was cheating on her! And with you, of all people!”

All sets of eyes in the room whirled on her, angry, accusatory. But Aphrodite cared only about Hephaestus. She took a step toward him, but he flinched.

“Hephaestus, please,” she said helplessly. “This isn’t about Ares.”

“How can you say that when you’re sneaking to his room in the middle of the night?” he asked, his voice rough with hurt.

Athena laid a supportive hand on her brother’s forearm, her gray eyes flashing angrily in Aphrodite’s direction.

“Youswore.” Hera’s words were as loud and angry as her husband’s thunder. “Aphrodite, you promised that you wouldn’t touch Ares again! You broke an oath!”

“Ididn’ttouch him!” Aphrodite exclaimed. “All I did was make him fall asleep, then climbed into the bed next to him so that Julia would see us together. Nothing happened between us.”

Hera closed her eyes as if praying for strength. “How dare you stoop to this. After everything you put this family through the last time—”

Aphrodite threw up her hands. “You should be thanking me!You’rethe one who said we needed to drive Julia off using any means necessary. But once the wedding was back on, you were nowhere to be found. I stepped up and did what needed to be done!”

Athena gasped. Hephaestus stiffened. Ares went completely still, then turned slowly to his mother.

“Mother? You were behind this?”

Hera held her ground. “I will admit, I had my reservations about Julia—”

“So you collaborated withAphrodite? Summoned a storm of this magnitude, just to keep me and Julia from getting married? Why?”

“Because that woman is all wrong for you!” Hera’s emotions, normally contained behind a stiff veneer of etiquette, had finally burst out. “Yes, I called up the storm, and I’m not going to lie, I’mgladJulia is gone! But I do not condone Aphrodite’swhoringherself out to do so!”

“Don’t talk to my wife that way.”

They all turned, having half-forgotten that Hephaestus was present. He was staring down at his shoes, pointedly refusing to meet anyone’s gaze, but his words fell like stones into the silence.

“Hephaestus,” Hera said incredulously. “You can’t honestly mean to take her back, not after she cheated on you.Again.”

Hephaestus looked up at his mother then. “This is between me and Aphrodite.”

Aphrodite blinked sudden tears from her eyes, tears of relief, at what might be a reprieve.

Thunder boomed outside, so close it sounded as though giants were out there, about to knock down this hotel with their massive fists. But of course, giants weren’t real. There were only mortals, and the gods who resembled them, and the chaos and destruction they wrought. The infinite ways they had found to hurt themselves and one another.

“Thank you, Hephaestus.” Aphrodite turned to him eagerly, putting a hand on his elbow. “Please, let me explain—”

He gently detached her hand from where she gripped him. His expression was shuttered, unreadable.

“I do want to talk about this, but I’m not ready,” he told her. “I need some time alone. I’m heading out to look for Julia.”

“Please, just—”