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Marco blew out heavily. “Phew. That’s a lot.”
I nodded. “You asked.”
“No. I know.”
“Does Valen know…that you know?” I asked him.
Marco nodded. “He does. We’ve had words. We’ll be having more now. God, too.”
“You don’t need to. Not on my behalf.”
“Iamgoing to tell you that’s not your business, missus.”
“I’m not sure I’ll ever be your God’s ‘missus’, Marco.”
“Maybe not,” he agreed. “But then we both know he’s not just my God, is he?”
“And what else is he to you?” I teased.
“The man who broke my Goddess’ heart.”
I nodded, finding less humour in that than I wanted, but it warmed my heart to hear it. “My heart’s not quite as broken as I thought. Not unmendable, anyway. It hurts. They both hurt it, but I did have a part to play in it.”
“You can’t help who you fell in love with.”
“No,” I agreed. “But I can help how I deal with it. I might love Valen for the rest of my life, but I don’t have to let it cripple me. We never would have worked anyway, so it’s better left in the past. I might still have to marry Apollo and, at some point, I’m going to have to deal with that.”
“Do you think you can break the contract?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know everything about it. I refuse to give up all hope, but it’s dim and, I suspect, futile.”
“I don’t know everything either, missus, but I’ll stick my ear to the ground and see what I can do.”
I nodded. “I appreciate that, but that’s not your battle.”
He winked. “That’s the best part, missus. It is. I’m contractually obliged to fight for you, to put you first. But I’m concerned that only another offer of marriage will possibly be enough to break the contract.”
“Are you offering?” I asked with a smirk.
He laughed. “Fuck, no. I’d be a piss weak option. I’m a confident man, I’ve got a lot going for me, but not nearly enough to make Reginald Vanguard rethink his debt to Archer Callahan.”
I didn’t think I’d ever heard it called a debt before.
“There’s a debt?”
Marco paled. “I quite possibly shouldn’t have said that.”
“Marco…what do you know?”
He sighed. “Only what me da told me. That Callahan saved Vanguard and the price was his empire. I don’t know how or why God’s dad saved yours, but if Vanguard gave up his empire in payment, it must have been big.”
Dread settled in the pit of my stomach. Marco’s words had brought back a memory. A memory that had faded until now. On the eve I was promised to Apollo. My mother and I sitting in my room at the Callahan Estate, her worrying about what had happened and what was going to happen.
“This whole thing is far bigger than just signatures on some paper, isn’t it?”
“It seems that way. But I will always be by your side, missus.”
I sighed heavily. “I’d say thank you, but I’m sure you’d just say you were contractually obliged,” I tried for some humour.
