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Cameron had ruined her. He had ruined those dreams. Because she had tasted something much sharper and clearer than she had ever been able to manufacture in the mists of her mind. He had shown her that she was a warrior. And soft and simple would never do.

Good your life is soft and simple. Here you are. On the verge of meeting your family. Either the fulfillment of their dreams or the reopening of a wound.

She took a breath and squared her shoulders, and knocked.

The door opened. And she was face-to-face with a woman, two inches shorter than herself, black hair pulled back into a bun. She was beautiful. “It’s you,” the woman said. “Athena. Athena.” And she started to cry. She reached out and wrapped her arms around Athena, and Athena new.

“Mom.”

She was ushered inside, where her father was. And she suddenly just knew who they were. And she felt it. It was a reunion, as her memories came flooding back to her. They were not strangers. She was not meeting her family. She was being reunited with them.

“I can’t believe this,” her father said, kissing her head. “After all these years.”

“Yes. I’m here.”

And then she looked up, and saw at the bottom of the grand staircase, a man. Tall and dark, his intensity bright and clear. There was a woman with red hair standing next to him, holding him tight.

“Do you remember me?” he asked, his voice rough.

“Of course, Constantine.” Athena smiled, and for some reason she remembered the silliest thing. “Do you remember, we used to watch that cartoon about ponies.”

And he didn’t speak. He took a step forward and folded her into his arms. And for the first time she felt the completeness that she had forgotten ever existed within her.

“We have a lot of catching up to do,” he said, his voice rough.

They sat together for hours. And when her parents went to bed, and Morgan gave Constantine a kiss and went upstairs, it left just her and Constantine.

“Tomorrow you’ll meet the children,” he said. “When I found out Morgan was having twins I...”

“Twins. That’s wonderful.”

“It did not feel wonderful. I felt as if I had let you down, Athena. I thought you were dead. All these years.”

“They told me you were dead. And I think it broke me. I didn’t remember. I didn’t remember my family. I didn’t remember where I came from.”

“Apollo told us that you had been adopted. By a different family than the one who kidnapped us.”

She nodded. “Yes. I couldn’t remember anything before I came to them. I understand now it was because of what happened to us when we were with the kidnapper. When he told me that you were dead.”

“I remembered. All these years, I remembered. They tortured me by telling me they were hurting you.”

“I’m sorry. No harm ever came to me. I was kept safe. Kept away from the world. I didn’t know who I was. And when the man that I called Father decided to sell me off in marriage I escaped.”

“When was this?”

“A month ago. I escaped and I found a castle. As fantastical as it sounds.”

“Nothing sounds too far-fetched after my experience with losing you and finding you again. I heard Castor Xenakis saved you.”

“Cameron McKenzie saved me.”

“Cameron McKenzie? The tech genius? The one that disappeared from society ten years ago and reappeared with... With his wife.”

“Yes.”

“I did see something about all of that, but I hadn’t looked closely because immediately after I received a phone call from Apollo telling me that you were alive. He said nothing of Cameron, and these last twenty-four hours has been a blur of us coming to terms with this... This unexpected miracle.”

“I married him. To help him reenter society. He married me to keep me safe. He knew that if I was his wife my father would not simply be able to find me again and... He isn’t my father. That man that I just sat with here for hours is my father.”

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