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“Dead to us is not the same as dead,” I reply, biting the anger back. No doubt he knows how furious I am. There’s no telling who else is listening in, and there is no need for anyone else here to be privy to my emotions.
With a few steps, I move to the window and gaze out at the sprawling, unkempt grounds. This place is in desperate need of a gardener and a team of maintenance workers.
“So you refused to stop looking for her. I take it you found her?” he says in a low tone.
“I did,” I admit as I watch a stray cat slink across the overgrown grass to disappear into the shapeless shrubs. “I was too late, though. She died a month ago. I’m in her home now, hoping someone here can give me some details of what my ghost of a mother has been up to.”
I decide not to mention the apparent son my mother had. My father is a jealous, possessive man, and something like that is enough to set him off on a rampage. I don’t have the time to clean up after one of his tantrums, and he’ll probably destroy any chance I have at answers.
There’s a pause, and I wonder if my father is processing that his ex-wife is dead. Truly dead this time. Is he feeling any pain? Any sadness?
Doubtful.
“She left you just like she left me and your brothers. What more could you possibly want to know?” His words hurt more than I want to think about right now. I don’t understand the mix of feelings I’m having. I just know that I need to be here and face the truth, whatever that looks like.
“I’m here for answers that you could have given me and simply chose not to.” I turn away from the window just in time to see the most stunning man on the planet enter the library. I guess he is about my age, at least 6’4 with broad shoulders and light blond hair hanging down to his strong jaw and the coldest blue eyes on the planet. “I have to go. I’ll call you later, and when I do, I expect a different story to the history you wrote us.” I hang up the phone, not waiting for my father’s reply.
“Who the fuck are you?” He curls his lip in disgust, looking at me.
Oh, hell no. I don’t give a fuck how pretty this man is. No one talks to me like that.
“Athena Godwin. Who the fuck are you?”
“I’m Freya’s son.” His words come out between clenched teeth. “Her only child.”
“Well, buddy, looks like I have some news for you.”
I arch my eyebrow as I take a closer look at him. His frame is leaner than my brothers. His muscles are prominent but lean like a swimmer, not bulky like Phoenix and Apollo. He has darker, tanned skin. The Godwins all burn, then end up whiter than before. He looks nothing like me or my brothers. His eyes are the wrong shape, his nose too long, his cheekbones too high, and his hair is a striking almost white blond, not dark brown like everyone else in the family.
The only thing we have in common is the color of our eyes. But my mother’s eyes weren’t blue, like mine. I have my father’s eyes.
Freya Godwin had green eyes.
“Not only am I her daughter, but I have two brothers, and a deceased one. And I’m guessing you are about my age, so there is no way she could have been your mother.”
“You lie.”
“Frequently, about a lot of things when it suits me, but not this.” I cross my arms over my chest. “So, I’ll repeat. Who the fuck are you?”
“Perseus, Freya’s adopted son.” He pauses, studies me, and as if I have suddenly developed a stench, he grimaces. “You should leave. Now.” He leans over me like he’s trying to intimidate me. I usually hate it when men pull the macho crap or try to use their size and strength to cow me, but the heat rushing through my body isn’t anger. It’s desire.
He’s too good looking, and I hate him instantly for it.
“Not until I get what I am owed.”
He’s thrown off. I can see it all over his face. I’m a surprise to him, and though he’s struggling to not show his cards, his feelings are obvious to me. Mommy dearest clearly kept secrets from him, too.
“Owed? You want money? And you think I’m just going to let you come and take my inheritance?” His shapely lips twitch, and part of me wonders what they feel like when they aren’t twisted in distaste.
Now I hate him even more for having me think this way.
“You know what?” I put my hands on his firm chest and shove him back, getting him out of my personal space. His spicy sweet scent still lingers around me, but it’s a little less distracting. “All I wanted was answers. I just wanted to talk to some people that knew her. But now, I think I need to speak to the lawyer handling her estate. Question any will that gives her only heir an inheritance. Especially since you are not the only heir.”
