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“Have you eaten today?” Apollo asks her. “You don’t look well, Mistress.”
Mom’s eyebrow raises at his nickname.
“Don’t call me that,” Ophelia shouts. “You took my club from me, you stupid fucking piece of shit.”
Ophelia curses a lot when she’s angry. But tonight, she’s rabid and looking like a feral animal.
“Shhh.” I cup her face, stroking her cheek with my thumb. “I got you, little dragon. It’s going to be okay.”
She relaxes in my arms. My nickname must do it for her because she stops struggling when I say it again.
“I hate you,” she mutters.
I swipe the tear-soaked hair from her face and brush it behind her ears. “I know, baby. But we’ll get through this. You’ll see. I’m not the man you think I am.”
“No,” she whispers. “You’re worse.”
I hear rustling to my right and spy a nosy neighbor standing on their porch, gazing at us.
“Are you okay over there, Ophelia?” Mr. Barker asks her.
He’s in his sixties and couldn’t handle one of us, let alone all three. The old man is way out of his depth and needs to get back in his house before the cops come here looking for Belen. If they see Ophelia in this sad shape, with her throwing around accusations, the detectives will take all of us down to the station for questioning.
“How about we take this inside?” Mom suggests, keeping her voice low. “We don’t need to involve the neighbors.”
“I’m fine, Mr. Barker,” Ophelia says.
“I just saw the news,” he says. “I hope they find your father.”
“Me too,” she chokes out, sniffing back more tears. “You can go back inside. Sorry to bother you.”
He gives each of us a strange look and then walks back into the house. I won’t be surprised if he watches us from his window.
I bend down and smash my nose against Ophelia’s neck, breathing her in after missing her for the past two weeks. “Can we talk about this in the house, baby?”
“I’m not your baby anymore,” she fires back.
“Okay, that’s fair.” I kiss her cheek so she knows I still care about her and want her more than oxygen. “But we do need to talk. All of us.”
She laughs. “Sure, let’s talk about my dad being too stupid to listen.” Ophelia’s eyes shift to my mom. “You used his grief to control him. And you thought you could do the same to me.” She shakes her head, another sob escaping her chest. “I’m not my dad. You can’t manipulate me.”
“Darling,” Mother lilts as she approaches us, her expensive heeling clicking on the flagstones. “You don’t know the real story. It’s time you learn the truth about the real Belen Drakos.”
ChapterEleven
OPHELIA
I’m a total mess.Snot drips from my nose, and there’s not a single part of my face not wet with tears. It’s like the floodgates of Hell opened, and I can’t stop crying.
The second I saw Ares, I lost it. He came after me when I wanted him to stay inside with his family. I wanted to walk away and never look back.
Then, I saw him.
And I felteverything.
All my feelings came pouring out of me, leaking onto the ground at my feet. They consume me, and I hate how much I want him.
Needhim.
