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“I love you, Ophelia.” Mom coughs, and I hate watching her choke on her words.
The last few months were the worst. She’d start hacking and couldn’t stop for an hour, all while I had to sit and watch her die.
“Everything I have ever done was to protect you,” she says once her lungs are clear. “To make sure you felt loved and supported. I know you’ve always felt different, but that’s because you’re special.”
I smile at her words. There wasn’t a single day my mom didn’t make me feel special. Every school day, she left a note in my lunch box with an inspirational quote or words of wisdom, anything to make me feel more secure in my body. I was always so worried about weight I never focused on anything else. I figured that was all anyone could see because the kids at school made me feel bad about myself.
“For you to fully understand my choices, I need to go back to the beginning,” my mom continues. “Back to my childhood and my second year of college.”
I grab a tissue from the box on the table and dab at my eyes.
Ares slips his fingers between mine and whispers in my ear. “Are you okay?”
I bob my head, blinking away the tears staining my cheeks. “I will be.”
“We’re here for you, Mistress,” Apollo says in a hushed tone, placing his hand on my knee. He squeezes, and I like seeing this side of him.
Atlas already has his hand on my shoulder, tapping his fingers on my skin. Between the three of them, they make me feel desired and loved. Until they disrupted my life, I never felt so appreciated by any man, let alone three of them.
“I grew up with Athena and Alexander,” Mom explains, dabbing one of her fancy silk scarves beneath her eyes. She was so glamorous and classy, always dressed to the nines. “They were my best friends. We were in the same grade and had the same classes in school. I spent a lot of time at the Drakos’ house. And that’s how I met Belen. But he didn’t notice me until I was older, home from college on my summer break. I had a crush on him. He was older and a bad boy, and I liked how it felt to break the rules for once in my life.”
My dad was the definition of a bad boy. Starting in high school, he operated outside the law. He cooked books, fixed fights, anything to make a quick buck and not have to work a real job. His clubs and other businesses were all legitimate, but he started them with the illegal cash from his side hustles.
Mom sits up straighter and clears her throat. “I know you must be confused, Ophelia. But you have to understand I had feelings for Alexander, too. We hadn’t explored that side of our relationship until after I started dating Belen. Seeing me with his brother snapped Alex into action. I’d liked Alex since we were kids, so I didn’t push him away when he finally kissed, even though I should have. Especially since I was sleeping with his brother.” She lowers her head and sighs. “I’m ashamed of what I did. I should have broken it off with Belen. But when I found out I was pregnant, Alex suggested I tell Belen. He was more established and successful and could take care of us. Alex couldn’t give us that. Not back then, anyway. And if Belen knew you were Alex’s child, he would have killed him. You know by now that your father…” She pauses and then says, “I mean Belen… was not a good man. He would do anything necessary to get what he wanted. Alex and I would have paid the price for what we did. And I feared you would, too.”
My eyes dart to Alexander, who stares at the screen, tears welling in his bottom lids. He loved my mother. I always saw it and thought nothing of it. To me, he was just my uncle. Her brother-in-law. It never occurred to me that all the affection he showed us was more.
I think about all the times I watched them dancing in the living room. Movie nights with three of us curled up on this couch. Monopoly Mondays and Saturday game nights. We did everything together–like a typical family.
My dad was rarely around, so I spent most of my time with my birth parents. I used to think that my childhood sucked. That I had a shitty life because my dad was a Greek Mafia boss and whacked people for a living. And here I was with my father all along.
“Athena and Alexander helped me get even with Belen for what he did to me,” my mom continued, breathing harder through her nose.
I hit the Pause button on the remote, and my gaze flicks to Athena. “What’s she talking about?”
“Your mother didn’t die from cancer.” She presses her plump lips together. “Belen poisoned her.”
My mouth dropped in shock, my heart thumping so loudly my chest hurt. I struggled to form words, and nothing came out when I opened my mouth to speak. Seeing my mother and hearing her voice again was hard enough. But knowing my so-called father intentionally took her away from me…
How could he?
He acted like he was so in love with my mom, even toward the end. Even after she was gone, he turned into a shell of a man. The house was a mess for the first few months. He was drunk all the time. Most mornings, I found shattered liquor bottles on the floor throughout the house. Sometimes, I found my dad half-naked and sleeping in a pool of his vomit.
Was it the guilt?
Did it eat him alive?
“My mom went through chemo,” I mutter, still in shock and blinking rapidly. “Why would Dr. Reynolds make her undergo chemo if she didn’t have cancer?”
“Belen knew the doctor,” Athena says, fiddling with the gold button on her shirtsleeve. “He paid him to swap out the tests and X-rays for a cancer patient. Everything looked real on paper. Your mother was sick and dying but not from cancer.”
“Why would he do that?” I choked out.
“He found out your mother cheated on him,” Alexander interjected, leaning forward with his elbows resting on his thighs. “He didn’t know I was your father.”
“Belen thought my husband was your father,” Athena adds. “That’s why he set Adrian up and cut him out of the businesses. My ex was a lot of things, a cheater being one of them, but he would never have stabbed Belen in the back.”
When Athena divorced Adrian, she came to the house yelling about how he’d cheated on her with women from the clubs. His boys thought he was the greatest father in the world, but he was not a good husband.
