Chapter 85

85

Monday morning came, and Persephone woke, hearing the ghost echo of the phone ringing. But when she checked it: nothing.

She padded out of the bedroom to be greeted by Cerberus. No Shade stood guard in her apartment, no bodyguard blocked her door.

She checked her phone again: no messages.

Aphrodite would be getting out of the hospital soon, and Athena returning from her trip. It was Monday, the deadline Poseidon had set for Hades to return his shipment to him. What was happening? Would Poseidon make another move against Hades when he couldn’t deliver? Or would he simply go to the Titans immediately to strike a deal with them? Worry had her pacing, wearing a trail in her hardwood floors.

An hour later, there was a knock on the door. Persephone checked the peephole and opened it. A line of Shades poured through, carrying boxes upon boxes.

“What on earth?—?”

“From the penthouse, Miss. Mr. Ubeli wanted you to have them.”

Finding a box with a loose strip of tape, she peeked in and recognized her clothes. Stunned, she ducked around the Shades swarming around her and shut herself in the bathroom.

She called the number she had for Charon, and the emergency line she thought was Hades’s, Charon’s rang and rang until she hung up, and the emergency line gave her a dial tone.

Every hope she had drained away at that empty sound. She dialed it again, confirming she hadn’t made a mistake. Nope. No one there. She slammed her phone on the sink.

So that was it. It was that easy.

Hades had cut her out of his life. Cut off her very access to him.

You didn’t trust me. My own wife.

All this time, she’d been running, and she hadn’t known what she was running from. It hadn’t been from Hades, but from this. This was her worst fear made real. But once he knew, he could never forgive her. She’d broken the bond between them and could never go back.

It’s over.

It hit her as she exited the bathroom and made her way across her apartment through a sea of brown boxes. She was finally alone.

“You got what you wanted,” she whispered to herself

Locking the door after the Shades, she slid down to the floor, tears spilling over faster than Cerberus could lick.

“Persephone!”

Persephone’s head flew up as Athena charged into her office. “Is everything alright?”

“Fine. Move.” Athena leaned over Persephone and grabbed her mouse. She was back from her trip and as much of volcanic force as ever.

“What’s going on?” Persephone leaned back and watched Athena surf the web at lightning speed, pulling up a popular news blog.

“Max Mars didn’t show up on set today.” Aphrodite sashayed in, looking lovely and well rested. Two weeks since she’d been released from the hospital, and her bruises had healed. Glowing and glamorous, she looked like the fledgling movie star she was.

“Here it is,” Athena navigated to the side news bar, reading the headline, “Max Mars beaten in bar brawl. Unknown assailant, man in black.”

“Oh my gods,” Aphrodite pushed her way closer to the computer screen and commandeered the mouse to click around the article. “He got totally busted up.”

“There goes the movie,” Athena muttered.

“Not necessarily,” Aphrodite kept reading. “Says here they were careful not to touch his face.”

Persephone thought of her conversation with Hades in the hospital hall and allowed herself a private smile.

Two weeks, and she hadn’t seen Charon or her husband, or even evidence of a bodyguard following her.

Her anger had subsided into a dull ache as she watched and waited for the silence to break. Reading about Hades’s activities and knowing they were his felt like a secret message, an inside joke between lovers. It hurt and gave her hope at the same time.

“Thank the gods we’ve already shot his topless scenes. He’ll be in pain, but he can work through it,” Aphrodite said.

Athena snorted. “He looked like he was in pain through the entire God of War movie. Either that or he was constipated.”

“No, that’s his acting face,” Aphrodite said. “Oh, look, Persephone, there’s a picture of you here.”

“Really?” Persephone leaned forward but suddenly Athena and Aphrodite were blocking her way.

“Never mind, I was wrong,” Aphrodite said hurriedly, facing Persephone while Athena clicked furiously, navigating away.

“Yeah, it’s not that flattering at all,” Athena muttered.

“Stop it, guys, let me see.” Persephone elbowed Athena out of the way.

Aphrodite and Athena exchanged worried looks.

“You can’t hide it from me; I’ll just pull it up on my phone.” Persephone rolled her eyes at them.

Reluctantly, both stepped away and Persephone clicked back until she saw what made them cringe.

It was a candid picture of her and Hades, with a line down the middle. “Known crime boss and his wife split.”

Another picture of her looking depressed and lonely, walking Cerberus on the tree-lined sidewalk outside her apartment. She kept scrolling down, unable to stop herself.

“Who cheated on who?” she read the histrionic red text, and clicked on the thumbnails to see a picture of her with Poseidon at Hermes’s party. The two of them had been standing close enough to talk, and their pose in the lavish setting did look rather intimate, especially with his hand hovering near her arm protectively.

She clicked to the next picture and saw Hades walking with a tall, buxom blonde. His hand was at her elbow, helping her down the red line steps outside the Crown Hotel.

“What the fuck?” Persephone hissed.

“Damn,” Athena said. “I never heard you swear before.”

“You’re rubbing off on her,” Aphrodite said. “Persephone, honey, are you okay?”

“Seen exiting the Crown Hotel last night, Hades Ubeli and on again off again flame, Lucinda Charles.” Persephone read the last words with a shriek.

“Oh no, he didn’t.” Athena ducked closer to read the article.

“Maybe it’s best if we don’t jump to conclusions.” Aphrodite leaned over Persephone’s opposite shoulder.

“I can’t believe this,” Persephone shouted. “I’m going to kill that bitch! And put Hades’s nutsack through the shredder!”

“There you go, that’s the spirit,” Athena encouraged.

“Stop,” Aphrodite reached around Persephone to poke Athena. “Maybe it’s a misunderstanding. An old picture like the one of you and Poseidon.”

But Persephone was already shaking her head, her whole body trembling as she yanked her phone out of her purse. “He’s wearing the tie I gave him for Christmas. That picture is recent.”

Persephone was so furious she could barely dial the number she knew would reach Charon. She leapt up and paced while her friends watched, and ended the call with a curse. “Oh no, he does not get to do this to me.”

“What are you going to do?” Aphrodite said.

Hesitating, Persephone was saved from having to answer by her phone ringing. “Charon?”

“What?” She couldn’t read Charon’s deep voice.

“I need a meet with Hades.”

“Not gonna happen. Shit’s going down; he’s buried deep.”

“Then why am I looking at a picture of him and fucking Lucinda outside the Crown?”

A pause. “Fuck.”

“Yeah, that’s right,” Persephone ranted. “I want to speak with him, and I mean now.”

Another pause, this one longer, like Charon was speaking to someone close by.

“Uh oh,” Persephone heard Aphrodite say, and turned to see that Athena had pulled another picture up on screen, this one of Persephone standing between Hermes and Poseidon, again from the party two months ago. Ménage a trois? the caption read.

“Aww, they cropped me out,” Athena huffed.

“Charon?” Persephone called, her eyes on the two men flanking her in the picture, one white tux, one black.

“Yeah.” The underboss’s voice was muffled now.

“Did you find Hermes?” He’d all but disappeared after the orgy. Maybe a good thing considering Hades had wanted to tear him apart once they’d realized the so-called ‘sleeping pills’ he’d given Persephone had actually been Ambrosia.

“In the wind. We didn’t get to pick him up and he hasn’t returned to his place.”

“What happened with Poseidon when the deadline passed?”

Charon didn’t answer.

“And Hades?” she pressed.

“He’s…busy.”

The image of Hades and that bottle blonde bitch flashed through her mind’s eye. “Fuck that. You tell him,” her vision swam a little as she swayed with anger, “Tell him that, after this, he’ll be lucky if I ever want him back.” And she hung up.

Her two friends stood at her desk, staring at her.

Athena snorted. “Somebody grew a backbone.”

“Men.” Aphrodite shook her head. “They’re all assholes.”

“Oh shit,” Persephone said, her anger draining from her. “Does this mean it’s really over? What am I going to do?”

“Get drunk,” Athena suggested. “Have an orgy.”

“Been there, got the T-shirt,” Persephone muttered, and plopped into her desk chair.

“You want to go get coffee and talk about it?” Aphrodite asked.

“No, no, I have stuff to do. The shelter fundraiser is less than two weeks away, and the mayor is scheduled to show up. I have to get cracking.”

“You sure you don’t want to go out and get wasted?” Athena sounded hopeful, but Aphrodite was already pulling her towards the door.

“Come on, Athena. Leave her alone. We have to finish recording my vocals for your computer game, anyway.”

“It’s not a game, it’s a software program we’re designing to be capable of recursive self-improvement so it can achieve singularity…”

“Oooh,” Aphrodite cooed. “talk nerdy to me…”

As her office door closed on her friends’ banter, Persephone pulled up the article on her and Hades. She stared at the picture of Hades and Lucinda until it hurt too much to look. Two weeks? Was that really all it took for him to replace her with someone else to warm his bed?

She started to click away from the site, but her mouse slipped and a picture of Poseidon from the party popped up instead. In the white tux his midnight skin was all the more striking, and the large onyx ring he wore caught her eye.

Wait a second. She froze and squinted at the screen. She zoomed in.

Holy shit.

She remembered that ring. She remembered it from the long hours of her abduction, but she’d seen it again, hadn’t she? At Olympia’s place on the second most unforgettable night of her life.

The one that began with an orgy.