3. Persephone

Chapter 3

Persephone

S everal hours had gone by before the house finally cleared and the catering and cleaning company left.

Everything had felt so quiet, so final in those moments when I was by myself again that I wandered. Maybe it was nostalgia? Maybe it was me trying to work through how drastically my life had changed.

I walked around aimlessly, not because I had nothing to do, but because I was avoiding having to go speak to Hades.

I'd seen him intermittently since he arrived, but we didn't speak as he listened to others give their condolences. He acted as if I wasn't there, ignoring me only until I caught him looking at me, at which point I quickly glanced away and made myself busy.

There was just something about his gaze that penetrated someone on a molecular level.

But I couldn't hide away any longer. So I stood in front of the double doors to my father's study, my heart beating a little harder, the adrenaline rushing through my veins.

I lifted my hand, about to knock, when I realized how foolish that was. This was my house now. Hades was my guest.

Lifting my chin and pulling my shoulders back, I tried to take on the facade that I wasn't terrified of the man behind these closed doors.

After taking a steadying breath, I pushed open the doors. But I was frozen in place when I saw Hades sitting behind my father's desk, his body leaning back in the leather chair, his arms lifted and his hands clasped behind his head.

He took on a very relaxed, king-on-the-throne position. Stoic expression in place and eyes like chipped ice.

Just looking at him infuriated me.

"Shut the doors and come closer."

I ground my molars as I did what he said and moved toward the desk. I didn't like the tone he used, but until I knew what cards he held, I wasn't about to bite back.

"Sit, sweetheart."

My heart did something funny when he said that last word. He didn't say it like an endearment. No, his tone was too gruff, too hard for that. It was almost condescending, as if he saw me as some kind of child who needed to listen to him, to do his bidding.

I thought about refusing him, flat out denying him, but I felt like I'd already been put through the wringer.

Emotionally, I was drained. Physically, I was exhausted, and I just wanted this done and over with.

So I took a seat in the leather chair across from him, the one I sat on far too many times over the years as I watched my father work.

"What is this about, Hades?" A prolonged moment passed as he just stared at me, his expression like a brick wall, but then the corner of his mouth tipped up, and he leaned forward, bracing his forearms on the desk. "I have things to do?—"

"You have nothing to do, Princess."

"Don't call me that," I said between gritted teeth. I was on the verge of tears, my emotions far too volatile right now. I swore I saw something flicker in his eyes before he masked it so quickly I wondered if I'd envisioned it.

"Things have drastically changed in your life, Persephone."

I swallowed the thick lump in my throat that suddenly made itself known.

"This isn't about your parents' unfortunate demise."

It felt off the way he said that last part, as if he didn't care about the fact my parents had passed. And maybe he didn't. It wasn't as if he was on good terms with my father.

"I'll be blunt with you. Your father was fucking broke… amongst other things." Hades drummed his fingers on the desktop, and the sight transfixed me. "And because of that, you have nothing to your name."

I slowly trailed my gaze to his face. He watched me, an unwavering expression etched into his cruel expression.

"No access to your money. No assets. No home. Nothing. All but destitute, Persephone."

I heard this ringing in my ears that drowned out everything else. My vision swam, and I blinked my eyes furiously, trying to focus.

Hades' image in front of me wavered, and I could see his mouth moving, but I couldn't hear anything aside from the rush of my blood through my ears.

"Persephone." The loud snap of his voice pulled me out of whatever fall I was plunging into.

I sucked in a great lungful of air. "All but?" I wheezed out those two words.

He leaned back again, one arm resting on the desk, the other on the armrest. He opened his hands and held them out, palms upward. "All isn't lost, Princess. We are family."

God, it was hot in here. I couldn't breathe.

"What does that mean?" Had I said those words out loud? They seemed to whisper in my mind, floating through my subconscious. But when he slowly smiled—a grin that was anything but pleasant or friendly—I curled my hands into fists on my lap in frustration.

As if my words had prompted the next whirlwind in this turn of events, there was a hard knock on the door. Hades barked out for whoever it was to enter, and a moment later, the door opened and closed again.

I didn't look behind to see who it was. Part of me was too afraid. I heard heavy footsteps coming closer before a briefcase was set on the desk beside me with a heavy thump .

I finally looked up to see an older gentleman standing at my left. He wore a pair of wire-rimmed glasses that were perched on his nose, and his tweed suit covered his willowy form. He had his black-and-gray hair slicked back from his face.

The man tipped his head in my direction in greeting and said, "Miss Cronus." He unlatched his briefcase and popped the lid, pulling out a stack of papers before setting them in front of Hades.

My uncle started flipping through the pages before taking the pen offered by the other man and scribbling his signature on the bottom of several of them.

"W-what's going on?" I looked between the two of them, but both ignored me as Hades finished up. He picked up the papers, stacked them neatly, then slid them in front of me.

"These are documents to appoint Mr. Cronus as your legal guardian until your twenty-first birthday, at which point your inheritance will be released."

I glanced at the older gentleman as he addressed me, then slowly looked at Hades. "Excuse me?" I stared at the papers but didn't read a word. The letters all swam together.

I heard the tap , tap , tap of Hades' pen against the desktop.

"What would you like broken down, darling?"

I hated his tone. It was so cold and condescending, as if I were beneath him. No wonder people hated him if this was how he addressed them.

I felt like I kept blinking, my vision wavering from blurry to focused. "I just…" I looked back down at the paperwork and reached out to take the forms. It was all written in a bunch of legal jargon and stuff I couldn't understand, but I knew it was binding.

I glanced back at Hades, his focus trained right on me. "Why would I need a guardian? I am eighteen. A legal adult." I set the paperwork back down and straightened my shoulders. I refused to show uncertainty in front of Hades. But I knew I had failed.

The attorney cleared his throat and lifted his hand to straighten his tie. He glanced at Hades, but my uncle kept his focus on me.

He lifted his hand and motioned for the other man to leave. I listened to him exit, the door shutting behind him, and then I was alone with my uncle.

I heard the grandfather clock chiming and felt my heart racing harder.

And still, Hades didn't speak. He just sat there and tapped that pen as he gazed into my eyes. Tap. Tap. Tap.

"I'll make this very simple for you, sweetheart." Tap. Tap. Tap.

It wasn't lost on me that he hadn't answered my question.

"Your parents left you an inheritance, and because your father was incompetent in business matters, all assets for Cronus Trust and Holding have been transferred over to me."

It slowly sank in.

I curled my fingers into my palms so tightly my nails were no doubt leaving crescent marks on my flesh.

"If you want to have a roof over your head, food in your belly, and have me pay for you to finish your last year at a prestigious private school Zachariah had you accustomed to, you'll sign the paperwork. If not…" He reached across the desk and dropped the pen on top of the papers before leaning back and shrugging his broad shoulders. "Don't. I'm not forcing you to do anything. I'm giving you a solution to a very fucked-up situation."

His crass words didn't shock me. But what I didn't understand was why he cared so much.

This was all so confusing and made no sense, but I wasn't versed enough in the legalities of this to question if it was even possible.

"Your father's attorney will meet with you tomorrow morning to discuss all of this. He'll confirm your father died a penniless asshole, as well as a fraud and embezzler of the company. But he was smart enough to leave you a little something."

My throat felt like it was slowly closing in on itself. This couldn't be true. This didn't sound like the man I called Dad.

"No matter how much your father loved you or how sweet he was to you, people hide their darkest parts from the ones they care for the most."

It was clear he hated me by the look in his eyes and the way he spoke, so why would he want to help me? Whatever toxicity he held toward my dad was clearly being thrust onto me.

When the slow smile spread across his face, I felt like he heard my inner thoughts.

"Besides, we are family, Persephone." He shifted on the chair, his suit pulling against the hard lines of his muscular chest. "What kind of uncle would I be if I threw my niece out?"

I glanced back down at the paperwork and shook my head, although I didn't know what I was trying to deny.

Hades exhaled in exasperation before saying, "Your father wasn't a good man."

I snapped my head up and narrowed my eyes. That drew another smile from him. "Don't you talk about my father that way. You didn't know him the way I did. You were never around. For years, no one uttered your name in our household. You were like a dark stain."

I felt my cheeks heat from my anger, my limbs nearly shaking from my rage.

"Just because he never said my name around you doesn't mean I wasn't always on his mind." I could see the way Hades clenched his jaw and how his eyes hardened even further. This was a sensitive topic for him, obviously. "And make no mistake, although we rarely saw each other, when we did, it was enough to remind me he was the same bastard I'd always known."

I licked my parched lips, not even about to delve into what Hades said. I only ever asked my father once why he didn't speak to his brother and why they hated each other so much. My father had looked me in the eye and simply told me the past needed to stay in the past. It was his tone that had me never asking again.

"I don't need your charity." It surprised me at how clear and strong my words were, how my voice carried them with such certainty.

I pushed the stack of papers toward Hades.

And once again, there was that smug smile from Hades. "He left you an inheritance, a sizable one, but sweet, sweet Persephone, you have no access to it until you're twenty-one."

Honestly, I didn't know how any of these things worked. I had just known that my parents had a safety net set aside for me. But we never discussed it, and foolishly, I had never wanted to know more about how my future would go.

Maybe it was immaturity. Maybe it was privilege or entitlement. But I had never even thought my parents wouldn't be around. I had stupidly thought there was security for me, and I wouldn't have to worry about anything.

As if he'd seen that realization on my face, he slowly pushed the papers back toward me. "You can either sign these, or you can leave the house tomorrow morning and hope the real world doesn't eat you alive, Princess." He flashed me a smile. "The house is being sold. And any other assets your father may have had are being liquidated to pay off his debts. So believe me when I say, sweetheart, you literally are stuck between a rock and a hard place." His jaw tightened, and I heard him grind his back molars.

I didn't know what to say. I didn't know how to respond. My parents had sheltered me my entire life. I hadn't ever wanted for anything, my every whim and wish handed over like candy to a toddler.

I had no real-world experiences aside from the vacations my parents took me on or what I learned in a textbook.

"Can I think about it?" My voice was whisper-thin, and for a suspended moment, he didn't respond, just stared at me with that unwavering focus that I was sure had lesser men cowering before him.

I didn't know why I even had to think about it. If what he said was true, which I'd have to verify with my father's attorney, I didn't really have a choice. I couldn't access any of the money my parents left me for another three years. And I had nowhere to stay, nowhere to go.

But a part of me didn't want to give in so easily because I was trapped in a corner. I didn't want to submit to a man like Hades.

"You have until tomorrow morning. That's when I'm leaving and going back to the city." He leaned forward again. "That's when the movers are coming to clear out the house."

My breath caught, and I covered my mouth with the back of my hand. "So soon?" My words were muffled, tears streaming down my cheeks.

"Life doesn't stop. We have to move." Something flickered over his face, and he exhaled, running a hand over his jaw, seeming deep in thought. "Take the paperwork," he finally said and glanced at me. "Have your father's attorney look it over. I'll come by tomorrow to see what you've decided. And if you are coming with me, be ready with a bag packed. Only the things you can't live without."

I hated how he said that term, so condescending.

"I'll purchase anything else you need."

I said nothing but stood and grabbed the stack of papers, pressing them to my chest as if they were some kind of lifeline that would keep me stable.

"You're a bastard." The words were spoken low and hoarse.

"Yes," he said, unwavering. "I am."

With one last lingering look into Hades' dark eyes, I turned and left the study, closing the door behind me and leaning back against it.

I didn't know what the future held, but my options were limited. I wished I had someone to talk to, someone to confide in and ask questions of. I wished my parents were here, wished I had friends who were genuine and cared about how I felt or what I thought. But I was alone. Utterly and totally by myself.

And it was time to grow up.