Chapter 40

Chapter

Forty

ATHENA

Since the kid left last night, a melancholy cloud has descended on the entire house. I hoped it would only last the night, but even I must admit, sitting here with my cup of coffee in the morning seems oppressively sad. We know without a shadow of a doubt Paris betrayed us all. Not just the girl he was flirting with the past several weeks, but his honorary brothers, and my mother.

For the life of me, I can’t figure out why.

Yes, his mother is ill, and his father cut them off, but that isn’t where the money was going. Maybe if his mother was being taken care of better, if she had a nurse and a whole house that was furnished and heated, but she wasn’t. Well, she is now, but that wasn’t what Paris was using the money for.

He fooled me. He isn’t the man I thought he was, and I’m not the only one taking it hard. Eros is resigned. Not a single ‘I told you so,’ has fallen from his lips. Heph is angry, and Perseus is beating himself up, like it is somehow his fault.

I want to be in my feelings about this. I want to lock myself away and cry out the hurt and the anger brewing inside me. Anger at him for his lies, his betrayal of me and my mother, but mostly anger at myself for falling for his sweet nerdy bullshit.

I’m better than this. I’m Athena motherfucking Godwin.

Though currently, I feel anything but .

I am lost in thought when Mrs. Medea puts the mail in front of me with a huge manilla envelope addressed to me on top.

I pick it up and notice it simply has my name on it. No address or postage, so it was hand delivered… weird.

“What’s that?” Eros takes a seat at the kitchen table in front of me.

“Only one way to find out.” I open the envelope and slide its contents out on the table in front of me and stare, not really believing what I am seeing.

It’s page after page of tabloid headlines:

Godwin Princess Fallen from Grace .

Who Says Three is a Crowd?

Lost Son of Freya Godwin Getting Close to His Baby Sister .

The pages go on and on, each one with a picture of me in a compromising position with one of the guys. Making out with Paris in his car. Eros going down on me at the party. Perseus lying me on top of Eros while he kisses me. Even one where I am kissing Eros while straddling Heph. It looks like I am fucking him while kissing Eros, and Perseus is watching, waiting for his turn.

“Fuck!” I scream, pushing the photos across the table. “When did these run? I need to call my lawyer. I need to call my father. I can’t believe?—”

“They are fake,” Eros interrupts my melt down.

“Uh, no all those things happened, kind of. The pictures are real.”

“No, the headlines are fake.”

“I know they are, but it doesn’t matter. The scandal will?—”

“Athena,” Eros barks out, getting my attention. “The headlines are fake.” His voice is much calmer now that he has my full attention. He hands me his cell phone that has the front page of one of the tabloids. There’s nothing about me on it. “These are a threat. Nothing has been released to the press yet . Is there a note with the pictures?”

“I don’t know.” I sit back down on the chair, my heart racing and tears stinging the backs of my eyes.

“Let’s look, but first I am keeping this picture for my wallet.” He takes the one of him on his knees with my dress pulled up and his face is buried in my cunt.

I roll my eyes and start sifting through the pages, ignoring the misogynist headlines about me being a whore. God forbid a woman likes sex.

Finally, I find a note handwritten in red.

“Call the estate lawyer. Give up everything. Leave, go back to work, back to your life. Leave the men you’ve manipulated and their inheritance behind, and no one will ever find out what you really are. If you stay, I will release these photos to every website and news outlet in this country. Your reputation as an untouchable ruthless ice queen will be shattered. Everyone will know you are nothing but a cock hungry slut who belongs on her knees serving men, not in a boardroom giving orders. You will still lose everything.”

Hot tears spill over my cheeks as I draw deep breaths, trying not to throw up all over the table.

“Baby girl, don’t be sad. We will figure this out.”

“Sad?” I laugh. My heart is thundering in my ears, my face and neck getting hot. “I am not sad. These are not tears of sadness. These are tears of rage. This is an act of fucking war. I don’t want to be comforted. I want to wage a battle, and I will rip this lying piece of shit apart limb by fucking limb. So help me god, I will have blood on my hands after this.” My palms sting from slapping them on the table hard enough that some of the papers go sliding off.

“What happened?” Heph asks as he and Perseus enter the room. One of the papers lands at Perseus’s feet. He picks it up, and the blood drains from his face.

I can’t hear the men talking for a few moments. The ringing in my ears is too loud. I need to focus, but my thoughts are racing, and I can’t make any of it stop. It’s getting harder to breathe, and a sharp pain is stabbing through my chest. I close my eyes and try to slow my breathing. I can’t kill Paris with my bare hands if I give myself a heart attack or let my emotions dictate my actions. My response needs to be carefully crafted, meticulously executed, perfectly targeted, and devastating.

If I act from a place of raw emotion, I can burn myself in the process.

I count to five in my head, inhaling then holding my breath for a few beats before I slowly exhale. I do this a few more times, letting my heart calm and the fog in my mind clear so I can focus. When I open my eyes, the others look as mad as I feel. Good.

“He wouldn’t do this,” Perseus says. “It’s an empty threat.”

“Is it worth the risk?” Heph asks. “Is the money and this house really worth the damage this could do to Athena? If this is let out, she loses all that anyway.”

“I don’t do ultimatums.” My voice is calm and in control. My emotions are raging just under the surface, but I have a lock on them. I won’t let rage control my decisions, but I have no problems with harnessing it to fuel my actions.

“What do you suggest?” Heph asks.

“We come up with a third option,” I say. “I am not giving up this house.” I look Perseus in the eye when I say that. Just because our feud has cooled doesn’t mean I am giving up, and he needs to be reminded of that.

He answers with a single nod.

“We need to figure out how to take the power from him,” I add.

“Like what, hacking his computer? The only one who could do that is Paris,” Eros says.

“We could call the kid back. He is a mouthy little fucker, but he is talented,” Heph suggests.

“No, it’s too risky. What if he has hard copies, or a backup drive, or the kid uses the photos. We need to make the photos worthless.”

“How the fuck do we do that?” Perseus asks.

A slow smile spreads over my face. “We change the narrative.”