Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 92368 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 462(@200wpm)___ 369(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92368 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 462(@200wpm)___ 369(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
As I walk him to the door, I ask about his family, “How’s your dad?”
“Still drunk.” Zeus shrugs it off like it doesn’t matter, but I know better. “I put him in rehab twice,” he tells me. “It didn’t stick either time. He doesn’t want to get sober. He gave up on living a long time ago. Now, he’s just drinking himself to the grave.”
That makes me hurt for him.
Brett Kincaid has been an alcoholic ever since I’ve known Zeus. He’s not a mean drunk. Just a useless one. He started drinking after Zeus’s mom, Grace, died. And it steadily got worse—to the point where he quit working and basically stayed home, drinking, all day long. That was when Zeus took over, caring for his brothers and sister. He left school before graduation and got a day job in a meat factory. He kept up with boxing, doing more fights to make money, and somehow managed to make time for me as well.
It was when he got invited to represent America at the Olympics that life took a turn for the better for him. But it was also the start of the end of us. His boxing career took off. And I got left behind, battered and bruised, in the wake of his success.
“I’m really sorry to hear that,” I tell him. “Knowing he’s got a granddaughter might help,” I add hopefully.
“Yeah, maybe.” But he doesn’t sound convinced.
“How’s Ares doing?” I ask as we reach the door.
He was at Penn State. Starting quarterback for the Lions.
Zeus smiles, probably the first real smile that I’ve seen on him since he walked back into my life last night. “He got drafted by the Giants. First pick. He’s in his second season with them.”
“Wow. That’s amazing,” I say, and I mean it. I always liked Ares. “How about the twins?”
“Lo’s in his third year at Penn State. He followed Ares there. And Missy’s in her third year at Dartmouth.”
Lo and Missy are Zeus’s nicknames for Apollo and Artemis.
“I’m not surprised they went to separate universities. Lo and Missy always wanted their independence from each other.” I snicker.
“Yeah.” Zeus chuckles. “They definitely fight less now that they live apart.”
“That’s great though,” I tell him as I open the door to let him leave. “It sounds like they’re all doing really well. You must be proud.”
“Yeah, I am.”
He walks outside, and I stand by the door, holding it.
“What will you tell them about Gigi?” I ask him.
“The truth.”
“They’re going to hate me.”
“They’re going to hate Marcel. Well, not that they particularly like him anyway. Not many people do.”
“You included.”
“Yep.”
“Why stay with him all these years if he’s such a bastard?”
“Because he brings in the best fights. And he’s only a bastard to other people. Not to me. Well”—he lets out a humorless laugh—“or so I thought.”
“Why do you think he did it? Lied to both of us?”
He briefly closes his eyes and exhales a harsh breath before staring back at me. “For the reason Marcel does everything—money.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I was on the rise. I was set to make him a lot of money, which I have. But he always saw you as a threat to ‘my success’—as he called it. He was always on my back, saying that you were an unnecessary distraction.”
Ouch.
“Unnecessary. Nice.”
He winces. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be. I guess it explains why…well, whatever. It doesn’t matter now anyway.”
He’s staring at me. His expression unreadable. “Cam—”
“So, I was a distraction, and what? He thought Gigi would have been an even bigger distraction,” I cut him off before he can say something that I really don’t want to hear.
“Yeah.” He shrugs. “I guess he thought that, if I knew you were pregnant, my focus would have been on you and the baby. Not boxing. Which it absolutely would’ve been. Marcel wouldn’t have wanted that. He sees the fighters he manages and promotes as investments. He wanted a return on me, which he got.”
“What will you do…about Marcel?”
I watch as his hands flex at his sides.
“Something.”
“Zeus, please don’t do anything stupid.”
“I won’t.” He nods.
But the look in his eyes doesn’t make me fully believe him.
“There’s something else…” I say.
“You’re seeing someone?” he says roughly, making my spine straighten like I was just hit with a cattle prod.
“What? Where in the hell did that come from?”
He grits his teeth, holding my eyes. “I don’t want another guy coming between me getting to know my daughter, Cam.”
I frown. “No one will be interfering with you getting to know your daughter, Zeus.”
He nods. “So…is there a guy?”
Rich.
I shift on my feet and swallow. “Yes. No. Kind of. It’s not serious,” I tell him. Why I tell him that it’s not serious with Rich, I have no clue. That incites me to add, “Not that it’s any of your business.”
His jaw tightens. He can’t hide his anger from me. I just don’t get why he is angry.