Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 80576 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80576 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
My thoughts quickly turn to my sister. Would Athena then kill my sister? Yes, I think that’s fair to say as well. But I doubt Apollo—Ares would tell her Ani is asleep in the other room, so if I say nothing before she kills me, then all is good. I scan the room for a weapon. I sure as hell plan on putting up a fight.
Before I can find anything, however, a rich, sultry voice penetrates the room. “Well, well. It looks like you took my advice and spread your legs.” Athena’s eyes cast to my belly. “I suppose I should say congratulations.”
I stiffen my spine and push my shoulders back. Athena doesn’t respect weak women, and I’m not going to even show the slightest bit of fear. “Did you come here to kill me?”
“Yes.” She enters the room all the way and steps toward me.
I don’t cower back, even though I want to.
“But then your dear husband informed me of your news. It seems you’ve both had a little second honeymoon in the family manor.” She looks around and scowls. “Sort of sick if you ask me. This house is like a gothic museum that smells of grandfather’s dentures. But whatever gets you turned on, I suppose. It’s about time you and Apollo get knocked up. Someone needs to keep the Godwin name going. It’s not going to be Ares, obviously. Phoenix just masturbates to himself forever alone, and I sure as fuck am not popping out a baby.”
“But you were going to kill me if I wasn’t pregnant?”
She gives a wicked grin. “Most definitely.” She shrugs and crosses the room to look out the window. “No offense, of course.”
I give a sardonic laugh. “Why would I be offended?”
“Apollo assured me you were punished, and that you won’t even dare consider betraying the family again.” She looks over her shoulder. “Did he take you to the tree of forgiveness? Did he make you kneel on rice while he whipped you with the leather strap?”
“No,” I say, not willing to give her any details of exactly what her brother did do to me as a punishment.
“Shame. Then he let you off easy.” She returns her attention to the window, her eyes staring down at the tree in the distance. “I figured he would go light on you. Ares was the stronger brother. He would have never let you get away with what you did.”
Chills run down my spine as the realization that Ares is the man who is standing downstairs, and Athena has no idea. And Athena is right. Ares was the stronger brother. And the fact I’m actually standing in this room alive says something.
But what does it say?
What does it mean?
He said it was his turn now. He said that he had developed feelings for me. He wanted—
“I hope you’re aware that you can’t even think of divorce now,” she says to me with a glance over her shoulder. “Now that you have that baby inside you, you are more of a Godwin than ever before. So get those ridiculous ideas about leaving out of your head.” Her attention goes back to the tree of forgiveness. “Apollo is going to need you. He’s going to need that baby. I know how I feel about losing Ares, and he wasn’t my twin. I can only imagine what losing your other half feels like.”
I’m taken aback by the softer version of a true viper before me. It doesn’t last long, however, because she turns on her heels and heads to the door to leave. “Do you love him? Even the slightest?”
If she would have asked me this question before the accident, the answer would have been no. But now…
“I don’t know,” I answer.
“He told me downstairs he loves you.”
“He did?” Was he only telling her that so she wouldn’t kill me? “A lot has happened since we’ve arrived at Olympus,” I confess. “It’s complicated.”
“Complicated defines us perfectly,” Athena says with a smirk and then opens the door. “If you even so much as dare try to betray my family again, I will kill you in the most tortuous of ways. If you hurt my brother, or you don’t raise that baby to the best of your ability, I will make you scream for mercy.” She pauses, smiling wickedly. “But if you are ready to really be part of this family, then… Welcome.”
Chapter
Thirty-Seven
Apollo
I enter the room without knocking in fear Daphne wouldn’t let me inside anyway. I resist the urge to march over to her and take her in my arms. But I know that as much as I want to fix this, and make it right, I’m not sure I can.
“You just missed your sister,” she says.
“I know.”
She fidgets with her hands in front of her and continues to reposition her weight from one foot to the other. “I guess you were right about getting me pregnant.” She looks around the bedroom, then back to her hands. “Your sister told me it’s the only reason she didn’t kill me herself.”