Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 86226 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86226 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Why has Phoenix done this to me? How can he just leave without saying goodbye? I’m carrying his child. Shouldn’t he have at least escorted me across the world himself?
How could I have gotten this so wrong? Yes, it started off as me fucking up by lying and him making sure I paid the price. But there was more between us. I truly believe that. Our bodies respond to each other… correction. My body responds. Clearly, I’m nothing more than just a fuck for him.
So why am I mad? He hasn’t broken any promises. He told me from the beginning what to expect. He’s only following through with what he’s always planned to do. Do I really have a right to be mad?
I’m not mad.
I’m heartbroken.
Chapter
Thirty-Seven
Phoenix
“Dio said they arrived safely,” I tell Athena. “He said that Ani was sick for most of the trip.”
Athena looks up from the papers that scatter a large table that she uses as a desk when she visits me in the attic. “Sick? Is she all right? Do we need to get a doctor out to the villa?”
I’m not used to seeing worry cross Athena’s face. She rarely shows any emotion, and worry is something she rarely does. If she does worry about anything, she does a damn good job concealing it. Our father taught us early on in life to not reveal emotions. They make us weak. The Godwin family will not survive if there is weakness present. A face that is impossible to read makes a strong, feared man.
That belief has served us well up to this point.
“He assured me it was just pregnancy sickness, but I’m going to have a doctor check her and the baby out tomorrow. I’ll have someone come to the house,” I say. “I haven’t given the house staff any set rules or restrictions on whether I will allow Ani out of the house or not.”
Athena takes a long moment staring at me before she looks back down at the papers and gets back to work. We sit in silence, which is what we often do when we are stewing on something. One thing about my relationship with my sister is we aren’t impulsive in our speaking or actions. Plus, all the talk about Ani is crossing a line we’ve never really crossed before. It’s personal talk. Athena doesn’t like personal, and I’m the same. If we don’t have to discuss business, then we pretty much keep to ourselves. It’s clear we both don’t want to talk about Ani, or the baby, more than we have to. That much is obvious.
“I’m concerned we may not have enough security there,” Athena says casually without looking up from her reading. “Our dear uncle is planning a big move for Poseidon. I can feel it. I can smell it. I don’t want there to be any collateral damage. I wouldn’t put it past him to somehow utilize Ani and the baby to attack us.”
“Then we’ll get more.” I will have Dio arrange that before heading back to the States. Athena isn’t an alarmist, but she has exceptional foresight and can almost see what is in store for us. I’ve never doubted her hunch.
“It doesn’t seem fair to keep her locked away inside, however. Not everyone is a hermit like you, dear brother. You already did that, and well… you had promised her that once her punishment was over, it was over.”
“True, but she’s carrying my baby. A Godwin. So, I have to take her safety into consideration from this point on. She’ll never just be a normal woman walking the streets of the Eastside of Heathens Hollow again. Life has changed. Once people get wind that another Godwin heir is being added to the family tree, she’ll be a marked woman from that point on.”
“She may be more of a prisoner now than she was in the manor,” Athena says.
“It’s our reality. Her new reality.”
“I know Spain was my idea, but she’s a long way away if she…” I can see the wheels spinning in Athena’s head.
“Needs us?” I answer for her. “Yeah, I’ve been thinking about that.”
“And who is this Ricardo guy looking after her? Do we even know anything about him?” Athena asks, obviously not focusing on work any longer. “How do we know our uncle or even our father can’t get control over him?”
“He’s vetted, but I already asked Dio to grill him and watch his every move while he’s there. We may want to have Dio stay in Spain a little longer than planned. Just to be sure,” I say.
“I’ve been thinking about our grandfather a lot lately,” Athena says.
“How so?”
“He was a feared leader of the family. No one gave him shit. It was known to never mess with Cronus Godwin.”
“Yeah. So? We’re feared as well. Our father most certainly followed in his footsteps, too.”