“And she doesn’t ask you to fix her mother?”
Apollo looked down. “She has, but I told her it’s like my hand. Sometimes injuries, and people, just can’t be completely healed. Mostly, I try to change the subject, though. She’s five, so I still have a few years to craft an acceptable answer. And in the meantime, I know how to distract her so that she doesn’t think about it too deeply.”
Maya looked down. “I’m sorry, Apollo. You are not in an enviable position.”
“I disagree,” his words surprised her, and she looked up at him, her face still lowered. “I have a wonderful daughter who is already showing a lot of promise as a healer. I have a job I absolutely love and that leaves me feeling fulfilled. And I have a supportive family and friends. I think that I am in a very enviable position.”
Maya put her elbow on the table and her thumbnail on her lower lip, considering his words. “Perhaps that is why you are here, then.”
He tilted his head a little. “What do you mean?”
“It sounds like all you lack is a partner to share your life with. And then your life will be perfect.”
Chapter 7
A Life Best Left Behind
Apollo’s cold laugh took Maya by surprise. “No,” he said, cutting off the laugh as suddenly as it had started. “Perhaps others want to find someone to share their life with, but I have tried that already. I prefer peace and stability.”
Maya looked at him, seeing a complication in that declaration. Fighting back a smile, she said, “You say that, and yet you are good friends with Cosmo.”
“Ah, yes,” a softer look appeared in his eyes. “A bit chaotic, but he’s a literal lifesaver. He brings the kind of entertainment that keeps my daughter from complaining that I’m too boring.”
“Does your daughter really say that?”
“No,” Apollo admitted. “But I fear she may start feeling that way since I’m not much of a risk taker outside of work.”
Maya took a sip of her drink, then she strummed her fingers on the mug, considering what to say. “I was around your daughter’s age when it happened,” she said, launching into the memory before she could rethink her decision. “My mother left the house one night; it was much later when I learned exactly what happened to her. I think my father was trying to figure out what to tell us, so he had my siblings and me all brought together, and we were picnicking out in the backyard. Or somewhere on the estate. I really don’t remember the place too well, but we were rich, so backyard probably isn’t the right word.”
She took another sip, then continued, her eyes watching the bits of whipped cream moving around the top of the drink. “Most of my siblings were adults, so they had their own schedules, but we all still lived together. I was running around, chasing butterflies or lizards. Something foolish. I didn’t notice the group that had quietly come onto the grounds until father told them to leave. Some of my siblings joined him, arguing withthe men about trespassing or some such nonsense. They were adamant that it was still our home and the king had no right to just take it.
“A well-dressed man came up to me and said that I needed to come with him, and he offered me his hand. I took it, thinking that he was a new nanny or something—they came and went so quickly back then. I kept looking over my shoulder as he told me that my father was one of the bad guys. Of course, he didn’t tell me anything beyond that. I remember turning around when there was a sharp yell, and my eldest sibling, Robert, was bleeding. I never saw any of my family after that day.”
Unable to look at Apollo, Maya looked out a window. “I later found out that the stranger was right. My father was a very bad man. And while no one ever confirmed it—perhaps it was never actually confirmed—I think my mother died the night before. She was kind.”
Apollo’s voice was low as he asked, “Was it your father’s doing?”
Maya looked back at him. “You mean, do I think my father killed her?” When he nodded, she thought for a second, then she shook her head. “No. He wasn’t that kind of monster. My mother was too much of an asset for him to directly cause her death. No,” she looked to the window again and the clear blue sky that looked so much like the day in her memory. “I think she was killed to send him a message. That’s probably why he had us all together, which, looking back on it, was probably the plan all along. Get us all in one place and it was easier to kill off the entire family.”
“But not you.”
“No,” she sighed, “not me.” Maya looked at her mug, the whipped cream gone. “He told me that I was innocent, so I should not have to pay for the crimes of my family.”
Apollo’s voice had a harshness to it as he said, “And then he proceeded to hurt you so that you could never have children, making sure you paid for your family’s crimes.”
Maya just tilted her head to the side. “Well, they couldn’t risk having someone come back for revenge later. If I had a family of my own, it would create a potential risk should my descendants decide they wanted to make someone pay.”
“And they figured you alone wouldn’t be enough to get revenge.”
Maya smiled. “They turned out to be right. But not for the reasons they thought.”
“What do you mean?”
“When I feel that I’ve been wronged, I am very vengeful. It drove me for years. I became a wedding planner in an effort to get close to the family of the man who led me away that day.”
“What would you have done?”
Maya looked away, shame bubbling up for the first time in years. “I was planning on killing everyone in attendance. Everyone who had come to my house. The royal family. All of them were invited to the wedding. Then I learned just what my father—no,” she shook her head. “What my family had done. If they hadn’t been killed that day, they would have been publicly executed after a trial. The family name would have been remembered by everyone instead of being erased. I decided I didn’t want to carry on that family’s legacy.”
