“Please tell me I’m hallucinating.Or losing my mind.”I narrow my eyes at my dad, confident he misspoke.“I could have sworn you just said they’re going to be our family.”
“I did,” Dad says with a smile that reaches his brown eyes.“I was going to tell you over dinner, but what the hell?”
He puts the bags on the floor and lifts Athena’s hand.The massive diamond ring glitters when the light hits it just right.
“I asked Athena to marry me.The wedding is at the end of the month.”
My blood feels like it’s boiling in my veins.Athena smiles, but it looks forced.She can see this news upsets me, considering she was my mother’s friend.
Her best fucking friend!
“No.”I gasp, my body trembling from the rage swirling inside me.“Like it’s not bad enough you’ve been bringing home girls from your clubs for the past few months.And now you’re marrying Mom’s best friend?Are you kidding me, Dad?How could you do this to her?”
Athena was always around when Mom was sick.She helped the in-home staff tend to her every need, but I didn’t realize she cared for my father.
“Phe.”Dad touches my arm, but I recoil, taking a few steps backward and out of his grasp.“You have to understand what it’s been like for me losing your mom.Athena is not here to replace her.And I haven’t been bringing home other women.It’s been Athena all this time.”
I look at Athena.“You were my mom’s best friend.How long were you screwing her husband behind her back?”
“I don’t like your tone or language, Ophelia.Please don’t speak to me with that dirty mouth.You sound like my sons.”
Athena hated cursing or sexual innuendo.One day, when she was at my mother’s side, she overheard my dad’s men in the hallway talking about women they had screwed.
I’m used to it and don’t care.
Men are pigs.
But she insisted my dad fire them for being socrass.
Her words, not mine.
Two days later, my father replaced those men.I should have seen it back then.
Was the writing on the wall?Was my dad sneaking around behind my mom’s back?
“You’re upsetting Athena,” Dad interjects.“Stop acting like a child, Ophelia.”
I roll my eyes.“She’s upset?Please.Spare me, Dad.And since when do you care how I talk or what I do?When was the last time we even saw each other?I could have been in here getting gang-banged by every man in town, and you wouldn’t have noticed.”
“I’m down for that,” Ares mutters.
Atlas grunts his approval.
“Boys,” Athena groans.“Manners, please.”Athena angles her body to look at me.“Sweetheart, we didn’t want you to find out this way.And your dad is right.I will never replace your mom.”
I shake my head in disgust.“Damn right, you won’t!”
“Ophelia,” Dad snaps, his eyes wide with anger.“Stop talking to my fiancée with such disrespect.We thought you’d be happy to have a family again.”
“Family?”I laugh in his face before looking at the three hot assholes on my couch.“Like I wantthemto be part of this family?”
“Aww, c’mon, sis.”Ares runs a hand through his silky black hair.“Don’t you want to get to know your big brothers?”He waggles his eyebrows at me.“We’re going to befamily.And we like to share.”
Oh, my God.
He glances at his brothers when he says the wordshare.Creepy grins tug at their mouths like they’re about to laugh at a private joke.
“I’m not your sis,bro.”
