“You didn’t do a very good job,” Bree says. “I immediately smelled a rat.”
“It happened quickly, and I did the best I could. Doug was only an expert by marriage, and since that marriage had ended, I honestly didn’t feel it was a huge risk. That was clearly an oversight on my part.”
“I won’t let you blame yourself,” Hera says. “I knew marrying Doug was a risk, but I was fed up with hiding, and I love him. He’s a good man, and I know he will keep me safe.” She glances over at Ashley. “I can only imagine what you must think of me now. I’m sorry for concealing so much from you, but it was done out of love and a need to protect you too. However, I need you to know I love your father very deeply. I never expected to find love a second time, and I had no clue Doug was part of the Luminary world until Victor told me who he was. I tried to walk away, but I couldn’t. I was already too invested. I love you and your father, Ashley. Whatever you believe or don’t believe, please know that is the truth.”
ChapterNine
Jase
“Does he know who you are?” Ashley asks. Her voice is choked with emotion. From what Hera said in the other room, it’s clear she doesn’t know Doug is dead. I don’t envy Ares the task of telling her.
“No,” she quietly admits, shaking her head. “I believed it was better he didn’t know, but I will have to tell him now.” Her brow puckers as she chews on the corner of her lips. “He’s going to be so disappointed in me.”
Ash buries her face in my shoulder, fighting tears. I hold her even closer, whispering how much I love her as I cradle her against me.
“You don’t shoulder the responsibility alone, Daphne.” Victor subtly redirects the conversation. “I should have taken more precautions. If I had, they might not have discovered Blade.” His voice is laced with pain. I know he’s a good man, and he feels like he failed his dead friend. But he has nothing to feel bad about. He did the almost impossible. He hid Ares for seventeen years. He helped keep him and Hera alive and protected from those who would surely have killed them. We still don’t know what happened to the little girl, but I already know it wasn’t Victor’s fault.
Victor jerks his chin up, looking at Ares. “I’m sorry, son.”
“I think that fucker Carter would have found me anyway.” Ares rubs a hand along the back of his neck.
“Carter has been planning shit for a long time,” I add. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he knew where Hera and Ares were all along.”
Hera sucks in a sharp breath as her eyes meet Victor’s. “I should never have come back here.”
“If you hadn’t, we may still have lost Lili,” Ares says. His body is locked tight, rigid with tension. I saw how Ash struggled—how she’s still struggling—with all the Luminary revelations, and it’s clear Ares is undergoing the same struggle. It’s a lot to take in. I will try to remember that. To cut him some slack.
“Why did you return?” Ash asks what we are all thinking.
“My daughter had a rare form of cancer, and none of the traditional treatments were working for her in Europe. There was a new radical treatment available in the US, and Victor got us into the program. I knew it was a risk coming back, which is why I insisted Ares remain overseas. He went to England, and we came back here four years ago. Lili fully recovered, and no one was after us, so I got complacent. I thought we were okay, hiding in plain sight. That my changed appearance and our new IDs meant we had gotten away with it. Lili loved her school and her friends, and I wanted to give her permanence. We were all tired of life on the run.”
Veins strain in Ares’s neck as he glowers at his mother. “You lied to me about her kidnapping! You let me believe my father was in a gang and they had taken her! You let me waste over two years barking up the wrong tree! How could you do that to me! It’s fucking obvious The Luminaries took her, and you sent me on a wild goose chase!” He thumps his hand on the coffee table, slamming it repeatedly in a fit of rage. “Do you even care about finding her?!”
“Of course, I care!” A sob escapes her mouth. “I have regretted my choices every single second of every day since she has been gone! I have second-guessed myself all the time. I never wanted you to come here, Ares! I tried to get you to stay away so they wouldn’t find out about you.”
“You should’ve been honest with me,” Ares shouts at his mother as the rest of us watch without interrupting.
“I know.” Tears roll down Hera’s face. “I just couldn’t face the thought of losing you too. If you knew what I had done, the lengths I had gone to, the lies I had told, I was afraid you would never speak to me again.”
“Why don’t I remember anything from the first five years of my life, Mother?” Ares hisses, narrowing his eyes at Hera. “Why was I told my father was killed by rival gangsters? Why have I been infiltrating local gangs trying to track Lili if the whole thing was complete and utter bullshit!?” He roars, thumping the table again, before he buries his head in his hands. “Was anything you told me the truth?” he asks in a quieter tone, his voice trembling a little.
Ash climbs off my lap and walks over to Ares. She sits beside him and snakes her arm around his back, leaning her head on his shoulder.
Ares inhales and exhales heavily before gradually picking his head up and threading his fingers in Ash’s. They share a look, and I know what I’m seeing.
They are in love with one another.
I don’t think either of them realizes it.
But I see it.
There has been a connection between them from the second Ares entered our lives. It might have been fueled by hatred at the start, but it’s come full circle.
Hera stares at Ares and Ashley with a look of shock on her face. I’m guessing she didn’t know about them. Shaking herself out of it, she wets her lips and stares at her son with a pleading look. “You were there when your father was murdered. You saw it all go down.” Tears stream down her face. “He died protecting you because you were his world. You were traumatized for months after it. You had nightmares, and you regularly woke up screaming. I didn’t know what to do. I was grieving myself and ill-equipped to help you. I couldn’t tell you about The Luminaries, but I had to give you some explanation for the nightmares, so I bent the truth. Told you the bad men were gangsters, rivals of your fathers.” She looks away. “It wasn’t my finest moment. When I realized I had only made things worse, I took you to a child psychologist, and she suggested hypnotherapy.”
She reaches out, taking Ares’s free hand in hers. He immediately yanks it back, pinning her with hurt-filled eyes. Ares is not usually emotional, but he is incapable of hiding his feelings in the face of such betrayal.
“It worked,” Hera quietly says. “The nightmares stopped, and you became happy again. The memories are hidden in the deepest corners of your mind, along with any other memories you had of your early part of life. It was your mind’s way of coping.”
