“How could he what?” she whimpered as she desperately tried to calm me down.
“HOW COULD HE CHEAT ON YOU!” I wailed.
Mom ground her teeth hard. I thought it was because she was shocked by the news, but this was a much different reaction than I was expecting. “Oh dear. We might have a little problem here,” she whistled to the girls, who immediately shot up when Dad came down the stairs, whistling a small tune. They tried to warn him under their breath about what he was walking into, but he was oblivious to the situation.
I immediately peeled myself off of her and went to fly across the room, but she and Halcyon grabbed an arm each andyanked me backwards. “YOU!” I yelled. Dad pointed to himself curiously. “I’LL KILL YOU, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!” I bellowed as I fought desperately against their hold.
“What the Gehenna did I do?” Dad popped with half a bagel in his mouth.
“It’s WHO you did, you cheating, slimy, back-stabbing bastard!”
“Colorful language,” he popped, his face stricken with confusion. “Seriously, Nick, what one Earth are you talking about?”
“Er, Atlas…” Mom grumbled, nodding to the door where he had left his dress shoes. “He knows…?” she growled through clenched teeth.
Dad’s face morphed from confusion to absolute horror. He dropped his bagel onto a glass plate and clapped his hands clean before heaving an incredibly pain-filled groan. “I figured he’d find out eventually…” he sighed out.
“Someone explain what the fuck is going on before I start taking heads!” I screeched.
Halcyon nodded to Mom, who took both my arms so she could shake me once. “Honey, I know you’re upset, but there’s a lot more to the situation then what you saw.”
“The only thing I saw was that asshole desecrating a two-thousand-year marriage!” I fumed, jabbing a finger in Dad’s direction.
“Would you calm down!” Dad barked, coming over to try and take my hand. As soon as Mom let go of me, I swung, but before I could connect with his jaw, Mom snatched my waist and yanked me backwards. Dad jumped back in surprise, seeing now that I was far beyond reasonable. “Ok, whoa, wait a second here! Let me explain what is going on!”
“You have five mother-fucking seconds!” I slithered, letting Mom drag me to the couch. She sat me down and smoothed my hair down, giggling at the black smoke pouring from my ears.
“Well, if I ever were to question if you love me, I certainly can’t do that now,” she teased.
I suction cupped to her side. “No one hurts my mommy,” I firmly declared. Dad went to sit beside her, but I hissed like a rabid cat and yanked her away.
He threw his hands up in defeat. “Ashlynn, please, tell him I’m innocent!”
“I think this is your burden now, my love,” she said as she pet me like I were some kind of angry animal.
Dad heaved a low sigh, mad at himself over me, before he set a hand on my leg. I huffed at his touch but decided to act my age and let him explain himself. “I don’t know what you saw exactly, buddy, but it’s a lot more complicated than you think.”
“You all keep saying that, but all I saw was my dad tonguing another man!” I spat vilely.
“Ok, so, you saw enough…” he mumbled to himself. He collected his thoughts and took a steady breath to settle himself. “I’m playing with Ambermourn,” he finally admitted.
I raised an eyebrow. “Explain!”
“Ambermourn and I… we have some history, history that isn’t all bad.”
“Would you just spit it out!”
“Ambermourn and I used to sleep together,” he blurted.
A low gasp crawled up the back of my throat, and I shot my mother a dangerous glare. “You condoned this?”
She shrugged nonchalantly. “Well, I was sleeping with Aexina, Stark’s second-in-command, so…”
I shoved her away and scoffed loudly. “So, what, you two just fuck everything with a heartbeat behind my back?”
“This was before we got married,” Dad assured me. “We both took a break for around six months to explore other options, to make sure we were really dedicated to one another. We knew what kind of commitment we were making, and since we had been together since we were eleven, we figured it was good to stretch our wings while we had the chance. Mom and Aexina had their thing… and Ambermourn and I had ours.”
“There goes my hopes of a pure marriage! Way to ruin that childhood fantasy!” I groaned out before shaking my head. “But I don’t understand? You were petrified of this man at the Immortal Convocation?”
