Page 79 of Hades’ Revenge

“Like me.” Another connection we shared.

“My mother died of ovarian cancer when I was fifteen.”

“Oh.” I didn’t give much thought to who his parents were or if they were still alive. Both sets of my grandparents were still alive. My father’s parents lived in Italy and my mother’s were in Florida. They would probably be around the same age as Sebastian’s parents. “I’m sorry.”

“She was sick for a while, so when they couldn’t do anything else for her, she came to peace with dying. That helped her transition.”

“But what about you?” I sat up and curled into his lap, pushing the anxiety of him dealing with his mother’s death far enough down so I could understand who he was. What had shaped him into the man he became. “How did you cope?”

“It wasn’t about me.” He clasped our fingers together. “It was time for her to let go, and I had no choice but to let her go.”

“It must have been difficult.”

“It was a long time ago, but I missed her presence in my life.”

“What was her name?” I asked.

“Daphne.” When he stared at the muted TV, the muscles in his chest tightened.

“That’s a pretty name.”

“She was a lovely woman. Pleasant, beautiful, and loyal to a fault.”

“What about your father?”

“I do not miss his presence in my life.” He shrugged. “My parents weren’t together when my mother died, but she gave him every benefit of every doubt. He had addiction problems, which included gambling, alcohol, drugs, and women. I don’t think my mother had the energy to fight her cancer because she was so busy trying to fight for her marriage.”

Maybe I shouldn’t have brought this up.

“When my mother died, my father took me in, but he didn’t do much else. Two years later, I couldn’t take the constant fighting between us, his drug and alcohol induced abuse, or the barrage of women and loan sharks knocking at our door, so I sought out a cousin in Philadelphia and came to stay with him.”

“You were so young to be on your own in a new country.”

“A few months later, I found myself in New York City.” He ran his finger along my new bracelet before kissing my wrist. “I met your father just as he had gotten himself into some trouble, and I helped him out of it. From that day on we were inseparable until…”

“What kind of trouble?”

“Trouble angry young men who aren’t really old enough to be men get themselves into, especially when they don’t have any money but have too much time on their hands.”

“How did you survive?”

“I did what I had to do.” He gently kissed me. “That’s enough nostalgia for tonight.”

“Thank you for sharing what you did.” I twisted in his lap and draped my arms around his neck. “I just want to know everything I can about you.”

“We have plenty of time.” He switched to the weather channel. “Once these storms clear, we should be good to go.”

“It’s not even raining here.” I motioned toward the window. “It’s humid and gross but no rain.”

“We’ll probably get storms later tonight, but by morning, the weather heading to Greece shouldn’t be a problem.”

As excited as I was about this adventure, something told me our plan was going to hit a snag, even without the storms.

“You’re probably ready to get back to your club,” I said.

“I trust my staff, but I’ve been away long enough.”

Three hard knocks at the door jolted me forward. Sebastian ran his hand along my back before he scooted me out of his lap.