Chapter 2
Chapter Two
OPHELIA
I blink a few times to clear the black spots from my eyes. For a moment, I think I’ll pass out as the room spins around me. But before I do, I regain my senses.
“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 so crass.
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 want them to 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 be family. And we like to share.”
Oh, my God.
He glances at his brothers when he says the word share. Creepy grins tug at their mouths like they’re about to laugh at a private joke.
“I’m not your sis, bro.”
“See, I think she’s getting the hang of it,” Ares says to his brothers. “Our little sis is such a spitfire.”
Annoyed, I head for the exit, speaking with my back to my father. “I’m out of here. Fuck this shit.”
“If you want to continue managing Olympus,” Dad shouts, “you’ll stay and eat dinner with us. But if you walk out that door, Ophelia, I will wash my hands of you.”
Olympus is my dad’s highest-earning nightclub. He put me in control of it after graduating high school, and it’s been the only thing keeping me going since Mom died. Being a boss has given me a sense of purpose.
I need that club.
It’s my life force.
I spin around to face him. “You wouldn’t.”
“I don’t want to disown you.” His eyebrows knit together as if he’s struggling with this decision. “But I will.”
I point my finger at Athena. “Because of her? I’m your daughter. Your flesh and blood. She’s some home-wrecker who took advantage of you while your wife died.”
“I’m sick of your princess attitude,” Ares interjects. “Apologize to our mother. Now!”
I blow out a deep breath and ignore him.
With my teeth gritted, my gaze lands on my dad. “And here, I thought you were different. But I guess all men only ever think with their dicks.”
I don’t wait for him to answer and race upstairs, my feet moving so quickly that the soles of my shoes feel like they’re on fire. Every part of my body burns from the adrenaline coursing through me.
“Ophelia,” Dad calls out from the ground floor.
Screw him.
I stuffed clothes, toiletries, and a few things into a backpack. My bodyguard will let me crash at his place until I figure out what to do with my life.
I don’t need my father.
My dad and his new family are still in the sitting room when I head downstairs, adjusting the bag’s strap over my shoulder.
Everyone stops talking.
They stare at me.
Ares cradles his mother in his arms like a newborn baby, dabbing at her tears with a silk handkerchief that matches his tie, but his eyes never leave mine.
He glares at me.
I roll my eyes.
Fuck him.
And this family.
He exits the room, blocking my path to the front door. Because of his size, I can’t get around him. Not with all the muscle bulging from beneath his suit jacket.
“Get out of my way, Ares.”
He dips his head down so he’s almost at my height, and our eyes connect. “Listen up, you little brat, because I won’t repeat myself. If you don’t march your entitled ass back into that room and apologize to my mother, I will make your life a living hell.”
“Your threats mean nothing to me.” I reach into my back pocket and grab the Glock from my waistband, jamming the barrel into his stomach.
“Now, if you don’t move your ass out of my way, I will put a bullet in your kidney.
You do the math, Ares. That gives you maybe a five percent chance of survival if you’re lucky. ”
“This isn’t over.” He moves to the side, teeth bared. “I’ll find you, Little Dragon. And when I do, your mouthy ass is mine.”