Chapter 44 - Anger
Athena didn't cry.
She didn't collapse under the weight of it.
She stood very still in the center of the room, staring at nothing, like her mind was trying to rearrange her entire life into something that made sense.
And then she started pacing.
Slow at first.
Then faster.
Her hands trembled at her sides - not from fear, but from something rising inside her that had been buried for years.
"So my entire life..." she said quietly, "has been a lie."
Silas didn't interrupt.
Didn't try to soften it.
Because this wasn't something that could be softened.
She turned to him, eyes burning.
"They took my memories."
"Yes."
"They decided what I was allowed to know."
"Yes."
Her breathing grew heavier.
"They let me grow up thinking I was broken. That something was wrong with me."
Silas's jaw tightened.
Athena's voice rose, emotion cracking through the calm shell she had always worn.
"I thought I was weak. I thought I was too emotional. Too sensitive. Too dependent. I thought that was just who I was."
Her chest heaved.
"But that wasn't me."
Silas stepped closer, but he still didn't touch her.
"No," he said quietly. "It wasn't."
She laughed once - a hollow, disbelieving sound.
"They stole my childhood," she whispered.
The words landed hard between them.
Her hands curled into fists.
"They stole my choices. My memories. My identity."
Her voice shook now, not from sadness - from fury.
"And I don't even know who did it."
Silas's voice stayed calm.
"But you know it was done to you."
Athena stopped pacing.
Her eyes met his.
And something had changed in them.
The softness that had lived there since he met her was still present...
But now it was laced with fire.
With strength.
With something fierce that had always been there but never allowed to surface.
"I spent my whole life trying to be obedient," she said quietly. "Trying to make everyone happy. Trying to be what people needed me to be."
Her voice dropped to a whisper.
"Because I thought if I wasn't... they wouldn't want me."
Silas's chest tightened painfully.
"They made me into someone small," she continued. "Someone easy to control."
She swallowed hard.
"I don't even know who I was before that."
Silas stepped one pace closer.
"You are starting to remember without remembering."
Athena's jaw clenched.
"No," she said firmly. "I'm starting to feel."
She took a breath that trembled on the way out.
And for the first time since he had known her, Athena looked powerful.
Not physically.
But in presence.
In will.
In spirit.
"I want it undone," she said.
There was no hesitation in her voice now.
No fear.
Just certainty.
Silas didn't hesitate.
"It will be."