Page 25 of Damned By His Angel

He cuts me off before I can continue. “Angel, I am standing here trying. I’m showing you I want this to work. I want a future with you and that baby. I want sleepless nights as we just stare at that little girl. I want it all, Amelia, every single fucking second of your future and hers. I want to be a part of it. I don’t want to miss a single fucking thing. You told me to choose last time and this is me making that choice.”

Tears burn the backs of my eyes as I stare up at him and see the truth in those brown eyes that hold so much love in them. I grip the front of his shirt and offer him one last chance to turn around and walk away from me and the mess I have made of my life.

“It’s not just me anymore. I have this little girl to think about, Nos. Can you handle always being second because she is and will always be my first priority?”

A slow smile spreads across his face as he bends down and rests his forehead against mine. “As long as I'm the runner up to her, I’ll always be good with that.” Relief washes over me, never in my life have I ever felt so cared for until this moment.

“Max, huh?” Nos and I pull a part to stare at Bill, who is standing there with a cunning smirk on his face.

“Old man?—”

Bill raises his hand stopping Cronos. “I wasn’t born yesterday, boy. I knew a beautiful thing like her wouldn’t be named Max but so you can rest easy tonight, I will forget all about hearing your real name but just know, little missy, I want your full story when you are ready to tell it.” Gratefulness surges inside me as I nod, I’ve never met someone so genuine and understanding before. “I’m assuming you two have a lot to discuss?” Nos and I share a look. I exhale and nod, it’s time he knew the truth.

“Yeah, we do,” I answer.

“Good. Now both of you go on, this old man needs to get his rest.” Bill waves us both off as he makes his way inside, patting Cronos on the shoulder as he passes by.

“Old man?” Bill stops and peers over his shoulder at Nos. “Thank you… For everything.”

Bill’s eyes turn misty for a second before he clears his throat and nods in a manly way. “Thank you for waking me up from a dark and lonely slumber.” His dark ominous words hang in the air as he disappears inside.

“Come on, angel, let’s go home and… Talk.” He seems just as nervous about this as I am.

Cronos

The drive to my house is silent. It isn’t… awkward, it’s just quiet. We are both lost in our own thoughts. I won’t lie and say I’m not hesitant to tell her about Aida. I know keeping that to myself before was hard for her but I guess I wasn’t ready to… let go of that part of my life. I put the truck in park out the front and climb out. She follows behind me, keeping space between us. I don’t like the distance she is keeping between us but I say nothing as I open the door and head inside.

“Have you eaten?” I ask her as I enter the kitchen.

“N-no.” I turn and scowl at her.

“Sit, I’ll cook while we… talk.” A whoosh of air escapes her as she climbs onto one of the stools at the breakfast bar while I sort us some dinner. I'm no Gordan Ramsey but I can make a decent meal. I grab the fixings to make some chicken fettuccine. I can feel her gaze on me and just know without her having to utter a word that she is waiting for me to open up.

Fuck!

This shit is going to be a lot harder than I thought. I focus on the garlic I am chopping while I tell her the story of my past that broke me and shaped me into who I am today.

“I’m the second born twin. Artemis is older by ten minutes but what most people don’t know is that we were actually born on separate days. He was born a minute before midnight and I was born nine minutes later. Costa was happy about that, he never wanted twins.”

“Why?”

I close my eyes and take a deep breath, forcing my emotions to remain in check as I continue to prepare dinner. “Because it meant he had double the chance of losing his place as the head of the family when it came time for us to complete the trials. The elders didn’t care that we were born on separate days, as far as they were concerned we were twins. Costa argued that we weren’t because of our technically different birthdays but all you had to do was look at me and Artemis and see we are identical. He was out voted by the elders, both his sons would trial together against the other heirs. Artemis and I knew we could win—those heirs never trained a day in their life or had to fight for everything they had like we did. Nothing was ever given to us, we had to fight to earn our meals, our clothing, anything we had, we earned.”

“I’m so sorry,” she whispers but I ignore it as I push on.

“We were never allowed anything of our own. Costa made sure we always knew anything we had could be taken from us at a second’s notice. Artemis was always stronger, smarter and wiser. I fell into line and did as I was told, he could control me but never Artemis. Even when the triplets were born, Artemis never cowered to our father. He fought to protect not only Adonis, Apollo and Ares but… me as well. We never knew that he was being beaten if we ever stepped out of line. He took beating after beating just so we wouldn’t have to. My brother wanted us to try and lead a normal life. I was selfish and listened to him,” I growl.

“Aida,” she mumbles. I turn my head to the side and hold her gaze as I nod.

“I found something of my own and I ruined her,” I admit as I return to my task. “She was everything to me, my entire fucking world. It wasn’t my brothers keeping me alive anymore, it was her. She showed me there was more to life than darkness and misery, she broke down all my walls and made my heart beat again. She was perfect.” I slam my eyes closed and grip the edge of the counter in a vice-like hold as I try to calm myself and not allow my anger to take control. “Costa could see I was losing my edge, I didn’t want to kill anymore. I wanted something different from my life. I tried to drop out of the trials and be free. I thought he would be happy that he would only have Artemis fighting for the win, but he wasn’t. He forced me into the trials saying that if I won he would grant me my freedom and allow me to leave The Godfathers, I just had to hand everything back to him at the end. Simple. Easy.” I scoff at my own stupidity.

“Nothing was ever simple or easy where Costa was concerned but I was blinded by love and believed what he was selling. Artemis tried to warn me but I refused to listen. He didn’t know what it was like to love someone, he refused to allow himself to care for anyone who wasn’t his brother and now, I understand why. Costa used my weakness against me and… Artemis.”

“How?”

“If he succeeded in saving one brother, three would die. Art had no idea what that shit meant until we entered that room.” I turn away from the stove and face Amelia. She looks like she is on the verge of tears, pain evident in her beautiful eyes. But the pain she feels is for me and what I suffered through, not herself. “The last trial is designed to separate the boys from the men as they say, but the truth is, that trial is designed to destroy any ounce of humanity you have inside yourself. That trial will break you beyond repair and it did.”

“What happened to Aida, Nos?”

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