Page 104 of The Arrogant's Surrender

We’ve just arrived at his office. I suggested a restaurant, but he said it would be better for the conversation to remain private.

“I’m not the kind of person you need to sugarcoat things for, Odin. Just tell me the truth. Did you find out who hurt my mother?”

“That part was the easiest. I found the shelter where she used to stay. Kassia was homeless at the time of the assault, living between the streets and shelters.”

“What happened?” I ask, feeling my stomach churn.

Homeless.

While I grew up in luxury and comfort, with millions of dollars in my bank account, my mother was sleeping on the streets, feeling hunger and cold.

Brooklyn squeezes my hand, as if sensing my turmoil.

“She got into a fight with another homeless woman. She came out worse. I’m sorry for the bluntness, but there’s no other way to explain it. It wasn’t an act of cowardice by the other woman, as she’s actually much older.”

“I don’t understand. Why would Kassia do something like that?”

“I don’t have all the answers, Athanasios, but what I can tell you is that Kassia, from what we were told, suffers from a severe mental illness and can become violent when unmedicated. This wasn’t her first fight, but it was the first one that left her seriously injured.”

“And the other woman?”

“She fled the scene of the crime. Died a few months later from causes unrelated to the incident.”

I nod, more lost than ever, as I wait for him to continue.

“As I said at the beginning, that’s the simple part of the story. The more serious revelation is that the woman you know as Kassia is not your mother. Medeia Pappakouris is. She and Dardanos Pappakouris are your biological parents.”

Athanasios

CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

“He made a mistake,”I say as the driver parks in front of my parents’ house. “There’s no other explanation, Brooklyn. It has to be a mistake.”

“Athanasios, talk to them. As Zeus’s cousin said, he doesn’t have all the answers. I agree that the story seems surreal, but what your mother said on the phone earlier, when you mentioned we were coming over to talk about your biological mother, makes me think there might be some truth to Odin’s findings.”

Back in Odin’s office, I called my parents. They were already on their way home, having left Eleanor’s party half an hour earlier.

My mother answered, and when I told her why I was coming to see them, she simply responded:“We need to talk.”

“Fuck! It can’t be! If it’s true, why didn’t they tell me? Why let me believe I was adopted?”

“Again, I’m asking you to let them speak.”

She takes my hand and kisses the back of it. I’ve always thought of myself as self-sufficient, but right now, I couldn’t be more grateful to have Brooklyn in my life.

I step out of the car and open the door for her.

“No matter what happens in there,” she says, “I’ll be by your side. We’re a team.”

“I love you, Brooklyn. I’m the luckiest bastard on the planet to have you as my woman.”

We walk hand-in-hand. The front door to my parents’ house is already open, and they’re waiting for us.

I try to do as Brooklyn suggested: empty my mind of old certainties and listen to what they have to say. But my brain keeps playing tricks on me, telling me none of this is real. It’s all one fucking nightmare.

We walk silently as my mother leads us to the main living room.

Each couple sits in a pair of armchairs, but I can’t take the silence anymore, so I begin, “I had my past investigated.” I pause for a few seconds, then correct myself. “No, wait. Let me back up. I found my mother . . . Jesus!” I pause again. “I found the woman I thought was my biological mother. She’s been hospitalized in our hospital for a year, in a coma.”

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