“But he wasn’t a good man,” I whispered.
“And neither am I.” He turned his gaze and faced me head on. “Hades and I are the same. And in my eyes, your husband is no better.”
The urge to defend my husband sparked in my veins like a shock of electricity. It was a compulsion to fight for his goodness, for the man who deserved more respect. Maybe Hades shouldn’t have done what he did, but he was nothing like Ash. He was nothing like his father either. “Yes, my husband is better. His crimes don’t affect innocent people. Yours do. There’s no way you can sit there and excuse your behavior. Your father was an asshole. So are you.” I refused to kiss his ass to get what I wanted. He wouldn’t respect me if I did. “There’s no way you could possibly disagree. You can’t look at those girls every day and defend what you’re doing. Stop acting like Hades did something terrible. You are the terrible one.”
Ash turned to his brother. “I don’t think your wife likes me much…”
Hades shrugged. “She has high standards.”
I stayed quiet because I’d said everything I needed to say. I didn’t want to win his brother over with lies and deceit. I wanted to be honest. Because a relationship without honesty wasn’t a relationship at all.
Ash leaned forward, his elbows resting on the table. He pushed his steak aside. “What do you expect me to do?” He looked his brother in the eye, his hostility slowly radiating outward. It was like a nuclear star pulsating with energy. “Just walk away from everything I’ve built? Forgive you like nothing happened? Be two pussies who golf all day? You really think that’s gonna happen?” He leaned forward even more, lowering his voice. “This is what I don’t understand. It’s been five goddam years. No calls. No texts. No fucking birthday cards in the mail. And then all of a sudden, you come out of nowhere? That doesn’t make any sense to me. Why now?”
Hades kept the same stiff posture, remaining calm and confident despite being involved in the most intense conversation I’d ever witnessed. “What does it matter, Ash? I’m here now. This is an opportunity for both of us. We can hold on to the past and be consumed by it, or we could just move on. Mom is still alive but can’t remember either one of us. We are all the other has. Just let it go.”
Ash actually rolled his eyes, which was somewhat comical considering how intense he was. “Being married has really turned you into a pussy, hasn’t it?”
“No,” Hades answered. “Loving a woman has made me into a man. And a man rights his wrongs, admits his mistakes, preserves his family. I’m not asking you to change your stance overnight. I’m just asking for the chance to make things right. We can go back to pretending that the other doesn’t exist, but I’d rather not. I don’t think you do either.”
Ash stared at his brother a moment longer before he turned to me. Conversations continued at the tables around us, but it was deadly silent for us. We were in a strange vortex, an alternate reality where anything could happen.
Hades turned rigid as he waited for his brother to say something.
Under the table, I rested my hand on top of his, keeping him close as we waited for his brother’s decision.
When Ash reached into his back pocket and grabbed his wallet, I knew this night had been in vain. He took out a wad of cash and threw it on the surface of the table. “I’d rather be strangers than brothers. I’d rather be enemies than friends.”
16
Hades
That was a fucking waste of time.
My wife was asleep in bed wearing my white t-shirt. I should be asleep too, but I preferred to sit on the couch, a glass of scotch to keep me company. The curtains were pulled back from the windows, and I had an uninterrupted view of the cityscape. The suite was so large, she couldn’t hear me cope with my thoughts, didn’t notice the sound of the glass tapping against the bottle, didn’t detect the loud sighs of regret escaping my lips. I pulled out my phone and considered calling the only real family I had left.
But I didn’t.
Like he could read my thoughts from over a hundred miles away, his name appeared on the screen.
Damien.
I took the call and put the phone to my ear. “It’s three a.m. Why are you calling me?”
Damien struck back with his spiteful attitude. “It’s three a.m. Why are you answering?”
I dragged my hand down my face, feeling the stress across my skin. “Because I can’t sleep.”
“You can never sleep.”
Untrue. After I got married, everything was different. Sofia became my dream catcher. She took away the nightmares I battled every day. It was always the same nightmare every time, smoke rising from the barrel as my father lay dying. But somehow, she took that all away. “Why are you awake so late?”