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"Areyou telling me that the scorpion that stung her was genetically modified?" Christos asks on the video call with my family, looking as shocked as I was when the head of the medical team treating her raised this possibility.
Our return to New York had to be postponed. Only Dionysus returned, but Hades remains with me.
To my surprise, before being released from the hospital, Serenity made a request of me: she wants to sell the house in which she was born. She told me that even if she returns to New Orleans one day, she doesn't intend to live there anymore.
I, of course, questioned why. It's the last link she has with her dead parents. My brothers and I still keep the house my parents owned on our island in Greece to this day, for purely sentimental reasons, as we rarely go there. Everyone now has their own island. Maybe, with the birth of my nephews and with Zeus and Dionysus married, that will change.
Serenity's response was logical, and sad too. She said the childhood home she remembers is boarding school. All her memories are limited to JeAnne and the school in Germany.Sheknows who her parents were and told me that sometimes she dreams of scenes from her childhood, but nothing is clear, as if she’s watching an old movie, without either of them present. Loose pieces of memory.
So, instead of a temporary move, leaving most of her things in Louisiana, I will have everything she wants to keep sent to her apartment in Manhattan.
"We're not sure yet," I finally reply, "but the doctor thinks that’s the only possible explanation."
"Why does he think that?" Zeus asks.
"Because the scorpion that stung Serenity was aTityus Serrulatus. A lethal species, also known as the Brazilian yellow scorpion. It can cause death between one and six hours after the bite.”
"But that's not what happened."
"No, and that's why he suspected the genetic change. The doctor said he read about a case like this once, a long time ago, but it was a spider. It was sent to kill a political leader right here in Louisiana. But in that incident, the spider had its genetics transmuted to increase its action potential. He studied the case at school, and when he saw the animal that bit Serenity, he recognized it immediately and knew that if she had really been exposed to the full potency of the poison..."
I can't finish. I don't consider myself a particularly sensitive guy, but it makes me crazy to think that a girl so young could lose her life through an act of stupid insanity.
"She wouldn't have survived," Odin says, filling in what I couldn’t say.
"What do we do?" my older brother asks, and despite all the shit that's happening, I smile. If there is one certainty under heaven, it is that among us, one person's problem is everyone's problem.
"Have her stay with me, first of all," I answer and see Christos's eyebrow reach his forehead.
I know the reason. I am the most detached of the four brothers. The concept of family for me is strong—after all, I'm Greek—but outside of it, I have several acquaintances, nothing more than that. I am not responsible for any other living being besides myself.
"Serenity is mine, for now. I aborted the plan to send her to the apartment I had initially chosen."
They all nod in agreement, and I know that in my place, they would do the same. What I don't say is that since the night I took her to dinner two years ago, my ward went from being an obligation to becoming an obsession. One that I combat on a daily basis.
"I will investigate," Odin says, which doesn't surprise me. He's not a good person to have as an enemy, especially if you're someone who keeps secrets.
"The only thing I don't understand is: if Serenity is right, and he's been hiding in her dressing room since the first time she performed here in Louisiana two years ago, how could the son of a bitch have gotten in without the bodyguards catching him? I say.
My cousin shrugs. "Luck. Or maybe he studied the place before going in. If she had told us at the time, it would have been easier to access the camera footage. It wouldn't have taken me more than a few minutes, no matter where in the world it happened.”
"Do you hear yourself?" Dionysus asks. "That is fucking scary."
"It's practical. Technology is my weapon. Anyone who crosses me is the enemy. If you have nothing to hide, you don't need to be afraid of me."
"Mr. Kostanidis, can I talk to you for a minute?
I just left the library at Serenity's house.
"Yes?" I respond, already knowing who is speaking to me. Debra is with Serenity, talking about her performance at the New York dance school. With everything that's going on, I didn't have time to congratulate my ward on being chosen as prima ballerina, although I sent her jewelry and flowers as soon as I found out. The only person left is the nanny, the woman named JeAnne who Serenity treats with the same affection as she would a relative.
It doesn’t go unnoticed by me that she looks sick, very thin, and when we met at the hospital, her eyes were red from crying.
I'm not moved by other people's drama, but I admire those who can give unconditional love to people who don't share their blood, as is the case with Eleanor, my sister-in-law Madison's stepmother, and apparently, Serenity's nanny is the same way.
From what I've been able to find out so far, JeAnne has dedicated her entire life to taking care of my ward.
"What do you want, ma'am?"