Page 53

Madison

CHAPTER FIFTY

"I forgot to tell you that I was coming to sleep here," I say, smiling, as soon as he opens the penthouse door. I saw him arrive on the security cameras, and I'm really excited to show off the baby clothes I bought.

It took me a few days to assimilate the idea of becoming a mother, but now I feel very excited. Anxious as always, I keep trying to imagine who the baby will look like. I've also looked at room decorations in neutral colors, since we don't know the gender yet.

“My men told me,” he answers without walking towards me, and just those few words make me sure that something is very wrong.

"Zeus, what’s going on?"

"Come with me?" he asks, offering his hand. "I need a shower."

Despite what he says, he's acting like an automaton, so I take the lead. In the bathroom, I take off his shoes, socks, suit, tie, and shirt. I unzip and pull down his pants and then take off his boxers, but when I go to turn on the shower, he pulls me by the hand.

"In the bathtub. I wanna hold you."

"The water will have to be warm but not hot. That's one of the things I learned from Elina and Zoe today: no scalding baths during pregnancy."

I see him tempering the water, testing it. His brow is furrowed, and he looks focused.

"It doesn't need to be cold. Just warm to lukewarm."

He turns off the water valve. "I changed my mind. Let's shower instead. I don't want to take any risks."

The way he says it—much more so than the words—makes my heart bleed. It's as if he's afraid something is going to happen to me or the baby. As if we are his oxygen.

No matter how much he tries to hide it, he is suffering, and I have no clue why.

I take off my clothes in record time, and then, hand-in-hand, we step into the spray.

He hugs me tight.

"What’s going on?" I ask.

"How much do you love me?"

"Don't you know yet?"

"I need to hear it."

"Beyond measure, Zeus. As it always has been between the two of us. There is no measure for how crazy I am about you."

He holds my face and stares at me for a long time. "I made Emerson Gordon commit suicide today."

I smile, thinking it's a metaphor, but when I see that his face is serious, I turn off the shower and get towels for both of us.

After we dry off, we go back to the room and, naked, lie down on the bed.

"Tell me what happened."

"Aren't you horrified?"

"Whatever led you to this, I know there was a serious reason behind it."

"The bastard killed my mother."

"What?"

He lies back on the bed, his face looking exhausted.

When he starts telling me the story, I have to sit down. The horror it causes me is so great that I have to hold myself back from vomiting.

"I don't even know who I hate more," I say, but then I correct myself: "That miserable Emerson, for sure. I hope he spends eternity burning in hell. But we’d already established that he was a monster, if we take into account that he ordered Adriel to be killed. Now I wonder about your grandparents, your mother's parents. How could they? How did they have the courage to turn their backs on their own daughter to protect their family name and heritage?"

"I don't know, Madison, but they did, and all I can think about is how my mother suffered and blamed herself for what happened."

"And then there’s that bitch of a cousin."

"Yes." He sits up but doesn't touch me. "Don't you despise me for what I did?"

"No. I would have done the same."

"But you told me not to hold a grudge."

"When I said that, I was thinking of your mother. As for Gordon, you wouldn't be human if you didn't hate him, Zeus."

“I didn't just drive him to suicide, Madison. I watched him die, and I would do it again."

"And still the pain didn't go away, right?"

"No. Nothing can erase what he did to us. His actions were like the first in a row of dominos, ultimately destroying everything in its path, especially my family."

"I don't know what to say."

"There was a reason I told you everything. I'm giving you a choice whether you still want to be with me after finding out what I did. I thought a lot about everything on the way here and came to the conclusion that, as much as they loved each other, my parents were not close enough to reveal their most painful secrets. For whatever reason, Mom never told her husband about the violence she suffered. He, in turn, only needed someone to make up a lie over the phone to make him take his own life."

"I don't think he killed himself because of the supposed betrayal," I say.

"Yes. It was the idea that he would never have her with him again."

"I think so."

"In any case, much of this tragedy could have been avoided if they had trusted each other. If, when she discovered who’d raped her as a teenager, my mother had told our father, the story could have been different."

"Yes, it could have, but we will never know for sure." I sit on his lap. "Did you say you're telling me everything to give me a choice?"

"Yes."

"Nothing has changed. I love you and I don't think less of you. Gordon got nowhere near what he deserved."

"There will be more to come. Odin will release Lyra's videos revealing the violence my mother was a victim of and also that Emerson paid my mother's cousin to lie to our father."

"Why didn't you just leave him alive to be punished for his crimes?"

"An investigation into murders that occurred more than a decade ago would take a long time. There was a chance that he would die before he could pay for what he did. Now, he has lost his life. We're not even, but the world is a better place without that wretch in it."

"An eye for an eye, as your brother said?"

"Exactly."

"You said that everything will come to light through the videos. This will affect your family too. It will probably impact your business."

"I know, and I'm prepared for the blow. For many years, my mother suffered in silence, without anyone's help. Without anyone rising to her defense. What happened was horrible, but now the whole world will know that she was a victim and not an adulteress, as our hypocritical society called her behind the scenes."

"And then you'll have gotten justice for her."

"Yes, even if it is too late, I will have gotten justice for her."

"I love you, Zeus. Nothing that’s happened will change the fact that I love you and I want to spend the rest of my days by your side. You are my love and the father of my child. You will always have my loyalty."

He hugs me. "No matter what happens, promise we'll always talk, Madison. No matter what you do or how much you think you’ve messed up, never keep secrets from me."

I know what he is asking of me. In a way, it was the lack of dialogue, trust, or perhaps a little of both, that destroyed his parents' lives.

"You have my word. I will never hide anything from you. I'm not good at starting to trust, but when I do, there's no turning back."

The next day

"Oops, we have a surprise," the doctor says, all excited, as he looks at the screen.

It's my first ultrasound, and I feel a little anxious.

"Is everything okay with the baby?" Zeus asks, tense and apparently trying to guess why the doctor is so focused on the image.

" Babies ."

"What?" I almost scream.

"They are twins. There are cases in your family, right? I saw your niece and nephew the day I visited your home."

"Two babies?" I repeat, feeling all the panic from when I found out I was pregnant returning.

"Yes, we have two here, and within a short time, we might be able to find out the sex."

There is a strange noise coming from the device, like the sound of someone underwater. I'm no longer paying attention, though, too terrified to celebrate, but when I look at Zeus—his rapt expression as he stares intently at the image—something inside me shifts.

I woke up several times during the night last night, and each time, his eyes were open, watching me. He didn't tell me what he was thinking, but I know it was to do with the discoveries he made yesterday.

“Zeus,” I call.

"We're having two at once, Madison," he says, amazed.

I feel my heart tighten in my chest. I can't change everything he suffered in relation to his parents, but I can give him a future. A home where we will raise our children with love.

I open my arms, and he comes to me. "Yes, we're having two at once. And it's just the beginning."