“You’d be surprised.”
She raises her brows. “Okay, I’m intrigued. Surprise me.”
“Aphrodite is so furious that her son married Demeter’s daughter, she’s taken out a hit.”
Clio blinks. “That’s quite the allegation. Do you have any proof?”
Not that I’m willing to share. Not enough. I give her a sardonic smile. “Since when do the gossip columns need proof?”
“Fair point.” Her gaze goes distant, and I can already see how her impressive brain is considering the spin on this. “I’ll need more in order to post anything. Aphrodite is a bitch and a half, and she won’t hesitate to call for my job and slap me with a libel suit. Hearsay, even from you, isn’t enough to take that risk.”
I figured as much. I glance at the door. “There was a disturbance in Helen Kasios’s building last night. Ares’s people were called in to take custody of the assassin. They still have him.”
Clio laughs softly. “Well, that I can work with. I can’t promise to work fast, because I’ll need to verify everything, but I’ll ask some questions.” She starts to gather up her purse. “Can I assume I’ll get a call if there are any more disturbances that she might be connected to?”
“Yes, as long as you promise to give me a heads-up before you run the story.”
“You have yourself a deal.”
We shake on it. Eros is waiting in the hallway, and we head to the elevator while Clio strides out the front doors, an intense look on her face. Eros glances at me. “Do I want to know what you talked about?”
“Zeus wants things quieted down, but he won’t take our word for it or step in unless we force his hand. Utilizing Clio is one way to go about it.”
“It won’t be enough. The gossip sites run scandalous stories all the time and no one blinks anymore. He’ll write it off as fiction.”
“He would…if that’s the only thing we’re going to do.” I dredge up a smile, even though the last thing I feel like doing right now is smiling. “That’s where phase two comes into play.”
He shakes his head slowly. “You are truly terrifying, Wife.”
Wife.
No reason to get a thrill from him calling me that. None at all. This marriage might be real, but it’s not real. It doesn’t matter if I’ve fallen for Eros; I have to remember that. I wait for the elevator doors to close to step away from him, needing a little distance. “I just hope I’m terrifying enough to pull this off. My mother puts me to shame.” Though right now, I have enough anger that I’m not worried about the conversation we’re about to have.
She tried to sell me to Zeus.
It’s not even the potential marriage I have issue with. She didn’t even try to talk to me about it, didn’t trust me to recognize the value of making that play. She simply went over my head.
“I’ll follow your lead.” Eros watches me in the reflection of the elevator, but he makes no move to close the distance between us. Does he feel the pull even now? I do.
“Okay.” I take a breath, straighten my spine, and march into my mother’s penthouse the moment the elevator opens. I chose not to text her to let her know we were coming, but Mother always spends Saturday early evenings at home, usually getting ready for some event or other. I already checked her calendar, and she won’t be leaving for another hour.
I lift my voice. “Mother!”
It takes exactly two minutes for her to appear. She’s as perfectly put together as always, her dark hair pinned back, her makeup immaculate, her dark-green gown elegant and giving the earth mother vibe that she carefully curates for the public. She takes one look at Eros and shakes her head. “If you want to talk, he can wait downstairs.”
“You don’t have the high ground, Mother.” I step forward. I catch sight of Callisto in the hallway leading to our bedrooms, but she makes no move to join the conversation. It’s just as well that she hears this, too; it affects her, after all. “When were you going to tell me that you intended to marry me off to the new Zeus? When you ambushed me at the altar?”
Mother’s too good to show surprise, but her pause speaks volume. “He told you.”
“I’ve been to see him, yes.”
Her gaze sharpens. “Why?”
“We’ll get to why in a moment. Answer the question.”
“I was going to speak with you about it this week, in fact. Negotiations had reached the final stages, and I intended to sit you down and walk you through the reasons why this is an excellent match.” She holds my gaze. “Perseus isn’t his father. I doubt you would have even needed to dispose of him. He’s such a bore that you’re more than capable of handling him.” She flicks a disdainful look at Eros. “Or you would have been if you hadn’t married this one.”