Page 102 of Secrets, Lies and Love

After he came back from the hospital, we made up, and I promised that today would be the day we would talk to the family.

“It’s just one,” my fiancé says.

Yes,fiancé. Yesterday he put a huge diamond ring on my finger and he, Joseph, and I celebrated at home.

Our boy, of course, didn’t understand anything, but he clapped his hands during dinner and seemed happy.

“Have you been to the doctor, then?” Zoe asks, confused.

“Yes. I had an ultrasound a little less than a week ago. I’m almost four months in.”

Everyone stays silent, and I die of shame.

It was childish of me to hide it from them, but mainly from the father.

“Well, the date doesn’t matter, only that another of our Greeks has been shot down,” Madison says. “Be careful, Ares and Hades. Only you are left.”

“If you’re going to cast a curse, do it on William and LJ, Athanasios’s partners. I’m out,” Ares jokes.

They continue talking, and after answering some questions from the women in the family, I look at Dionysus, who is silent, while the cousins and brothers interact.

I feel embarrassed when I realize that he is watching me, and even more so when he speaks low enough for no one else to hear.

“What are you afraid of, Cecily?”

“What?”

“You’re still afraid of something. What?”

“I’m afraid of everything, but I’ve gotten used to it because I grew up that way. Unlike what happens to most people, fear does not paralyze me. There’s only one thing that really scares me.”

“What?”

“Losing your trust and respect.”

“And why would that happen?”

“Have you decided whether the dress will be cream or white?” Zoe asks, getting up from the table.

With the excuse of not speaking loudly so as not to wake Joseph, I also get up. “I’ll be right back,” I say, but Dionysus doesn’t say anything. He just keeps staring at me.

From afar, as I talk to Christos’s wife, I see Odin handing papers to Dionysus, and I feel my blood run cold when he takes the folder and looks in my direction.

Jesus, what could that be?

I don’t have time to delve into the anxiety crisis that begins because then Madison talks about the decorator they hired to do their twin daughters’ room and invites me to see it.

Days later

“Is she your new chosen one, then, Mr. Kostanidis?”

“Are we going to have a wedding soon? You never appeared in public more than once with a woman other than your ex-wife, and this is the third event you have attended together.”

“Miss Bradley is being identified as the owner of your heart. Is that statement correct?”

“Miss Bradley, can you talk a little about what it’s like to live a fairy tale in real life?”

The questions are endless and repetitive.

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