Page 80 of Secrets, Lies and Love

Cecily gives me a death glare, and I partially understand why she’s angry. Our pact is a mess.

I offered her an agreement with a deadline, but I only had to touch her once to know that the time she offered me wouldn’t even be enough to start with, and now, with the real possibility of a pregnancy, maybe we will be linked forever.

“Are you going to the library tomorrow?” Elina asks her.

Cecily stares at me, as if waiting for me to speak, and after what she asked me when I came here, I know why: she wants to stay with Joseph, despite it being Mrs. Nuttle’s shift.

The lines are overlapping. There is no longer a label for what Cecily is in my life. Certainly not just the night shift nanny anymore. Maybe she’ll become my son’s stepmother.

For the first time, I understand the fucking mess I’ve created. What’s most absurd, given who I am, however, is that I’m not worried about the very real possibility that she’ll stay in my life forever.

“Do as you wish,” I tell her.

“I’d rather stay with Joseph, then,” she says, opening her arms to him, and to my surprise, Joseph throws himself into her embrace.

He never leaves me for someone else.

“I’ll have lunch with you tomorrow, then,” Elina insists, and Cecily agrees with a nod.

Odin beckons me with his eyes, and I move away to see what he wants.

“Are you together?” he asks, without preamble as soon as we enter his library.

“I don’t know how to respond to that.”

I quickly talk about the agreement I proposed and also tell him that I’ve changed my mind since the twenty-four hours that Cecily gave me as a timeframe. Then I tell him that she may have gotten pregnant and that if that is the case, we will get married.

Odin doesn’t even blink. He doesn’t seem surprised. Like me, he’s Greek. Family means everything to us. We would never let a child be raised at a distance. “Is that what you want?”

“To get married? No. To stay with her? Yes, at the moment, that’s what I want.”

“You don’t know much about Cecily.”

“I know what you discovered. But there’s something else I need you to investigate: I want to know about Cecily’s stepmother and stepsister.”

“Neither of them are worth a damn. The stepmother remarried; the daughter, Peyton, makes a living scamming rich old men who pay with jewelry for the sexual favors she provides them.”

“What I want is to know more about their past, especially the time when Cecily lived with the two unfortunates.”

“Any specific time period?”

“Adolescence. Cecily also had a friend who helped her. He’s dead now, but he was important to her. Find out who he was.”

“This is not about the possibility of pregnancy alone. You want her in your life.”

“I want to get to know her better, yes, but I’m afraid I’ll ruin everything. Sue was the only constant when it came to women, as far back as I can remember. I’ve never been with someone long-term.”

“You wouldn’t even have been with your late wife if it weren’t for Joseph.”

I shake my head, smiling, because none of my relatives know the meaning of tact. “Our family is made up of suspiciousbastards,” I say, but I’m not really upset. “My brothers, you, and Christos never hid that you didn’t like her.”

“I don’t like saints. Sue was too good to be true.”

“Cecily too, according to you.”

“I found out everything about Cecily’s life. If she had any bad points in her history, I would have already discovered them.”

“What was the real problem with Sue, Odin? Zeus also hated her.”

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