Athena's Pov

Reign didn't say a word but the expressions on his face didn't look pleasant as he started walking towards them.

Since my best friend was there as well I followed behind him. I don't know why he looked so happy with Adeline. What were they even talking about?

It must be the baby girl in his arms that has his lips curved in a cute smile. Tristan has always loved babies and played with them any chance he got.

“Princess.” Reign called and Adeline turned to look at him.

Her smile stretched wider as he walked closer and kissed her cheek. “You good?” He asked to which Addy nodded. They both then turned to look at the baby in his arms who was crying badly. “I think he needs you.”

The little guy leaned towards his mother in a desperate attempt to seek comfort and she took him wordlessly. Addy hugged him close to her chest and rubbed his back as he clung to her like she was his favorite.

“Aww my baby what happened? Did Reign tell you to not bite him?” She questioned and took his sobs as a yes. “It's okay, I know. He's always so rude.”

Alessio slowly calmed down to the point that only a few whimpers of discomfort were heard. He definitely liked his mother more than anyone.

“So… what's going on here?” Reign asked Adeline casually, but the way he was glaring at Tristan didn't seem like he was chill.

“Come here,” She grabbed Reign's forearm and dragged him to her side so he was facing my best friend. “Meet Tristan. He’s so nice, he was eating but he stopped to help me out with Aella. She seems to like him a lot and now she's refusing to get off him.”

The baby was actually so happy and giggled looking at my best friend. Since Tristan knows why I was with Reign he narrowed his eyes at me in question. But I shook my head letting him know the mission failed.

Reign eyed my best friend with caution. “You're here with..?”

“The Konstantinos. I think you’ve already met Athena,” He slid his gaze to me momentarily. “I’m her best friend.”

“Oh. So she brought you here.”

Reign eyed me with distaste before Alessio took his attention away when he literally threw a fist at his face that he had to move back to survive.

“You guys have met?” Adeline asked Reign with a slight discomfort as she finally noticed me.

“Ya we’ve met. She's the Greek's daughter.” He replied casually.

She slowly nodded and encircled her free hand on Reign's arm. He didn't mind and slid closer to her as she wanted. I don't know if she's marking her territory or fearing I'll snatch him away.

“I thought you were with Ares.” I asked Tristan, subtly moving to his side so Adeline knows I’m not interested in nearing her boyfriend anymore.

“He left me at the buffet to go get you and I saw Aella so I came here.” He explained and eyed me. “What are you doing here? You were supposed to stay with Morpheus.”

“He told me to look around and have fun.” We both knew I was lying.

Reign moved towards Tristan and gestured to the baby in his arms. “Let me relieve you of the burden.”

For some reason Aella wasn't ready to leave my best friend and when Reign tried to take her she held tight on Tristan's neck and even fake cried.

Tristan rubbed her back and looked at Reign. “I think she's comfortable here. Let her stay.”

Reign jaw clenched but he took a step back. “She'll get bored soon.”

“Sure.” Tristan chuckled then looked at her leaning on his shoulder. “She looks sleepy, you can take her when she doses off.”

Reign remained pissed off about something. “Wasn't gonna leave her on you anyway.”

I see Adeline subtly elbow him before looking at Tristan apologetically. “I'm sorry, Reign gets a little possessive about them…”

Tristan's eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he asked. “Is this… He’s your boyfriend?”

“Yes.”

“Oh my bad. I thought he was just a weird creep trying to snatch the kids that don't even like him.” I have no idea why Tristan thought this was okay to say.

He clearly saw Reign walk here with Alessio in arms, how can he even conclude that. In all honesty my best friend was mad at Reign since the time he heard his name from me and his unapologetic arrogant behavior must've fueled Tristan's dislike.

“If anyone looks like a creep right now then it's you.” Reign said quite seriously, not putting in a little effort to make it seem like a joke —as Tristan had done.

“Dude, I was helping Addy-”

“Addy? It's Adeline for you.”

Tristan rolled his eyes. “I was helping your girlfriend calm down Aella because she got scared when a waiter broke a glass next to her.”

Reign's head snapped to Adeline with worry clear on his features. “Did she get hurt?”

Adeline shook her head. “No, she's fine. She was just startled by the noise.”

Alessio was in Addy's arms but kept trying to grab hold of Reign so he lent him a hand to bite. Since I was subjected to that painful bite just moments ago, I couldn't help but ask him about it.

“Um doesn't that hurt?”

Reign shrugged. “Addy forgot to bring his teether, he has to bite onto something.” He seems like a guy who'll raise brats.

Reign looked at Tristan with a little less displeasure now and introduced himself. “I'm Reign Astor. My family's hosting this Gala.”

“I guessed that.” Tristan replied, not really adding to the conversation.

“I think Alessio's feeling sleepy too, we should go lay them down.” Adeline suggested after some minutes of awkward silence.

Reign nodded and moved towards Tristan again. “Let me get my Aella back.”

This time since the baby was almost asleep, she didn't protest going to her father —or mother's boyfriend— and only let out a small noise of irritation as he placed her on his chest.

“I hope you enjoy the party, we’ll have to go now.” Adeline excused herself while Reign didn't bother saying anything and simply turned around to leave.

Before they could go however I stopped Adeline. “Can I talk to you for a moment?” My eyes slid to Reign and I mumbled. “Alone?”

Reign looked suspicious of me but Adeline nodded and moved aside with me. “Actually I just wanted to say I'm sorry. I didn't know and there was clearly a misunderstanding, I didn't mean to hit on your boyfriend. I swear it might've looked weird that we walked here together but we didn't do anything-”

She cut me off mid-speech and placed her hand on my forearm with a kind smile. “It's fine. I don't blame you, you didn't know.” She looked at Reign who was eyeing us rather suspiciously. “And I know nothing happened. Reign would never break my trust. If I may tell you a secret...” She leaned in closer to my ear. “He kinda hates everyone. There's no chance he can fall for anyone else in this life.”

I sighed in relief at how maturely she's taken it. “Thanks for understanding.”

She shook her head. “Don’t thank me.” Alessio turned in her arms, getting more comfortable. “I think I should go now before he starts getting fussy.”

“Of course. Take care.”

“You too. If you need anything, tell me.”

“Yes, a rich single guy my age please.” I joked.

She laughed. “Unfortunately I don't know many people here either. If I had to pick someone your age for you…” Her gaze slid to Tristan for a second. “Your best friend seems like a gentleman.”

My mouth parted and I immediately shook my head. “We're just friends. Nothing more.”

“Well to be honest he literally mentioned you more than ten times when we were talking so I thought maybe...”

“Actually we’re childhood best friends. We always stay together so our conversations kinda become centered around each other.”

Alessio slightly rubbed his heels together and Adeline patted his back explaining to me that he's getting irritated now so she must go.

“See you at next year's Gala.” She said to me before leaving with her boyfriend and kids.

I'd love to meet her at the next Gala but I'm pretty sure I won't be returning here. Zephyr will soon realize his latest mistake and the brothers will abandon me again.

“Making ultra rich friends?” Tristan asked, coming to my side.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “I could ask you the same question. You were mingling around with Addy a lot.”

“I was helping her with her kid…” He said like I was dumb to assume anything besides that.

“Didn't seem like it. She was laughing more than Aella.” I don't know why that bothered me.

“C'mon you know me,” Tristan gently bumped his shoulder with mine. “I'm not interested in getting a girl.”

“You don't have to explain anything to me. You're free to hit on anyone you like, you're single.” I shrugged then added. “As long as the other girl's single too.”

“Right. I’m single. I should stop feeling like I'm committed to some imaginary girl.” He muttered.

I looked at him and furrowed my eyebrows. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing. I think I wanna go use the loo, I'll just be back.” He quickly left.

For some reason I kept thinking about what he had said. He could get a girlfriend. He was single, he was allowed to do so. But it felt wrong.

I had always told him to hit on girls, explore around and lose his virginity but somewhere in me I said that because I knew he wasn't going to do any of those things.

I liked him as he was. Shy, reserved and forbidden for the world. The only person who had access to him was me. And I loved that.

Being an extremely self aware person, I knew it was my selfishness that didn't allow me to truly want a partner for him. I liked him single and always available for me. I liked the chemistry we had. The ease. The comfort. The love. And I knew no girlfriend would appreciate the level of frankness we have. It's almost inappropriate.

I'd have to maintain a distance from him when he gets a girlfriend. Just thinking of that day scares me. He's the only person who provides me the comfort and understanding I seek and I'm scared that all will be ruined if he gets into a relationship.

It's on rare occasions that I burden my mind with this thought but nowadays it's a constant. Since I felt him hard against me, I'm scared what he didn't take from me he’d seek from someone else. I wish he had picked me for it. So that he would never leave me.

Sometimes I wonder what it'll be like if we got together. We have a great understanding, trust, comfort, tolerance for one another, we always patch up after our mini fights, we share everything and we even flirt so well. What else does a couple need?

We'd only have one thing to cover; sex. How hard could that be? Maybe he won't be able to get it right the first few times but he’d be learning from the expert, I’ll teach him everything. Sexual intimacy isn’t the building block of a relationship anyways. I may have a high sex drive but it's one of the least important requirements I have from my romantic partners.

Why am I even thinking about all of this? Tristan deserves way better than me. We both know it. He might like my body but he can never love me like a boyfriend does.

I shake off the thoughts and make my way towards the bar to try and get a drink. Reign must not be lying when he said nobody cares that I'm underage. But before I could reach the counter, I heard someone call my name.

The voice sounded familiar but I couldn't place it. I turned to my right to see who it was and color drained out of my face seeing him.

I didn't know what he was doing here. I hadn't seen him for the last three years and I really didn't want to now. We ended on a good note but my feelings about all my past relationships are slowly changing and that included him.

He was twenty six years old when I was just thirteen and now it wasn't something I found okay. The disgust I'm slowly developing for all my ex’s and such men in general surfaced as I saw him.

My fist clenched and heart raced as discomfort crawled my skin. I didn't want to be near him. I really believed he was one of the best men I had met in my life but seeing him now felt like I was used.

He always knew I didn't have a father, he knew I craved the care of one and he took advantage of it. He manipulated me to do things he wanted. He disgusted me now.

Richard walked to me with a charming smile on his face and I unknowingly took a step back as the thought of him talking to me made me scared. I didn't want to jump in his trap again. I knew I was gullible so I didn't want to risk talking to him and ending up in his bed again just because he said what I wanted to hear.

I wanted someone to come get me. To stop this pedophile from reaching me. To protect me from him. I wanted to be rescued.

I nearly flinched as my phone rang and I instantly checked the caller id. It was Ares. Tristan said he was looking for me, he must’ve given up now and called.

Without thinking twice I picked up the call. “Where are y-” I cut him off.

“The bar next to the gallery. Please come and get me. Fast.” I rushed out my words feeling breathless all of a sudden.

“Are you okay?” Ares asked, his voice changing to concern. My eyes locked with Richard who was just a few feet away now. I had to hang up the call but I said one last thing before that.

“I'm scared.” Like I always have been.