Zephyr's Pov

My breaths came in pants with a strong pain in my chest. I couldn't believe I felt so weak. So fucking weak. Crushed under the weight of my sins, of words I had said, the actions I had done and the child I had hurt.

The only girl I ever loved was slowly slipping away from me.

But I couldn't blame her. It was all my fault.

I shouldn't have left her when she needed me the most. She was an unborn child. A baby who deserved so much more than I or my brothers ever gave her.

“I think you should leave now.” Ares said, not meeting the eyes of the woman.

Eleni nodded in understanding and got up from her chair before leaving us brothers alone in our home office.

Guilt, she said. Athena believed it was the purest form of human emotion. It was killing her. She couldn't forgive herself for all that she had done to herself.

The same emotion was slowly snatching my breaths away. I couldn't live with the weight of my mistakes. It was too much for a man like me to handle.

“I feel like killing myself.” Hades breathed out.

Older men, care, love, attention, cuddles, head pats, cafes, malls, gifts, alcohol, cigarettes, freedom, comfort, safety-

The pain was overwhelming. Each word out of Eleni's mouth was a bullet piercing through my skin. She didn't hold back. She kept pointing out each of our fuck ups.

She didn't care how much it'd ruin us, how much it'll break us into pieces. We asked her for the unfiltered truth and that's exactly what she gave us.

She told us word by word how we destroyed the life of a little girl who should've had a perfect life. The realization that four people left her was something that child had a very hard time digesting.

She wanted to feel worthy. If fate didn't give her the people she should’ve had, she'd find it in someone else. The world was huge. And she thought it was harmless too.

She was just an innocent child with an innocent wish.

A father. Someone she could feel safe with. Someone who’ll cherish her, love her for who she is. She only made the mistake of finding it in the wrong people.

If I had been there- I gulped down the whiskey in my hand and closed my eyes, resting back against the chair.

“How many… how many men do you think… took advantage of her?” I don't know the reason behind the sick question that left my mouth.

The question made my skin crawl but I can't stop thinking about it. I can’t stop myself from wanting to turn the past and save her from every animal that thought it was okay to touch a child.

“More than we can digest…” Hades answered my question.

Eleni made it clear that she'd like to only discuss her own assessments of Athena's case and not the details or the exact situations they spoke about.

As much as we'd like to know the very words she said to her psychiatrist, we didn't want to breach her privacy. We wanted to stay truthful to her. We wanted to know just as much to help her, to understand her.

Eleni has been a great help at evaluating what exactly goes in Athena’s head and what makes her take the wrong decisions she did. The same words that grandpa had been trying to get through our thick skull became much clearer as Eleni provided reasons, circumstances and behavioral history.

Athena had been too gullible. Too trusting. And very deprived of parental love. So she seeked from men what she should’ve gotten from us and her mother.

All of her mistakes and wrong decisions were because of us.

The conclusion broke a part of us.

Her mother's abandonment was just as hard on her but after a time she moved on from it. During the two years she was meeting Angela behind dad’s back, she understood that she wasn't loved by her and most of all she understood her mother was just another one of those people who are using her. It was easier to hate her after knowing her. And it was much easier to leave her after she got us.

But with us, it was a different case. She always longed for us because it wasn't just one man who left her, but three. It baffled her that not a single one of us wanted her. When she met us she realized we weren't going to take advantage of her. And the barest minimum was enough for the naive girl. “I wanna kill each one of them. Piece by piece. I'll fucking skin them alive and won't let them die for months.” Ares said, pressing his hands hard on his eyes to suppress his anger.

“She's never gonna forgive us.” I whispered but my brothers heard it.

“But that won't stop us from trying.” Hades whispered back.

All we can do now is apologize, keep putting in efforts, take up the role she always felt was missing and tell her we're now here to stay.

But that won't change the horrible past she suffered due to our absence.

“I think…”

I opened my eyes to look at Ares who had stopped mid sentence. I can tell the words he’s about to utter are hurting him already. But he still forced them out of himself.

“She deserves to know the truth.” A shocked look of betrayal crossed Hades' features and he instantly got up from his seat. “No. I won't fucking allow that.”

I swallowed thickly. “I don't agree with it either. We should give her some time, maybe she'll change her mind.”

“It's been eight days, Zephyr! She doesn't talk to us, she doesn't eat with us, she doesn't wait for us to get back, she doesn't even fucking look at us. I can't take this anymore.” Ares shouted, taking out his frustration on us.

She's been purposely avoiding us. She doesn't come out of her room when we're home. Her life has become limited to school, dad and Tristan. She doesn't want us.

Even when we accidentally do cross paths, she acts like she didn't see us. Each one of us has gone to her room to apologize and get everything back to normal. We tried talking to her but she always refuses. Either she makes up an excuse for being busy or simply says everything is fine.

“And you think the DNA test would solve everything?” I gritted through my teeth. “If you turn out to be her uncle then what? You think she'll shower you with love?”

Ares slumped on the desk behind him and dropped his head in his hands in resignation. He knows he's lost a battle, we all have. We're nothing but losers trying to claim a consolation prize because we don't deserve anything more.

“Let's give her some time. Dad might talk her out of it, we can still go back to how we were.” Hades suggested. “What if that doesn't happen? What if she sticks to her decision? Then what?” Ares spat his question. “There's only one other way to give her peace. By fucking letting her go!” “That won't be happening!” I said immediately.

People say true love is in letting go. But I can't. I'm too selfish. I will fight till the end. For her forgiveness, for her love, for us. “Then give her the test!” Ares insists.

“Fine!” I yelled back at him. “I'm ready to take the risk if that's what it takes for her to come back to us!”

Hades visibly paled and he shook his head like he didn't want to believe what was happening. “You've lost your mind! You can't do that!”

“That's the only way. She wants to know.”

“You fuckers I won't take the bloody test!” He yelled, breathing hard.

Ares looked at him, his eyes dead as the sea. “Then we'll take the test. If it comes out negative for both of us, it's obviously you.”

A discomfort surged through me. If one of them turns out to be her biological father, I don't know what I would do. I can't lose her.

I've just got her. She can't leave me after treating me like a father all this time.

Hades shuddered clenching his fist. “You can't- you can't take her away from me- I… I’ll kill both of you! If I can't have her, neither will you!”

Saying that he left the room, slamming the door behind him. I sucked in a breath as all the emotions were crashing on me at the same time.

“We should try convincing him.”

We could take the test and Hades won't kill us but we can't betray him. We have to get him on board before taking the hardest decision of our life. We need him in this. We have to be together.

Athena needs all three of us.