5

ATHENA

“What do you mean by you don’t know where he is?” he asked me,

He looked overly concerned as he asked and completely surprised by the fact that I didn’t know where my father was. This didn’t take me by surprise though because who wouldn’t be surprised by that fact.

How would one not know where their own parents are?

Sometimes it even surprised me and I found it very funny on other days, days such as this. A little laugh escaped my lips, an uncomfortable laugh. I found the fact that my father took off without me absolutely hilarious, given the fact that he always treated me like the best part of his world but then I guess the best part of his world did not belong in his world anymore.

I shouldn’t be as shocked by his disappearance though, this would not be the first time that he would up and leave for months on end but then, something about this time felt extremely different. I had the feeling that he wasn’t planning on coming back.

He had been radio silent all this time and all the normal channels that I usually used to contact him had been sealed off completely. I didn’t want to think about it for too long but the possibility that he was dead had crossed my mind more times than one. I never dwelt on it for too long though, knowing the type of man my father was, I knew one fact.

Nothing could kill Hermes King.

He would reach out at his own time or perhaps he wouldn’t. I had made up my mind that my life was not going to revolve around him, it was mine after all and I was going to live it to the fullest. Maybe not exactly to the fullest seeing as I was now trapped in this house with Rafael Hall for the time being.

“What’s so funny?” he asked, as he saw the smile on my face.

“It’s nothing, I was just thinking about everything with my father.”

“Why won’t you know where he is?”

“I don’t know where he is because he turned his back on me and left.”

“Left?” his face held even more surprise in it and a hint of something that I couldn’t quite figure out what it was.

“Yes, one day he simply disappeared from me, no calls, no nothing. He acted like I didn’t exist and I haven’t heard from him since then.”

“But… You are his daughter, he wouldn’t do that.”

“Like I said before. You do not know my father.” I repeated,

We both looked at each other for a few seconds and I could see the expression on his face change from pure surprise to what looked like anger. I watched him pace around the room like someone that had just received terrible news.

“What’s wrong?” I asked,

He didn’t respond as he continued pacing around the room. He looked completely lost in thought and I wondered if it was something that I had said which had put him in this mood.

“Was it something I said?” I asked,

“You should leave.” He said, as he walked back into the darkness of the room.

“Leave?” I asked, completely surprised. “I came here to check up on you.”

“And as you can see, I am completely fine.”

“You do not look fine.”

“Athena, you do not need to be stubborn about everything.”

“I am not stubborn.” I began to say before catching myself.

He looked extremely worried and this had definitely piqued my interest. I definitely did not want to leave till I knew exactly what was going on,

“Did I do something wrong?” I asked,

“Just leave, Athena!” his voice thundered across the room.

I could see his eyes flash through the darkness, completely piercing into my soul and it made me tremble as I slowly retreated to the door. He watched me all the way until I left the room and closed the door.

I stood in front of the door for a minute trying to figure out what had escalated that conversation to that point. He appeared completely unstable to me because how could you go from one thing to another in just a matter of minutes, none of it made sense to me.

His behavior had taken me completely by surprise and now one thing had become very evident to me. He was hiding something from me and I desperately wanted to know what it was. His face when he had touched my belly earlier in the restaurant flashed before my eyes and even though I had felt I had imagined it, I couldn’t stop myself from thinking about it.

He had kept on tensing up every time I had touched him and he had the same look then like he had just now. That intense hatred that exuded from his eyes was something that would be hard for anybody to hide.

Why would he hate me though? If anyone was to have deep hatred for anyone here it definitely had to be me. I was the one that had been kidnapped and forced to sign a contract to bear a baby that I wasn’t even sure if I wanted.

I hadn’t really thought about it till now but was I really ready to be a mother. Taking care of a baby was a huge responsibility and feeling that first kick of the baby had made me realize my new found reality. I was really pregnant and I was expecting a kid with this man, Rafael Hall.

Would I be entirely comfortable with the child being taken away from me? The child's birth. Would I be able to do it?

Different things ran through my head as I reached the room and undressed getting ready for bed. Ella had already put together a bath for me and I was now totally submerged in it. It definitely helped to calm me down to a certain degree but then it wasn’t so much.

My thoughts about everything were still quite overwhelming and I wasn’t sure what to do about it. I got into bed and thought about my father. A part of me was extremely worried about him, I would be a fool to say I didn’t know he wasn’t an entirely good man but then he wasn’t an extremely bad father.

Granted, he had the tendency to disappear for days, weeks sometimes even months on end but he always did come back so why was I so worried about this particular disappearance. Maybe it was because for the first time ever he didn’t tell me ahead about anything, he just left.

I remembered the early days in his disappearance where I had reached out to all his contacts in order to get through to him but none of them seemed to know where he was. His secretary, his driver, his colleagues, all of them seem to think he disappeared from the face of the earth, that was what had me worried.

They might all be lying to me though, but they wouldn’t lie to me if they weren’t under instruction from him. If he had no intent to see me then I had to come to facts with that. It would be hard but this was my reality now.

I heard the doorknob in the room turn slightly as it was being opened and I closed my eyes immediately, pretending to be asleep. I suspected it was Rafael and I had no desire to talk to him or even look at him at that moment. I was angry at how our conversation had gone and I was in no mood for a repeat of it.

His footsteps were non-existent no matter how much I tried to listen and I couldn’t tell where he was.

“Athena.” He whispered, his voice was awfully close like he was in front of me and I had no idea how he got there.

I didn’t respond to his call but then I could feel his gaze all over my body and for some strange reason this made a waterfall brew between my legs.

His hand gently touched my face as he pushed my hair out of my face as gently as possible. This act surprised me completely, had he not been the one who had just yelled at me and sent me out of his presence? So why was he being this gentle to me now?

I didn’t move throughout the duration of this even though I felt the urge to. He quietly got up and after a few seconds I heard the door of the room open and close back. It wasn’t until this that I opened my eyes in complete surprise.

Rafael Hall, you are really something. I thought.

It was at that moment I decided I was going to find out everything there was to know about him no matter what. I wanted to know what he was hiding from me and I was going to find out no matter what.