I felt like I kept blinking, my vision wavering from blurry to focused. “I just…” I looked back down at the paperwork and reached out to take the forms. It was all written in a bunch of legal jargon and stuff I couldn’t understand, but I knew it was binding.
I glanced back at Hades, his focus trained right on me. “Why would I need a guardian? Iameighteen. A legal adult.” I set the paperwork back down and straightened my shoulders. I refused to show uncertainty in front of Hades. But I knew I had failed.
The attorney cleared his throat and lifted his hand to straighten his tie. He glanced at Hades, but my uncle kept his focus on me.
He lifted his hand and motioned for the other man to leave. I listened to him exit, the door shutting behind him, and then I was alone with my uncle.
I heard the grandfather clock chiming and felt my heart racing harder.
And still, Hades didn’t speak. He just sat there and tapped that pen as he gazed into my eyes.Tap. Tap. Tap.
“I’ll make this very simple for you, sweetheart.”Tap. Tap. Tap.
It wasn’t lost on me that he hadn’t answered my question.
“Your parents left you an inheritance, and because your father was incompetent in business matters, all assets for Cronus Trust and Holding have been transferred over to me.”
It slowly sank in.
I curled my fingers into my palms so tightly my nails were no doubt leaving crescent marks on my flesh.
“If you want to have a roof over your head, food in your belly, and have me pay for you to finish your last year at a prestigious private school Zachariah had you accustomed to, you’ll sign the paperwork. If not…” He reached across the desk and dropped the pen on top of the papers before leaning back and shrugging his broad shoulders. “Don’t. I’m not forcing you to do anything. I’m giving you a solution to a very fucked-up situation.”
His crass words didn’t shock me. But what I didn’t understand was why he cared so much.
This was all so confusing and made no sense, but I wasn’t versed enough in the legalities of this to question if it was even possible.
“Your father’s attorney will meet with you tomorrow morning to discuss all of this. He’ll confirm your father died a penniless asshole, as well as a fraud and embezzler of the company. But he was smart enough to leave you a little something.”
My throat felt like it was slowly closing in on itself. This couldn’t be true. This didn’t sound like the man I called Dad.
“No matter how much your father loved you or how sweet he was to you, people hide their darkest parts from the ones they care for the most.”
It was clear he hated me by the look in his eyes and the way he spoke, so why would he want to help me? Whatever toxicity he held toward my dad was clearly being thrust onto me.
When the slow smile spread across his face, I felt like he heard my inner thoughts.
“Besides, we are family, Persephone.” He shifted on the chair, his suit pulling against the hard lines of his muscular chest. “What kind of uncle would I be if I threw my niece out?”
I glanced back down at the paperwork and shook my head, although I didn’t know what I was trying to deny.
Hades exhaled in exasperation before saying, “Your father wasn’t a good man.”
I snapped my head up and narrowed my eyes. That drew another smile from him. “Don’t you talk about my father that way. You didn’t know him the way I did. You were never around. For years, no one uttered your name in our household. You were like a dark stain.”
I felt my cheeks heat from my anger, my limbs nearly shaking from my rage.
“Just because he never said my name around you doesn’t mean I wasn’t always on his mind.” I could see the way Hades clenched his jaw and how his eyes hardened even further. This was a sensitive topic for him, obviously. “And make no mistake, although we rarely saw each other, when we did, it was enough to remind me he was the same bastard I’d always known.”
I licked my parched lips, not even about to delve into what Hades said. I only ever asked my father once why he didn’t speak to his brother and why they hated each other so much. My father had looked me in the eye and simply told me the past needed to stay in the past. It was his tone that had me never asking again.
“I don’t need your charity.” It surprised me at how clear and strong my words were, how my voice carried them with such certainty.
I pushed the stack of papers toward Hades.
And once again, there was that smug smile from Hades. “He left you an inheritance, a sizable one, but sweet, sweet Persephone, you have no access to it until you’re twenty-one.”
Honestly, I didn’t know how any of these things worked. I had just known that my parents had a safety net set aside for me. But we never discussed it, and foolishly, I had never wanted to know more about how my future would go.