Chapter 1
"Elena, I know it's wrong to hide who I am and marry someone else. But there aren't that many what ifs in this world. Calista is the only one in the whole city-state who can lift our family up."
"You and I have been husband and wife in this fishing village for three years. I know exactly who you are."
But if he could hide his identity, how did he know I couldn't hide mine.
I looked around. The stone house we built with our own hands. The olive trees we planted with our own hands. I couldn't make myself believe any of it was fake.
"Adrian, I'm carrying your child. Can we still be good to each other like before? Please don't marry her."
I stared hard at the man in front of me. If he just said yes, I was ready to forgive everything.
But he only pressed his lips together and said flatly, "She and I have already slept together as husband and wife. I have to be responsible for her."
My eyes went red, my whole body shaking. "And me? You don't need to be responsible for me? For our child?"
Adrian reached out and touched my cheek, his eyes full of what looked like pain.
"Elena, listen. I'm only taking a wife. I'm not abandoning you."
"There's a big house in the city. I already bought it. If you like this kind of life, I'll have people plant it full of olive trees for you. Anything you want, I'll get it for you. Trust me."
I stepped back, shaking my head over and over.
"I don't want to spend my life trapped there as your mistress. I don't want me and our child hidden away for the rest of our lives."
But Adrian just walked toward me, calm, like nothing was wrong.
"I never thought of you as a mistress. As long as you don't make a scene in front of her, I'll still treat you like a wife in private. Okay?"
I kept shaking my head. "No. I'm not going anywhere but here."
This was where I had every moment of the last three years with Adrian. I wanted to wait here for our child to be born.
"Elena, the elders already made it clear. If word of this fishing village gets out, the marriage alliance is dead, and our whole family pays for it. The only way to keep you and the baby safe is to erase everything here."
Before I could even process the shock, he raised his hand. The men behind him lifted their torches and set the stone house on fire.
I tried to call up the power inside me, tried to protect the yard full of olive trees, our home. Nothing came. A god who walks among mortals has to seal their power. Until the pact is broken, my power won't answer me.
If I forced my true form out now, I wouldn't just be defying him. I'd be defying the land we'd lived on together.
The fire caught fast. The fishing nets, the fence, the whole yard, all of it swallowed.
I grabbed my belly and screamed. "No. Stop it. Please stop."
Adrian pulled me against him, pinning me into his chest while I fell apart.
He just let me pound my fists against him.
"Behave, Elena. Once I use Troy's army to secure the city-state, I'll grant you the title of Co-Queen. It's never been done before, but I'll make it happen. Our child will be recognized by the council too, the rightful heir to the city-state. We can go back to how things were."
But Adrian. I am Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty. How could I ever kneel beneath another woman.
The stone house was gone. There was no going back for us.