Aphrodite's Flame

51.

I'm pregnant.

Nervously biting on my nails I'm sitting on one of the marble benches on Mount Olympus. The way the light falls. My belly is slowly growing, and I find I have a craving for inedible things. Such as sulfur. I have birthed a number of children, so I immediately knew what was up. I knew for certain when I noticed roses growing in my trail.

I always used to be the Goddess of Flowers - until Persephone was born. I had to gift her something. It is divine etiquette to gift according to rank. Demeter had a divine daughter, so I had to give her something to match the description. I gave her my blooming powers, not fully realizing I would actually give them up. I resent her for it. I always loved having flowers bloom in my wake and since the day Persephone learnt to walk I lost that.

But each time I'm pregnant, flowers start growing around me again.

It has to be Hephaestus', which shouldnt be possible, right? He told me the Fates predicted his first wife would not give him children.

I have given the idea some thought, to the point where I almost choked on all the theories that formed in my head. What if the baby wasn't Hephaestus'? What if it was Adonis'? But Adonis wasn't exactly alive - none was ever heard to give birth to a half-undead baby. What if it was Ares'? This was actually not possible - or was it? Would one thrust be enough?  

But then I realised - Heath and I are divorced. The day this child will be born, he is not my husband and I am no longer his first wife. The only one who actually gave me his seed - and was alive at the time - was Hephaestus. And by now this moment is almost four months ago.

I need to see him.

I know he does not wish to see me, but he needs to know. I follow the winding path down the mountain and look back, smiling, seeing small white rose bushes follow me. They have been my favourite since the beginning of time. I enter one of the caves that I knows leads to his forge. 

I find him at work, the way he has always been. His hair has grown, a little man bun on top of his head. I actually grew attached to the little monstrosity. My ex husband is not wearing a shirt and I look at the spot between his shoulder blades. The tattoo of the flower of Aphrodite. My symbol.

'Heath?' I ask, quietly. I dare not enter the forge itself and stay behind in the shadows. I see his grip around the weaponry he is forging grow tighter, to the point he breaks whatever he is holding. I swallow.

'Why are you here?' he growls, not even looking me in the eye. 

'We need to talk,' I start. When I realised this baby would be a way into his heart again, I felt like I had no time to lose. Maybe I should have prepared a speech - but I just needed to see him. 

He turns to me, looking at me rather bored. Like I'm a nuisance. I don't like the way he makes me feel - exactly the way he made me feel before we were married. Like I bore him, like I'm a mouse in his house. No one ever made me feel this way. I clench my fists, swallow my own anger. He is so wrong about me and he is not even giving me the chance to explain myself - he is so set on believing the lie he himself created.

'I'm pregnant,' I tell him, finding my voice again.

'And? It's not mine.'

'But it is.' He throws the wrangled metal in a corner and - finally - looks at me, with rage and fury in his dark eyes.

'It is not. The Fates said you would not bear my child and they are never wrong.'

'They told you your first wife would not bear your children. I am no longer married to you. Don't you see, Heph-'