Fathers of Athena Konstantinos (Completed)

Love & Therapy

Athena's Pov

I stay silent as he continues. “We were seventeen when we knoc- impregnated your- that… excuse of a woman. She was twenty six. We didn't see any problem in paying her to sleep with us. And it wasn't our first time doing such stupid shit.” 

I knew his testimony would follow a piece of advice for me but I was still interested to hear more. I've always been so weirdly obsessed with knowing what their life was like. 

I always compared their childhood to mine from the bits grandpa told me. They got a loving father and even the assurance that their mother would’ve given them everything if she made it. 

“But looking back now, I can tell you it was all so foolish. We shouldn't have done any of it.” 

“Because I was born out of it.” I pointed out. “If you could turn back time, you would do everything it takes to stop me from getting conceived.” 

He just stares at me for a moment and exhales a breath. When he grabbed the tray of alphabets again, I thought he was discarding the topic but the pause was just to gather his thoughts. 

“We don't hate you, Athena.” He noted down his fifteen points for the word he just made. “I know you won't believe me but it's true. I agree we don't want the responsibility that comes with you but… that doesn't mean we want to wipe your existence. We do want you to be okay and safe… with dad.” He didn't have to say that, because I knew his best wishes were limited to my place with grandpa. “We don't want to see you get hurt and we-” 

“Because if I get hurt then grandpa gets hurt and you love him.” 

He messages his forehead, a clear sign that he's getting annoyed. “Sometimes when I sit with you, I feel like you don't even wanna try talking maturely with us.” 

“As if you've always behaved so well with me.” I counter. 

He shakes his head as if willing himself to calm down. “Can you hear me out for two minutes without getting annoyed or offended or cutting me off like I'm wasting your time?” 

“Depends if you don’t bore me.” I shrugged. 

I wasn't so comfortable coming alone with him here but now that I feel like he isn't gonna pull out a gun on me, I'm much more on board with uttering a couple of snarky comments here and there and hearing whatever he has to say in light of counseling. 

He rolled his eyes and rubbed his little beard before deeming it to be the right amount of silent treatment and continuing whatever lecture he wanted to convey as a self proclaimed wise man. 

“I made my first girlfriend when I was fourteen. She was nineteen.” Oh shit! “I was so happy because I got the baddest bitch on the block.” He chuckles, finding it silly. “But she always shied away from me in public, I thought it was because I was an embarrassment —which I probably was with braces, no beard and a weird teen haircut.” 

I stayed silent because I do actually want to know more. “I thought once I’d mature, she'd be more comfortable with introducing me to her friends. But I was wrong. We were never endgame, I was just her toy.” 

This feels awfully familiar and I hate how much I relate to his story. We're poles apart, the only thing we have in common is that we both love my grandpa. Hades can’t tell me I'm like them, it only proves that a part of them is always alive in me. 

“Since I had approached her myself and spent forty four days convincing her for a date, I naturally assumed I was more interested and any chance of her being a predator —the type dad always warned us about— seemed far-fetched.”