Chapter 129 A Picky Eater
Byron’s words left Athena momentarily speechless. The weight of his helplessness and underlying grievance hung in the air, and she wasn’t sure how to respond. His admission was almost too simple to process, yet it felt loaded with unspoken complexity.
When Athena pushed him for more clarity, his defensive reply—” I only have slept with you”—felt like a half-hearted attempt to reassure her, but it only left her feeling more skeptical. She wasn’t an innocent woman who would easily accept those words, especially after everything that had happened between them. Byron, for all his charm and power, had never been the man of integrity she once hoped he would be. His actions, not just his words, spoke volumes about his true feelings, and Athena had learned to guard herself from his contradictory nature.
Byron’s expression darkened, and for a moment, it seemed like he might actually leave, but instead, he stormed off to the bedroom. Athena braced herself for another round of silence, but she was mistaken. The sound of running water soon filled the air, and the strange routine of their lives continued. Byron was, in some ways, predictable in his anger and subsequent retreat, yet in other ways, he defied expectation. He didn’t leave this time; he stayed.
Athena couldn’t help but reflect on the strange cycle of their relationship. The past two years had been a whirlwind of emotions, from passion to resentment, from moments of affection to moments of cold detachment. The deeper she got involved with him, the harder it became to untangle her own feelings. There was something about Byron—something raw and unfiltered—that continued to pull her in, even as she knew better. But was it love, or just the illusion of it?
The sound of the doorbell interrupted her thoughts, and she found herself drifting back to reality. The thyme had arrived, but the joy of cooking dinner was gone. When Byron emerged from the shower, the familiarity of the situation hit her hard. He was dressed casually, yet he looked effortlessly attractive, and Athena found herself momentarily distracted. The way his shirt was carelessly buttoned, his messy hair still damp—he was the picture of rugged charm, and it was hard for her not to notice.
But then she snapped out of it. She had to focus on what really mattered. She had made up her mind. If Byron continued to push her, she would stop caring about his approval altogether.
When he complained about the soup, Athena didn’t flinch. She didn’t offer him anything more than the bare minimum. She had long since stopped trying to please him. If he didn’t like it, he could find something else. That was how it was going to be from now on.
Byron, though, seemed to have a different approach this time. Instead of reacting with anger like he often did, he simply went to the kitchen and served himself the soup. Athena watched him with a detached gaze, almost as if she were observing a creature in the wild. There was something strange about watching him serve himself after all this time, as if this moment encapsulated the shift that had taken place in their relationship.
As he sat down and stared at the soup with an uncomfortable expression, he asked, “Do you want to rest for a few more days?”
Athena didn’t even look up at him. She had already made her decision. “What’s the matter?” she asked, her voice calm and distant.
Byron finally broke the silence with an unexpected proposition. “Didn’t I say last time you could be the president of the energy company?”
Athena barely reacted at first, but when he picked up a piece of seafood and began eating, the change in him caught her off guard. He seemed to enjoy the dish more than he initially let on, and for a moment, Athena wondered if she had underestimated his feelings—or maybe this was just another one of his games.
She decided not to dwell on it. He was still Byron, unpredictable and complex. No matter how much she tried to distance herself, it was clear that their paths were still intertwined. She wasn’t sure if it was love, or if it was simply the weight of their shared history that kept them in each other’s orbit. But whatever it was, Athena had made a choice. She couldn’t keep pretending to be the woman he wanted. The real question was whether he could ever truly see her for who she was, not just as the woman who had once been the substitute for someone else.