Black Widow | 18+

32 | To Athens

I wasn't worth it, I don't think anyone was worth the animosity they used to share, but I definitely wasn't. I had treated them both in ways that only said I wasn't worth it, I ran from both of them, went behind both of their backs, deceived them before I knew that either of them had deceived me. 

I wasn't worth it. 

"When can I see you?" Anton rasped and I shut my eyes, wanting to avoid a replay of the love triangle I had gotten myself involved in six years ago, but hearing Anton's voice made it so much harder. 

The reality was that yes, he may have done some extremely questionable things, but he was there for me. He never abandoned me, never put me through hell, was waiting for me, wanted me to be happy, and loved me. Those days in Madrid where we would go out together were some of the happiest I had ever experienced, happier than the days with Romulo, but I pushed them away because I was afraid that it would mean I wouldn't be able to leave him. 

"I'm in Athens and Jacob and Alvaro are coming. I won't be able to come to you anytime soon, Rico will be starting school again." 

"I'll come to Athens," Anton replied, and for a second I was pleased and then a wave of guilt ran through me 

"Are you going to tell Leandro?" I asked nervously 

"Are you?" he replied 

"I--No, probably not." I murmured, "he said he would be coming to see Rico at some point soon, but he hasn't given me a date yet." 

"Well, I'm not going to tell him, you're not, maybe we just keep it that way for now." Anton said and I sighed

"It feels..." I started, but I paused as I tried to work it out in my head, "it feels like I'm stabbing him in the back by seeing you."

"Is that because you're still in love with him?" Anton rasped 

"I...he's also still in love with me," I replied, shutting my eyes. I listened as Anton hummed, sensing the distaste through the phone I continued, "I don't know, we're not doing anything bad by seeing each other, and he's not going to find out." 

"When can I?" 

"Whenever, Jacob and Alvaro will be here, so you may have to do some apologising if you see them," I chuckled 

Anton laughed and the image of him smiling in my head lifted me a little bit, "I'll fly out tomorrow, I'm supposed to be meeting Kostas anyway so we can just do it in Athens." 

"Okay, I'll see you then."

-

Anton 

I'd dressed up the lie, said that I was meeting Kostas earlier than planned and looking at another hotel to buy into, and Kira didn't suspect a thing. If anything, I had been in her good books since the day she saw Artemisia because I wasn't the one engaging with her, and I looked totally uninterested in her presence when my wife was around. 

Leandro got too caught up in the heat of the moment to exercise that tactic. Now he found himself having to work extremely hard to get his wife to believe that he didn't care about Artemisia, who was also no longer just Arté but the mother to his child, and not just any child but his son, his heir. 

He lived in Sicily now, Domenico and Luiz had taken over New York operations, everything still being run by Leandro but he trusted them enough to succeed in the States. I saw them frequently, getting along with them after we had all put the guns down. 

I didn't really understand how we had managed to put the weapons down and not only walk away from the conflict but partner up too. But, as I said before, without Artemisia in the picture things became totally pointless, and neither of us realised that it was more about her than anything else until she had left.