Hades woke up to the sharp, sterile scent of a hospital.
The moment his eyes fluttered open and landed on the ornate white ceiling, he already knew, this was the VIP wing.
Of course.
Only the best for a Falcon.
But the dull throbbing in his chest wasn't from the IV drip or the oxygen tube by his nose. It was from something deeper. Something raw. Something broken.
"Are you sure that's what happened?" he heard Angelina's voice, low, pained, like a mother begging the universe for a better answer.
He slowly turned his head to the left, where the voices came from. Just enough to see the people gathered near the doorway.
"We're not completely certain, Mrs. Falcon," replied a woman in a medic's uniform. "But the call we received clearly stated it was a suicide attempt."
Hades froze.
He wasn't ready for this. For the conversation. For the looks. For the pity.
"Do you know who made the call?" Angelina asked, voice tight with emotion.
"Unfortunately, no. The call came from your son's cellphone. We also checked the vehicle's dashboard camera… but the SD card had been removed."
"Removed?"
"Yes. Deliberately. We initially thought it might have been theft, or maybe an attempt to cover up a robbery. But nothing else was missing, his wallet, the car, even the phone was intact. Still, considering he was soaking wet and unconscious when we found him in the backseat of his car… we couldn't ignore the possibility. But you can ask your son directly."
'She took it… the SD card.'
He thought of Evadne, the way her face swam through the dark water, the way her voice echoed in his mind like a phantom with light in her hands.
'She saved me… but she didn't want anyone to know.'
More conversation followed, but it blurred in the background.
Hades closed his eyes again, pretending to still be unconscious. He didn't know how to face any of them, not after everything.
Especially not his parents.
He heard the sound of the door clicking softly closed. The responders had left.
"Jupiter, please," Angelina's voice broke the silence. "Don't be too harsh on him."
A tired sigh. Deep. Heavy. From Jupiter.
"It wasn't my intention to push him to that point, Angelina," Jupiter said quietly. "But I only said what I've always felt. I'm not proud of it, but I didn't lie."
Silence.
"I tried to love him, you know that," he continued, voice hard but wounded. "When we adopted him, I did try. But every time he said 'yes' to something I knew he didn't want, every time he agreed just to please us, I couldn't help but compare him to Zeus."
Angelina let out a soft gasp, as if the name alone reopened old wounds.
"Zeus would've fought back. He would've challenged me, shouted, made mistakes… but they were always his choices. Hades? He's lived his whole life saying yes. Even when his eyes screamed no. And no matter how perfect his performance, how high his grades, how many awards he brings home…"
Another deep breath.
"I've never been proud of him."
The words hit Hades like a knife to the gut.
"I gave him wealth. I gave him a name. A life anyone would envy. But I couldn't give him a father's love. Because I could never truly see him as my son. My heart shut the day we buried ours, Angelina. And I'm sorry you're caught between us. I know you love him. And I won't stop you from doing so. But don't ask me to feel what I no longer have to give."
Hades bit his lip as tears slipped from the corners of his eyes.
So he did try to love me.
And maybe, just maybe, that hurt even more.
Because now… he knew. Jupiter hadn't hated him out of cruelty. He had shut the door out of grief.
And Hades had been pounding on it all this time, trying to enter a space that had no room left for him.
Maybe it was exhaustion, mental and physical, but he had fallen asleep again without meaning to.
He didn't know how long he'd been out when he was woken by voices.
"You think he really tried to kill himself, Princess?" It was Casadin's voice. Dry. Casual. Almost careless.
"Why are you asking me?" Evadne's voice was calmer, but laced with a kind of sardonic amusement. "You've known him longer than I have. Shouldn't you be the one who knows if he would?"
Hades opened his eyes, slowly turning his head toward the sound. There, in the corner of the room, Casadin and Evadne sat on the plush white sofa like this was just another day. Casadin was peeling oranges, the slices piling neatly onto a plate, while Evadne ate them, each movement of her lips calm, collected, almost lazy.
"I mean… I don't know him anymore," Casadin continued, still not bothering to glance toward the hospital bed. "I used to think I knew him like I knew myself. Then he turned out to be a traitor."
Hades stayed still, watching. He didn't speak. He didn't move. But Evadne knew, she had already heard the faint chaos in his mind. She knew he was awake. Still, she said nothing. She just popped another slice of orange between her lips and waited.
"Are you still mad at him because he stole Cieryl from you?" Evadne asked, half teasing, half curious.
Casadin sighed and set a neatly peeled orange segment onto a plate on the coffee table.
"Would you believe me if I said it wasn't about that anymore?" he muttered. "Sure, she was my biggest crush growing up. The three of us, we were always in the same circle. I saw how kind she seemed, how sweet. Or at least, I thought she was."
Evadne raised a brow, and Casadin caught it.
"I know, I know. Don't give me that look. I was young. Naïve. Easy to fool. But listen, Princess, it wasn't her rejection that broke me. I was prepared for it. Hell, I spent most of my damn allowance buying her flowers, gifts, little things to make her smile, and I knew she didn't feel the same. I accepted that."
He paused, and Hades could feel the weight in his silence.
"If Hades had just told me the truth… that he fell for her too… that Cieryl had feelings for him, not me, I would've swallowed my pride. I'd have stepped aside. Maybe I'd even help them sneak around so Gramps wouldn't catch them."
Evadne let the orange wedge hang between her fingers, watching him.
"It wasn't the girl," Casadin said finally, voice like gravel. "It was the knife in my back that hurt."
"I told him everything," he whispered. "I cried to him when she said yes to someone else as her date. I was drunk on heartbreak, snot dripping down my nose, calling the guy a pompous prick who didn't deserve her."
A bitter laugh escaped his throat.
"And he laughed with me."
Evadne's hand stilled mid-air.
"He laughed, Princess," Casadin continued, his eyes distant, hollow. "When all that time… he was the guy. The date. The one she said yes to. And I… "
His jaw tightened.
"I looked like a fool. But worse… I was betrayed by the one person I thought would always have my back."
Evadne didn't respond. She simply brought the slice of orange to her lips with slow, elegant ease.
"You know what pissed me off even more?" Casadin continued, voice tightening. "Our so-called friends, they took his side. They kept telling me to just forgive him because he already said sorry. As if that erased everything. Idiots. He said he didn't mean to fall for Cieryl. That he tried to stop himself because he knew it would hurt me. That's why they hid it from me. To protect me."
He gave a bitter chuckle.
"That made it worse. Because if they really didn't want to hurt me, they could've just told me the truth, right? So many chances. But no. They chose to keep it from me. You know what stung the most, Princess? It's realizing the brother I trusted saw me as someone too stupid, too petty to handle the truth. That I wasn't worth the truth."
His voice cracked then, just slightly.
"So I proved them right. I didn't forgive them. I didn't accept their apologies. Because what, just because they said sorry, I'm obligated to accept it?"
He paused then, turning to look at Evadne intently.
"So… Do you think I'm petty?"
Evadne smirked and didn't hesitate.
"You are petty," she said flatly.
Casadin's eyes widened slightly.
"But your feelings are valid," she added, popping another slice into her mouth. "And you're right. Just because someone says sorry doesn't mean you have to accept it. Why should you pretend to be okay when you're not? You'd only end up resenting them, and yourself."
Casadin laughed, shaking his head at her unapologetic honesty.
"What? What's funny?" Evadne pouted, her brow twitching.
"Nothing," Casadin said, still chuckling. "Just confirm it. We're soulmates. You and me, Princess. Destined. Fated. Endgame."
He might've said it like a joke, but there was a glint of sincerity in his eyes.
"Drop the act with Hades already," Casadin added, more serious now. "So I can finally court you properly. It's not like Gramps is buying it anyway. Dad told me he already ended Hades' business lessons. That alone is a red flag. Knowing Gramps, he's already seen through the farce. That old man reads people like open books. He's got the instincts of a war general and the intuition of a fortune-teller."
"Maybe," Evadne shrugged. "But he'll never see through me."
Casadin tilted his head. "And how are you so sure?"
Evadne leaned forward slightly, allowing him to feed her another slice of orange.
"Because when you love someone, you choose only to see the good in them," she said. Her voice was soft, but there was a cold edge to it. "Look at you and Hades. The moment you stopped liking Cieryl, you finally saw how manipulative she was. But Hades? He'll never see it. You could lay out every piece of evidence and he'd still see her as some poor, helpless damsel in distress."
She paused just long enough to make sure Hades, lying in the hospital bed only feet away, could hear every word.
"In that relationship, he thought he was driving, that he was the one in control," she said. "But what he didn't realize was that he was just the driver. Like a taxi. Sure, the driver chooses the route, but the destination? That's always decided by the passenger."
Her gaze flicked toward the bed, a smirk tugging at her lips.
"And besides," she added, "I already told you… this isn't about what I want. I'm not doing this for my own happiness. I'm doing it for my parents, and my godparents. Once I've given them what they want from me… then I'll start doing what I want."
Casadin leaned back, studying her with that half-awed, half-unhinged grin of his.
"Yeah," he said softly. "Definitely my soulmate."