It was already midnight when I let my body fall on the mattress of K8's bed. That fateful Wednesday had been the worst day in my entire life, and also the most exhausting, leaving my gas tank empty.

Nemesis was ill, not just wounded. Apparently, the technowolves' claws and fangs had injected neurotoxins into her system. I felt bad for her.

Taro was taking care of her since he was the only member of the team with medical and biological knowledge. Sven was devastated. It was crystal clear that he loved her.

Agape had checked whether the chameleon bug had truly kept us under the radar. She inspected our parrots and the brain of the technowolf which we had taken with us in the van. Luckily, I had been fast enough to hack their brains. Had I been a few seconds late, the hacking wouldn't have fully covered us, since it had a limited hacking time span of a couple of minutes into the past tops. The GSNS would be reported an attack, but not our identities.

The rest of the team was trying to get some rest. On the next day, we had a crucial mission ahead of us: exploring the secret lab hidden deep in the soil of Silver Island.

So, there I was, in my new bedroom, on my new bed. K8 was sitting on a couch beside me, charging herself on her usual power source with a cable, in what she told me was her brand-new 'sleep mode' (that was, she would pretend to be sleeping to give me some sense of normalcy and let me sleep).

I sighed, staring at the ceiling. Although it had been a long day, I didn't feel like I could sleep.

I emptied my jeans' pockets. I took my Kolibri out and left it on the nightstand. Same thing with my parrot and my mobile phone.

Eros' texts! I hadn't read them yet!

I immediately unlocked my phone and realised the damage. Ten missed calls and a few messages.

Oh my! He was getting crazier by the minute. Since I had the messaging app open, I decided to text him back immediately.

I left my phone on the nightstand with a tired sigh. I had lied to Eros again because I was far from fine.

The silence and stillness of the night suddenly felt like a burden, as I lay in my bed.

In the quietest moments, fears and insecurities hit the hardest. My father's face haunted me with his charming smile and eager eyes – eager to see me with a boyfriend, of course. I took the photograph I had saved from the fire out of my backpack.

A hard knot popped out of nowhere within my chest and claimed my throat as its home. I spent the next few hours crying myself to sleep, as quietly as I could manage, but sleep wouldn't come. I called K8's attention eventually.

The next thing I knew, she got in bed with me. And then, she hugged me tenderly from behind the rest of the night. I felt a great relief being comforted by her.

"You look stunning on the cover of Glämour!" Kono exclaimed that Thursday morning while showing me the aforementioned cover with a naughty smile. She was leaning over the counter of Oyster's shop while enjoying my look of shock.

"What?! I didn't know I'd appear on a magazine cover!" My eyes went wide as I snatched the magazine from her and stared at my partially exposed body. "Oh no, no, no, no..."

We were about to open the shop, but she didn't seem to mind wasting our time there, chatting.

She combed her white lock of hair behind her right ear, but it was too thick to fit there, so it kept falling right on the side of her face.

"Mrs Nevermore needs more money after all she spent on the ad campaign. Anyway, Daphne... I'm so sorry about your father," she added with genuine sadness a few seconds later, when I left the magazine on the counter with a look of disgust and worry. "And I don't know whether to congratulate you or give you my condolences for becoming Apollo's mistress. Being a traditional human, it must be hard. I guess many people hate you for it. But many others hail you as a goddess on social media. Which is winning over the other for you?"

I was appalled to hear all that.

"Neither, Kono. I am not Apollo's mistress!" I complained feeling frantic panic.

"He is a god. He takes what he wants." She proceeded to show me her mobile phone, displaying a video clip he had shared on social media the previous night, in which he talked about me as if I already was his fiancée. "He talks about marriage, even."

My mouth was agape while I watched the fragment in which he promised the whole world we would get married in less than a year. Many clones were swooning in the comments. I got paler.

"We are not together. We are not talking about getting married. And I am NOT getting married to this man – like, ever!" I realised I had no control over my social life.

"It might be too late for that, honeysuckle," she said then while shooting her eyebrows up in a reaction of surprise as she stared right behind me.

"A special delivery for Miss Daphne Peneus," the same delivery guy from the previous day said right behind me. I recognised his voice. "She works here, or so I've been told."

"You've got to be kidding me," I whispered while I left Kono's phone on the counter and turned around to face him. I realised that Nausicaa had already opened the front doors.

"Oh, you're here. Great," he said while giving me a form to sign. "Sign here."

"What if I just don't? Because I want no presents from Apollo." I sounded defiant and stern, but I didn't care.

"Sorry, no returns accepted."

"Can't you just take it out of here and deliver it to... charity instead?" I added with a sigh.

"No can do, sorry, ma'am."

I just signed the bloody form and was glad to see him go away a second later. Kono's curious eyes were casting a begging stare at me.

"Let's get this over with," I whispered with dread. I opened the box and unwrapped the present that was waiting for me inside.

It was a modern-looking lamp, customised with a photoshopped photograph of Apollo and me on a beige canvas. It had a digital clock on display, and the alarm sound suddenly got triggered while I was holding that monstrosity – only it wasn't the standard ring sound, but a cheesy love song from the Broken Vases.

Right on cue, Apollo entered Oyster with his classic, trademark confidence, wide smile, and determined stride. He carried a generous bouquet of red roses. His ridiculously expensive, Oyster-tailored, dark grey suit enhanced how godly he looked, but he wasn't fooling me. I felt a physical revulsion that knew no bounds whenever I saw him. Ever since I had met him at Oyster's party the previous day, that disgust had grown out of any sane proportion deep within my heart.

"Good morning, my love," he said with a deep voice as he approached me. The mischief in his eyes and lips told me it would be anything but a good morning for me. "You look dashing in your uniform."

His godly physique still stunned me. He was a lot taller than me, and his broad shoulders were impressive, as much as the bouquet he was handing to me. Admitting he was gorgeous didn't make me falter, though.

When I took the bouquet from his hands, he combed his blond hair backwards with his right hand in a seemingly rehearsed, trademarkish kind of gesture that only made my stomach churn.

"I got the news that the Black Masks burned your home to the ground last night. Are you okay, my love?" he asked while I left the bouquet on the counter behind me.

His question triggered a massive wave of repugnance deep within me. Despite that, I had to be careful: I had to pretend I had a fully-functioning nanochip and that I was a good girl who knew nothing of rebels or showing defiance.

I got a large intake of air and held it in. I got a flash of the party that had taken place the previous day, I needed to be less outspoken and more tactful than I had been then. At the end of the day, Apollo was an extremely powerful person.

"I'm fine," I managed to reply. "Not that the well-being of a traditional human like me should be of any concern to the Living God of clones, of course."

"You concern me because you are my love," he replied with excessive sweetness, only to go on with a much more distant and collected tone: "I have got vital issues to discuss with you. May we have some privacy?" he asked the rest of shop assistants, who fled right after bowing to him and giggling.

We were left alone.

I didn't trust him one bit. That was why I went behind the counter which had bags and hats on display and rearranged them as if I was working. I hoped that keeping myself busy like that would give him the hint to leave soon since I had work to do.

"First of all, I offer you my deepest condolences," he began with a soft tone of voice while following me. "Executing your father fills my heart with pain, but I have the duty to rule over the world and to cleanse it from these pests. I did it to keep the peace, to protect you as well. I hope you understand. Did you get hurt? I told my men not to aim at you, but the stupid fleas that were running away might have hurt you.

"You could've stayed right where you were. Nothing would've happened to you, my love. I swear. Was it because that lame boyfriend of yours dragged you away? I assume it was because of him. Poor idiot."

He chuckled while putting a couple of fingers on a fancy, deep red woman's hat I had just touched. The sense of security he emanated felt like an unbreakable wall all around him.

I took a couple of steps away from him and rearranged some bags further down that counter while wondering how I would manage to bring him down for good. There was too much evil and conceitedness bottled up inside him to be ruling the entire world.

"I bet he's jealous because he can't compete against me," he went on. I moved a few steps further away from him. "He's a nobody. If he's bothering you, you should tell me. I'll get him out of the way immediately."

He kept following me around. I was silently panicking.

"The God of clones shouldn't worry for such an insignificant person." My reply was cautious, but I didn't know for how long I would be able to keep up with this façade.

I noticed how appealing his squarish jaw looked. In fact, he was a sight to see – the only problem was that he wasn't a good man. I would love to punish him for all the harm he had done to the world and to my family in particular, but I wondered whether he could attain redemption somehow, someday.

He had once been a scientific oligarch with too much ambition, and decades later he had become the indisputable ruler of the world, a mass murderer, and also a god with a crazy obsession with me. But did his offences deserve to be paired with a punishment as hard, as in an eye for an eye? Did I want to sink as low as he had as regards ethics?

Doubts were clouding my mind as he kept staring at me with lust.

"Oh, and you don't need to keep working," he added with joy while examining a price tag I had just touched with a broad smile. His blue orbs were fixed on me wherever I went, whatever I did. "Here or elsewhere. I have ordered my maids to prepare a bedroom for you at my mansion. You shall live with me and you don't need to pay for any expenses ever again. It's all done, my love."

Each word felt like a steel beam being shoved into me with brute force. It seemed as if he was making all the decisions for me, customising my life to every whim and ideal of his.

I couldn't take it anymore. I needed to put an end to that nonsense.

"I appreciate the effort, but I don't deserve such a special treatment. I am not accepting any gifts from you, of any kind. It would be cheeky and rude of me to do so. The ones you sent me yesterday got burnt, so I can't return them. But I am returning the lamp to you. And the roses. I am quite sure there are much better-looking and suitable partners to choose from in the clone community."

Had I been polite? Yes. Disapproving? Sure. Convincing? Not one tiny, little bit, sadly.

"Nonsense!" He sounded politely dismissive of my preferences and rejection. He took a couple of steps toward me until he was standing right in front of me. That was when he grabbed one of my hands in the blink of an eye, and said: "You are coming with me right now. Come, I've got more surprises to show you. I'm sure that..."

"No," I interjected. I hated the direct physical contact with him. I was feeling as if I couldn't get any oxygen due to panic. I didn't want to go with him anywhere. "I want to have my own life... and my own life choices."

"Of course! Once you live with me, you'll get anything you want. I can give you anything. Cars, motorbikes, businesses, dresses, jewellery, whatever. Just ask!" he exclaimed with a temptation-fuelling voice.

"I want to be free," I replied immediately. My heart was hammering wildly inside my chest when I pulled my hand back and hugged myself with both arms. "And I'm not living with you."

"Where will you stay, then? That filthy basement of that nightclub?" he asked with defiance and superiority. "What's it called? Amanita? Please..."

"How do you kno-the nanochip, of course," I added with mild exhaustion.

It wasn't a secret, actually. And I had also told Eros where I was staying the night in a text. Of course, Apollo knew!

"It's not filthy!" My complaint sounded too defensive.

"It's too close to where your 'boyfriend' lives. I don't like that." The harshness of his voice met the coldness in his pose and eyes. He had gotten a bit closer to me as well. I swallowed hard.

"I don't like you pressuring me and building a customised life for me, which I don't want by the way," I said, knowing I was pushing it.

"I am your God, and you'll do as I say. Why would you disagree with being pampered by the most powerful person in the world anyway?" he asked as I was being mental.

"Because you pretend to know me, what I like, what I don't like;" I replied with a frown, "you make assumptions and take everything for granted. I can't stand it. I am not 'your love'. I am not the woman you used to love. I am not going to live with you. I am not accepting any more gifts. And I am not getting married to you. I want you to take back anything you might've said about me on social media."

He smiled widely back at me as if he hadn't heard a word I had just said.

"You've never been easy, I know," he whispered with lust back at me while slowly leaning on me. He smelled like leather and flowery fabric softener. "Always worried about life choices, ethics, the world. You're young now. You don't know me as well as your predecessor. She ended up falling for me – hard. You will too."

"Don't talk to me as if I were her. I am NOT her," I whispered back at him with shivering pupils.

"Yes, you are. You haven't just realised it yet," he whispered, putting his right hand softly on my left cheek and caressing it with desire in his eyes. He also briefly licked and bit his lower lip.

I hated his assertiveness whenever he took me for granted. Besides, his closeness and obvious lust made him unbearably intimidating. All I wanted to do was flee as fast and far away as possible from him.

"Oops, sorry for the intrusion. I hadn't realised you were here, Great Apollo!" Layla exclaimed apologetically when she came into the shop as if she was a scared cat. She left a pile of women's underwear on the main counter and bowed to him. "I'll leave you alone immediately."

"It's okay, young lady. We are done here – for now." He drew his hand back, took one last good look at me, and shook his head just slightly as if I was being too stubborn for his liking.

Having said and done that, he left the premises.

"Wow, the Living God spends time alone with you, at work." Layla sighed then. Her dreamy eyes told me she had a crush on him. "How lucky, Daphne!"

I rolled my eyes when she wasn't looking at me.

"We should be working," I replied casually while handling the underwear she had just brought.

They were missing their price tags. I tried to unlock the computer to command the printer to print them for me when I realised I couldn't.

"The password isn't working, Layla. Has anybody changed it?"

"That's weird." She checked the store app for the personnel on her mobile phone. "Someone's checked out the spreadsheet file containing the company passwords, modified it, but hasn't checked it back in. It can't get accessed by other users when it's in check-out state."

"Which user is it?"

"Damn. It's Mirela. But she took the day off after the incident yesterday. She said she was too distressed to come to work today."

"What incident?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"She got locked up in the bathroom all day yesterday while we were partying. Nobody was missing her or even heard her due to the loud music, so she stayed there until the party finished, the music was turned off, and we actually heard her."

No surprise there. First of all, nobody was missing her because everybody hated her. And she was obviously messing with the passwords and the spreadsheet file only as some sort of payback.

"Don't tell me that the user who checks a document out is the only one who can check it back in," I said with mild sarcasm as if I was being rhetorical.

"Sadly, you're right. I'll call Mirela right away. There must be some sort of mistake here," she answered with a politeness that denoted how weak she was.

While Layla dialled and was waiting for Mirela to pick up her phone, Kono and our colleagues entered the shop from the back. I had been expecting them to enter giggling and asking me a bunch of nosey questions about Apollo, but they came in like a dark cloud, foreshadowing a thunderstorm instead.

"What's wrong, Kono?" I asked with worry.

"Someone's been messing with the invoicing system... again." Her harsh sarcasm wasn't lost to me.

She had her arms crossed over her chest. She looked pissed off, while our colleagues had taciturn and forlorn expressions on their faces.

"With fake data to earn more money than she deserves," she added. She spoke fast and with an unrivalled fury. "Draining the company's takings. Again. Even now, that the company hasn't got much. She knows we know; we've told her to stop. Nothing. Last month all our salaries were cut. But hers wasn't. It's gonna happen again this month. If killing clones wasn't forbidden, I'd love to murder her. Such a despicable arsehole, she is!"

"What?! Who's done that?!" I exclaimed.

"Who do you think?" Kono replied in a foul mood. "Mirela."

Hello, my sugar cubes!

Apollo's putting pressure on Daphne. Who knows what else he's got in store for her? Duh, me! :P

Stay tuned to know more!

XOXO

MS