▌𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐄𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧 ━︎━︎ 𝐖𝐞𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐀𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐫𝐲 ▌

━︎━︎━︎━︎𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐇 𝐏𝐀𝐒𝐒𝐄𝐃. The month that Aphrodite had been dreading had approached. Her head was pounding as the dreaded day grew closer and closer. And then, when it finally got there. She was a ghost. She didn't leave her room. She didn't talk to anyone. She sat there with her wedding ring playing between her fingers, her heart shredding to pieces the longer she continued to stare at it. But, she refused to cry. She refused to shed more tears over the man that had hurt not only her, but her little girl.

It didn't dawn on Artemis that today was the day that her parents tied the knot and got married. So, as she sat there, rubbing Zingo's head and eating, Sonya walked up to the teenager, worry clear on her face. Artemis glanced up at her aunt, offering her a small smile. "Hey, Dreamer."

"Hey, Art." Sonya responded, offering her a small smile before taking a seat beside her. "Do you know where your mother is? I haven't heard from her all day. Nor seen her."

"I'm sure she's sleeping. I heard her get up in the middle of the night last night." Artemis answered. Sonya nodded her head before the two were soon joined by John, Lorna, Marcos, and Pulse. "Oh what's this, a family lunch?" Artemis quizzed, smiling at the other adults that had joined.

"No, we were bored and had nowhere else to sit." Marcos replied. Artemis gasped, slapping a hand over her heart in mock offense.

"Sir, I don't know what I ever did to deserve this kind of treatment. But I am my mother's daughter, and I'll kick your ass." Artemis responded.

"And she'll kick your ass if she heard you cussing." Lorna mused, smirking slightly at the girl .

"Where is she anyways?" Pulse quizzed, glancing around the facility before looking back at the younger redhead.

Artemis shrugged her shoulders. "Asleep I assume. I don't share a room with her anymore, so I haven't really seen her all day."

"But, Art said she heard her get up in the middle of the night." Sonya informed them. "She probably was thinking again like she usually does and kept herself awake."

"You know, now that I think about it, she's been kind of distant this entire week." Lorna frowned, taking a sip of her coffee.

"Maybe it's just one of those weeks." Marcos shrugged, earning a glance from the three females at the table. "What?"

"Nothing." Lorna sighed, shaking her head and taking another sip of her drink.

Aphrodite let out a sigh before she stood up from her bed with both her wedding ring and engagement ring in her hand. She nodded to herself, another sigh escaping her lips. She knew that what she was about to do, would truly be the only way that she could be set free without feeling tortured because of two stupid rings. She opened the door and walked out of the room, her hair in a messy ponytail on the top of her head. When she saw who she was looking for, she silently cursed under her breath when she saw all of her friends and family surrounding him.

"Hey, we were just talking about you." Sonya said with a small smile. However, Aphrodite didn't smile back. She looked at Marcos.

"Can I talk to you?"

"Uh, yeah, sure." Marcos nodded before getting up and following Aphrodite a few feet away from the table. "You alright, Dove?"

"I need you to do me a favor." She responded. Almost immediately he knew that she wasn't herself, simply because of the fact that she didn't complain about the nickname like she did every single time.

"What do you need?"

She sighed before grabbing his hand and placing the rings into them. "I need you to melt these and completely get rid of them. I can't. . . I can't look at them anymore."

The male looked down at the rings in his hand before closing his fist around them and looking back up at Aphrodite. "Are you sure?"

"Positive." She nodded before turning on her heel and walking away, the man watching her as she did so. Marcos frowned before walking back over to the table and taking a seat beside Lorna once more.

"What was that about?" Lorna frowned.

Marcos glanced towards the direction the woman had walked away before opening his hand to show the group her rings. "She, uh, she wanted me to melt her rings, get rid of them."

"Wait, what's today's date?" Artemis asked.

"The 17th, why?" John asked.

Artemis nodded her head, mumbling to herself. "Of course."

"What?" Pulse quizzed.

"Today's her wedding anniversary." Artemis answered before getting up to throw her trash away.

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

She stood there in the shower, cleansing her body even though the water was now cold from where she had been standing there, thinking for ten minutes. She stepped out of the shower, wrapping a towel around her body. She looked at herself through the mirror, before softly sighing. She pulled on her clothes before letting her hair into its natural curls and doing the usual two small connected braids. She let out a deep breath before exiting the bathroom and making her way out of the room and towards the double doors.

She didn't say or look at anyone as she grabbed a set of keys before walking out of the door and down the steps. She was about to get in the car when she stopped, Artemis' voice falling through her ears.

"Mom?" Artemis walked down the steps. "Where are you going?"

"I'll be back in a little while." Aphrodite simply answered her, opening the car door.

"That didn't answer my question." Artemis called back. "I know what today is. And even though he was my father, I still can't imagine what you're going through. But mom, isolating yourself? That's not going to make it or the memories go away. It'll probably just make them worse if you try not to think about him. But I know you. I know how your mind works. And you think way too often, especially when you're alone. You get stuck inside your own head. And your head is a dangerous place, mom. Just let me. . . let me or someone be there for you, like you are for everyone else."

Aphrodite looked at her daughter for a moment before turning and getting in the car, closing the door and driving away. Artemis watched her mother leave with a frustrated sigh. Her arms were crossed over her chest as she shook her head. She hated it when her mother was like this, stubborn and closed off. She heard footsteps from behind her, and she didn't turn her head to see who it was when she spoke.

"Why does she do that?" Artemis asked, turning to see John standing there. "Why does she help every person around her, except when she's the one that needs help, she closes herself off and avoids everyone whilst claiming she's perfectly fine. It's so frustrating."

"Just give her some space. When she comes back from wherever it is that she's going, talk to her." John suggested.

"And get shut down again?" Artemis asked with a scoff.

"She thinks she has to be so strong all the time." John explained to the younger redhead. "That she has to hide whenever she's having a moment of weakness. Or whenever her emotions get the best of her. So, she distracts herself in hopes of it going away."

"But it doesn't." Artemis shook her head. "It only makes it worse." She let out a soft sigh as she took a seat on the steps, John sitting down beside her as he looked at the teenager. A small smile twitched at her lips as she played with her hands. "When we were at home, whenever I was upset and needed cheering up, my mom would play the guitar. It always made me feel better, hearing her softly sing and play, smiling at me as she tried to make me feel better. It worked every time." A tear fell down her cheek, and she quickly wiped it away as she remembered the more simpler times. When her family wasn't broken. When her mother was actually okay, and happy. "Whenever she got upset, whether that be from an argument she and my dad got into, or just being stressed, I would always hand her the guitar, and tell her to play."

"I didn't know she could sing, or play." John told the girl.

"Oh, she has such a lovely voice." Artemis smiled. "A soothing voice that could lull you to sleep."

"Well. . . if I remember correctly, when she first arrived, she did have a guitar case with her. Maybe when she gets back, she can play." John suggested, shrugging his shoulders. Artemis smiled at this idea, nodding her head.

"Yeah. Maybe she will." She stood up and turned to run up the steps, entering the building once more and going into her mother's room in search of the musical instrument.