New God of the forge.

29

Hephaestus I think we  should get a divorce"

"Wha–wha–"

Hephaestus found himself unable to speak as he felt like he been struck by  a full powered punch from  Kratos, he mind was rattled and his body staggered back almost as if he was actually punched in the jaw. The shock of her words struck him deeply and he couldn't understand why.

'Did she lie to me? So  she didn't like me after all. of course, what did I expect, I should have known…'

His mind raced to conclusions as his mood began to sink down to  the depths much like  that one submarine that never returned back up however unlike the submarine he took a deep and sharp inhale taking in the abundant oxygen in the air calming himself down, jumping to conclusions was never good. With another deep breath he opened his mouth to speak.

"why?"

"because  I am whore, I don't deserve you, my past is different from yours and because of that we can't be together, you're clean and I'm dirty, I don't deserve you"

She reasoned, explaining to Hephaestus why she wanted the divorce, she believed this to be the right course of action for her and that Hephaestus should get someone better, Athena was better than her, She already had a friendship with Hephaestus and  is a chaste Goddess unlike her.

"Aphrodite, truthfully I would be lying to you if I said I didn't care about your past because I do and it does bother me. I've been doing my best to not think about it and ignored it but the past is what shapes us into who we are today, one might even argue that we are the sum of our past experiences…"

She nodded in agreement with him, with her head staring down at her feet, a feeling of the sadness  crept in from deep within her heart. She  didn't want this to happen but it was the right course of action, doing the right thing is often contrary to what you want but what you want doesn't  matter you do the right thing regardless, she can't be selfish and keep him from having a better wife than her.

 "That doesn't mean we can't change for the better."

"but I am a whore"

Hephaestus  walked closer to her, and  grasped her face caressing her right cheek he then  used his left hand  to raise her head by the chin forcing her to look up at him by raising her chin up ward. Their eyes met, hers filled with sadness regret and his filled with gentleness and  care.

"Then does that mean you want to be a whore forever?"

His question caused her thoughts to  pause as she processed them to  fully understand. She had expected him to simply agree with her proposal of divorce she hadn't expected a counter, did  she expect that from him because deep down  she didn't want to  change, was  she willing to change for Hephaestus?

"…No"

She answered his question, she was willing to change for him, she didn't want to stay to be a  whore, she wanted to be his wife and be  with him but how can she do that? How  can she leave her past behind and change for the better.

"Then the matter is simple, change occurs when one firsts rejects their current self and work towards their ideal self, when you do change the rumours won't be "she is such a whore"  but instead  "I can't believe she used to be a whore"  and then they'll change again  to "who dare accused such a woman of being a whore". The past may shape us but it doesn't define who we are that only happens once we die, because once we  die we can no longer change anything"

Hephaestus  stared at her eyes never breaking the eye contact, watching as her eyes became filled with tears that threatened to fall, his heart was pounding in elation and excitement, happy that his relationship with her can now move forward  he was certain that he no longer needs to hold himself back, all this time he has been waiting for a moment  like this. In all honestly while he did love her  he didn't want to invest too much of his feelings to her only for her to cheat on him and shatter his heart, so instead he kept them in but now he was sure he can love her without reservations and without fear.