I do not own any of this. Percy Jackson belongs to the beloved Uncle Rick and the storyline goes to the amazing Michelle Do for her play of the same name.

Annabeth,...I love you, but...I'm married.

Annabeth did the worst thing that I could have imagined and that is just stare at me. She didn't scream or hit me or even cry, she just stared at me like I had betrayed her. Which, I kind of did. I just wish that she would have used her spitfire attitude to do something instead of curling in on herself. All of a sudden, it felt like I had killed the most precious thing in the world. She was no longer the strong, independent woman that I had fallen in love with, she was a fragile girl who just had her heart broken.

And it was all my fault.

"Annabeth?" I hesitantly asked. I reached my hand up to try and caress her cheek but she flinched away from me.

"Annabeth...please...let me explain."

I reached my other hand up to try and cup her face but she backed away from me until she hit a wall, like a frightened animal.

"Please Annabeth," I stood to walk towards her and explain myself. "I need you to know…"

"I think you should go." That barely uttered sentence made me stop in my tracks. That was the last straw. I had utterly, and truly broken her. But for whatever reason, my feet were frozen to the spot and my legs refused to move.

"But, Annabeth."

"Just...go."

And with that, she strood out of the room and left me alone. I heard her footsteps going up the stairs, presumably to her room, and shut the door. That was when the world fell out from under me. Literally.

I fell to the floor and sat back on my haunches. My hands went to my hair and pulled. This was the most tortuous thing that I had put myself through. It was like I had just cleaved my heart in two. My chest ached and my legs could not longer hold me, so I sat on the floor in her sitting room, utterly defeated.

Was this the price I would pay? I purposefully came into Annabeth's life just for money. I tricked her, wooed her, and made her putty in my hands. How was I supposed to know that I would fall in love with her? How was I supposed to know that in return, I would become putty in her hands.

Realizing that I would not be able to fix anything just sitting on the floor of her house, I got up, left, and just started walking.

I didn't have any destination in mind, I just walked. I barely registered that I was in the park. The same park where we had spent countless hours walking, talking, laughing, and falling in love.

I walked all the way to the Manhattan Bridge and just stopped. Looking out over the River, I realized how fragile life is. I could have spared myself all of this pain. I could have saved Annabeth all of the trouble of meeting me. In a matter of months, I changed someone's life for the worse. And in retaliation, she burrowed her way into my life and changed it. I don't know if Annabeth changed my life for the better, but I'm glad she changed it.

I knew what I had to do now. It would take time, years maybe, but I was going to fix the mess I made. I was going to make everything better for everyone. I was going to make everything right.

The second I got to my room, I cried. I did nothing but cry. I flopped face first onto my bed, picked up a pillow and wailed. It was the most I had cried since my mother's death. But this pain was ten times worst. My chest hurt so that every time I shuddered or hiccupped, my sternum ached.

I never knew that a broken heart could physically hurt you like it did. I thought it was all emotional, something that you cried out of your system and moved on from. But this ache, burned from the inside out. My hands hurt from clenching the pillow too hard, my face was raw and red from all the crying, and my back hurt from staying curled up into a ball for so long.

I cried for what seemed like hours. By the time I had the strength or energy to pick my head up and open my eyes, the sun was rising. I had cried through the night and not once had my father come up to see if I was alright. For the first time in the last twelve hours, I felt an emotion. for the past twelve hours I had felt empty, but now, they were slowly coming back to me. The first thing I remembered how to feel was anger.

I was angry at Percy for using me and making me think that he actually had feelings for me. I was angry at my father for not caring enough to check up on me to make sure I was fine. I was angry at myself for being so stupid and falling in love with someone like Percy. I should have known that someone like Percy was too perfect to be true.

At first, I thought that this was just a passing fad. I would say something in a few days after meeting Percy and he would hightail it out of my life within a week. But he stayed around. He seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say, my opinions, and dreams. After a while, he was all there was. I couldn't wait until I was with him again and he became all that I cared about.

I should have known that there was something wrong. Of course someone as amazing as Percy was married. Some lucky girl had snatched him up and been happily married. I was too late.

My anger was slowly turning into self pity but I refused to sit in my room and wallow in that. Self pity is what weak women had when they didn't get what they wanted. Well, I had always been a strong woman, that got what she wanted. I wouldn't allow this to stop me from doing what I wanted to do with my life. I wouldn't allow Percy Jackson, to stop me and make me think that I was worth less than I knew I was. Well, I knew who I was, and I was going to do something about it.

At lunchtime I made myself presentable enough to come down and speak to my father. My bags were already packed and all I needed was to confront my dad about it. After everything that I had gone through, there was no way he could deny me this.

I stood outside the door to the dining room and took a breath. It was time that I took my life into my own hands. With that last vote of confidence, I strood into the doors and faced my father.

"Annabeth! I missed you this morning for breakfast. Are you not feeling well?" It was hard to ignore the look of genuine concern on his face, but I couldn't cave now.

"Do you know what happened last night? Between me and Percy?"

My father was obviously confused and rose to meet me. "What do you mean? How could I know what happened between the two of you? I mean, I figured you wouldn't want me to meddle in your personal life, so I kept my distance."

I stood there and looked into his eyes. Those blue eyes that were so familiar to me. I vaguely registered that my heart wanted to see another pair of eyes, a pair of deep sea green eyes, but my next words shook me back to reality. "He was married."

That stopped my father in his tracks. He was only a few steps away from his chair so he sat back down. "Married? He never told me he was married."

"Well he was,"

"Why didn't he mention this to me?"

"And he so graciously told me so after I basically threw myself at him."

"I never would have paid him if I would have known he was married."

We had been talking at the same time, but up until that point I wasn't paying that much attention to my father. But now, his last statement came loud and clear.

"You...paid him?"

"Well…"

"You, bribed him to see me?" My eyes had started to fill with tears but I quickly wiped them away and advanced upon my father with betrayal and hurt flashing in my grey eyes.

"Okay yes! I paid him to start seeing you."

"For how long?"

"I beg your pardon?"

I was extremely agitated by now and wanted to be out of my father's presence as soon as possible. "How long were you paying Percy to pretend to love me?"

"Oh, my sweet girl." He went to reach out for me but I adamantly took a step back and out of his reach. Defeated, he lowered his hand, I motioned with my head for him to continue his confession. "I saw him in the bar and offered him money to see you on one date. I then said that I would double the check if he could get you to go on more dates with him. I didn't expect you to actually get to know him. I just thought that it would bring you out of your little phase of rejecting men."

I looked at him incredulously but he continued.

"I was eventually going to have him stop seeing you, but you seemed so happy. The happiest I've seen you in a while, and I didn't want to lose that."

"Well, I'm sorry to tell you that, you failed. You did lose me. Because of your meddling I had my heart broken."

"I'm so sorry my girl. I know that nothing I do or say can change what I have done to you, but is there anything I can do to try and make it up to you?"

This was my chance. I could finally pursue my dream and leave behind everything that had happened to me in the past. I could finally make a future for myself. "After everything that you did to me, I have the right to never speak to you again."

He hung his head in shame for his actions and I took pity on him. "But, at the end of the day, you are still my father, and I love you."

He looked up at me with relief flooding his features. He jumped up to hug me and I let him. After the appropriate amount of time I disentangled myself from his arms and continued. "But, that doesn't mean that I forgive you, yet. Give me time and space, and I know that I can work past this."

"Yes, I'll give you as much time as you need. If you want to take some time and go to the country, you've got it. I just want your forgiveness."

I shook my head at his antics. "I don't want to go to the country to work this out. I want to make something of myself. Dad, I want to go to school, and learn to be an architect."

A little bit of a longer chapter, but that's okay. There is more to come! R&R