Page 25 of Fractured Empire

Before my dad and I select a third to talk to, the sound of my child’s laughter catches my ears. My eyes find him in an instant, swinging to the sound with practiced precision. Leo is standing right next to a blonde wearing a flowy maroon dress that has long sleeves and looks like it’s made of a casual sundress material. Bastian is by his side, too, not off hiding like he was earlier.

She may have been one of the nervous looking ones when I first did a sweep of the room, but I can’t recall her features clearly enough to remember. I was rushing, not giving each new face a long enough look to commit them to memory. But if she was nervous before, that trepidation is long gone.

Her lips are spread wide into a pleased smile as she interacts with my boys, and her eyes are lit with obvious joy and amusement—a trait both of my sons seem to be sharing with her. They’re comfortable, and feel safe enough with her to hang around without needing to rush away quickly. Leo’s practically attached himself to her.

“Who’s that one?” I ask, discreetly pointing to the woman who has Leo giggling so hard that his body is shaking.

Dad looks across the living room, spotting my line of sight easily and quickly flips open a file from the pile in his hands. “Katya Lukáčová. Just turned twenty-three years old, stepdaughter of Linus Gabris.”

“Ares’ stepsister,” I gather, continuing to stare at her.

Ares Gabris is heir to The Gods, and he went to Empire with some of my younger siblings. The Gods are a Greek mafia that own more casinos and gambling rings than any other syndicate in the states. Our organizations are friendly enough, hence why she was even allowed in my home.

“She’s here with Chloe Contos,” Dad continues, looking down at the paperwork. “Chloe is one of Linus’ men’s daughters. His second-in-command, Nikolas Contos.”

My eyebrows draw in. “She’s here with her as in Katya is not putting herself in the running for the position?”

“Well, she has to be in the running in order to be here.” He hums. “I invited her myself, of course. But I get the idea that she’s a friend of Chloe’s and meant to be here to support her being your choice. Chloe was hovering around her and looking nervous for a while before she finally gave the girl some space.”

“Yeah?” I ask, almost wrinkling my nose. “Must be a good friend.”

“The two are connected online and spotted in public together often.”

“If she’s here to be moral support, then why is she the only woman in the room who’s interacting with my children rather than chatting, playing on her phone, or looking around aimlessly?”

We both know that the other young women in the room could be nervous, or even afraid that interacting with the boys isn’t allowed. But they should be able to deduce that if I wanted them away from the women, they wouldn’t even lay eyes on my boys.

It’s not like my sons know I’m auditioning new mothers for them, they just know people are visiting for Daddy’s work and that’s all the explanation they need. I needed to have them here, in case they immediately disliked any of the prospects, or I got uncomfortable feelings from any of the women directed toward them. I can’t give them a stepmother who doesn’t like children.

Still, Dad senses something in my question. Interest, probably.

“She’s qualified,” he tells me evenly, though his gaze is almost probing. “Katya, that is. She’s of Slovakian descent, but she speaks four languages. Italian, English, Slovak, and Bulgarian. She’s young, but she’s healthy according to her examination. And it’s plain to see that she’s bubbly. Leo seems to like her.”

“Leo likes everyone,” I point out as my attention remains fixed on the woman who’s smiling widely at my boys. “It’s Bastian I’m surprised by.”

My oldest son is five now, and he’s yet to really come out of his shell outside of our home. He’s a shy boy, and quiet—especially around new and unfamiliar faces. Leo has been good for him. His younger brother may have come from an orphanage after his family passed away at only three years old, but no one would ever guess it. He’s all sunshine and smiles, and he became that way only days after settling into his new home.

I still remember my brother Cassio calling me to come get him, and later on telling me my son’s story. Leo’s birth mother abandoned him at a hospital shortly before he ended up at St. Mary’s in New York City, where Cassio and Ana were living at the time. A British mafia wife who worked as a nurse at the hospital brought him to the orphanage instead of to the police—not wanting him to get shucked into foster care.

The workers at St. Mary’s found out that the birth mother overdosed the day after she left him. They learned that Leo’s biological father died a week before in a car accident, and his wife couldn’t handle it. It was quickly confirmed that Leo had no other living family. And so fate gave him to me.

It felt like fate, at least. A three-year-old blonde boy named Leo who only spoke Italian crossed paths with my brother and his wife, who just happened to volunteer at the right place at the right time. Leo, for Leon and Cleo. It was meant to be, I thought.

I never imagined that bringing the boy into my home meant he would lose a mother for the second time. At least he seems to be handling it well. He’s resilient. Maybe even more so than I am. And he’s been amazing for Bastian. The two boys are inseparable and Leo is always dragging Bastian around with him and helping him become more sociable.

“He’s not exactly lightning up like Leo but he’s smiling,” Dad agrees, nodding. “Do you want to talk to her?”

“No,” I deny stiffly. “Send Rayna and Apollo over there. See if she speaks Italian well enough and if they like her. I’ll talk to her if they do.”

Dad lifts a brow. “You want to test her?”

“Apollo is more skeptical than I am, and Rayna is a better judge of character. I want to see what they say first. She could just be smarter than the others, interacting with the kids to get my attention.”

“You didn’t think that about Gabbie,” Dad points out, looking amused. “You’re drawn to this one and you’re doubting your instincts.”

I open my mouth to argue and he holds up a hand to stop me.

“I’ll tell Apollo and Rayna to speak with her casually, but I don’t think you need to worry. From everything we researched, she’s a good girl. She spends time with her little sister often, volunteers, and no one has had a bad word to say against her.”