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I don’t want her to be disappointed, so I try to bring her back to reality. The Pappakouris family, like the Kostanidis brothers, live in a completely different world from ours. Parallel realities. If we’re sitting at a dinner table with these four Greek billionaires tonight, it’s purely because of circumstances—because my sister married one of them. Otherwise, our lives would never intersect.
“We’ll see,” she says with an enigmatic smile.
“About a job, Brooklyn,” Zeus says to me, “my brothers and I have businesses in a lot of sectors. Once you’re well enough, if you don’t want to stay home waiting for a full recovery, we can find a role for you.”
I break into my first genuine smile of the night, one not directed at my children. “You’d do that?” I ask, beaming, and I could almost swear I see him blush when Madison takes his hand and kisses the back of it.
“It’s nothing,” he says. “You’re family. We look after each other.”
Family. After everything, we finally have a real family.
Silas and Soraya, despite the misfortune of being Moses’s children, will still be part of something larger in the future, with cousins, uncles, and grandparents—even if not by blood.
Living with Eleanor has shown me that affinity can be far more powerful than biological ties.
“I don’t know when, but yes, once I’m recovered, I’ll take anything you have for me.”
“She could work at SIN,” Ares says, though I’m certain it’s just to provoke his older brother.
But it’s Madison who glares at him, annoyed. “Not a chance. You’ve already had your fill of Foster girls at that den of yours, sir. Go try your luck elsewhere.”
Brooklyn
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
"What happened earliertoday between you and Athanasios?" Madison asks after all the Kostanidis brothers have left and Silas and Soraya are tucked into bed.
I’m in awe of the care my sister has put into decorating my children’s room. Even if I didn’t already love her as much as I do, I’d still spend a lifetime trying to repay everything she’s done for the three of us.
We’re sitting on the bed in the room Eleanor’s prepared for me. Madison told me the previous house was a bit smaller, but to me, this one feels like a mansion.
She told her husband that she would spend the night here with me and Eleanor, for my first night back home. Her controlling—and devoted—husband decided to stay too. He’s in the guest room, probably waiting impatiently to have his wife back in his arms.
"I don’t really understand, to be honest," I finally reply. "We kissed in the car on the way here, and then, just minutes after telling me he wanted me, he left."
"You kissed?" she asks, smiling. "Wow! How was it?"
I close my eyes, replaying the memory of his passionate lips on mine. "I’ve never experienced anything like it. It’s like I’ve never really been kissed before. He’s so intense, you know? The way his hand held the back of my neck—my God! I’ve always thought of myself as someone who’s not particularly passionate, but I swear I literally melted in his arms."
"It was the same when Zeus kissed me for the first time. I was terrified of what he made me feel, but even so, in that first moment, I just knew."
"Knew what?"
"I knew that no matter how many guys I met afterward, none of them would ever compare to him."
I nod, understanding what she means, while my thoughts turn to the father of my children. Moses and I also had a significant age difference. He was only two years younger than Athanasios, but if I compare the two, my ex-partner comes across as incredibly immature.
Moses had a volatile temperament, easily swayed by others’ opinions—even at something as simple as a restaurant visit. He seemed to care so much about appearances, and now I realize it might have been because, after lying so much and assuming so many false identities, he’d probably lost sight of who he really was. Regardless, for someone like me who craves stability, his behavior created a lot of anxiety. One day he was fine, feeling invincible, and the next, he was taking out frustrations on me that I couldn’t even identify, treating me coldly.
Athanasios, on the other hand, is self-assured and doesn’t seem to care one bit about what others think. He doesn’t need validation because he knows exactly where he stands in the world.
"I’m scared."
"You’d be crazy not to be. But what exactly are you afraid of?"
"I don’t want to deceive myself, Madison. If I fall for Athanasios, it won’t be like it was with Moses—a dive into a swimming pool. It’ll be a leap into an abyss. I can’t afford to let a man break me. Soraya and Silas depend on me."
"I’m not saying you should dive in without thinking about the consequences, but don’t close yourself off completely either. I know what you went through was a nightmare, Brooklyn, but you have a chance to start over, to leave the past behind."