Page 165 of Hidden Empire
“Then the mistake is?” Cassio asks, seemingly bored as he picks at his plate. He has hardly looked up from his food this whole dinner.
“As much as I enjoyed seeing it, you got Jade’s name wrong. She would like to hyphenate. It’ll need to be corrected from Morozov to Moretti-Morozov.”
Oh, Dmitri. My heart soars, and I clutch it with my free hand, holding it in place so it doesn’t explode from my chest.
Most of the table is trading shocked expressions. And then there’s my Matteo.
“Wow,” he punctuates his exclamation with a whistle. “And you’re cool with that?”
“Yes,” Dmitri answers, not hesitating for even a moment. “Jade has lived nearly her whole life with the wrong name, and I won’t take the right one from her just as she’s found it.”
“Big of you,” Cassio states, tone still guarded.
“I don’t need praise for giving my wife everything she wants,” he replies crisply. “Our children will share her family name as well as mine. There’s nothing difficult about that for me. If my wife wishes to honor her many brothers and her father with this, she’ll have it just as she wants.”
Two ‘my wifes’ in one breath. Somebody fan me.
I see it in my father’s eyes the moment they soften toward Dmitri. This is where he decides that the man I love is worthy of me. Or, at least, as worthy as Dante Moretti will ever admit.
Dmitri places a kiss on the back of my hand, and I swoon. Luckiest girl in the world since running into this man, I swear.
Dad stands up, and for a moment, I worry that he might be angry. But no, he comes to my side and drops his lips to the top of my hand, surrounding me with a hug. “My sweet daughter,” he utters, squeezing tighter. “You make me so proud every day.”
The words wrap around my heart and claw their way inside, cementing deep. My dad is proud of me. Eighteen and pregnant, married without his permission, bringing Russian made men—strangers—into his house, and he’s still proud of me.
“I love you so much, Dad,” I croak, holding back as tears threaten to fall.
He presses another kiss on my head. “I love you more than life, figlia.”
It takes a minute for Dad and I to part, but when he sits back down, a thought pops into my head.
“Circling back for a minute,” I begin, clearing my throat and looking at my oldest brother. “How much money are you extorting my husband for exactly?”
Apollo waves a flippant hand. “Nothing to concern yourself with, sister. The money is being put to good use.”
“How am I supposed to know that?” I question, pursing my lips. “What are you going to do with it?”
“Well, half of it has already been put into two trusts for your firstborns,” he answers. “The other half is kept separate.”
Oh brother. “To be used for what?”
Meeting Dmitri’s eye instead of mine, he says, “That’s the money I’ll use to kill your husband if he ever hurts you.”
“Apollo!” I admonish.
Whatever protest I’m about to start is drowned out by my husband laughing so hard that his chest shakes. To my utter bewilderment, the rest of the table joins him. Even Apollo cracks up with the smallest chuckle.
“This is a terrible joke,” I grunt, folding my arms over my chest.
The group of them only laugh harder.
“He’s not joking,” Matteo grunts as if to explain how that could possibly make the situation funnier in some way.
“That’s even worse.” I narrow my eyes at him and move the rest of my plate from his reach. “No more food for laughing about killing Dmitri.”
Matteo pouts, lip jutting out immediately. “Awww, come on. It’s funny, little sister. Even your husband thinks it's funny.”
“I have a sister,” Dmitri states simply. “It’s amusing that no matter how different we may be, we’re the same when it comes to protecting our own.” Looking back to Apollo, he continues. “And rest assured, if for some reason I ever hurt Jade, you won’t need to kill me. I’ll order Ivan to do it, and he will.”