Page 93 of Shattered Empire (Shattered World)

“Ma’am.” Kris opened the glass door for me and tilted his head toward the large fountain area a little farther from the building. “There’s a bench just over there we can sit at until they return.”

I grinned and nodded. “Thanks.”

He led me to the large wooden bench that sat just in front of a small fountain that was the building’s focal point in the front. The building was as much of a business hub as it was a home. Not just for me, but also for many of my men.

No, not mine any longer. Matthias’s.

A small part of me mourned the loss of beingPakhan.I doubted Matthias was planning to let me help him run anything. Not that I wanted to run anything with him.

He’d lied to me. Kept secrets. I’d wept for him, killed for him, and he wasn’t even dead.

We may be getting along now, but that didn’t mean I would just crawl back to him. I’d tried that before and look where it got me. Nowhere. When he thought I’d betrayed him, I did everything I could to draw him back in. To get him to trust me again and build back some of what we had before.

I had pursued him.

If he truly wanted me, he had to come after me. Woo me. And there was no way in hell I was going to make that easy.

But that was something for future Ava to deal with. After a large cup of coffee. Maybe two. Right now, I was more interested in the note addressed to me in my mother’s handwriting. Licking my lips, I pulled the paper out of my pocket and unfolded it.

Mo Réalta,

If you are reading this, then my time has come, my precious little star.

I don’t want you to be sad.

Death is nothing to fear or mourn but something to rejoice and cherish.

You are ten now, my heart.

I don’t have much time. They are coming for me, and our time together will soon end.

I love you. I want you to know that. Because what I am about to tell you may very well break your heart, as it did mine so many years ago.

There are dark forces at work, my star, that I hope will never taint your sweet, gentle soul.

When I was eighteen, I was taken by a man named Elias Ward, who works for a devil. A man with two faces.

I didn’t notice at first. The changes were so subtle that I barely saw what was right in front of me.

Until one day, I did.

You will never meet your grandfather, God rest his soul, for the man who wears his face is nothing but a lie.

A con.

One that has been going on far longer than I could have ever anticipated.

Oh, my star.

I escaped the man who took me, and I ran back to your father. The love of my life.

Unfortunately, I was ill advised and later betrayed.

But I wouldn’t figure this out until several months later.

Elias stole me again, and I was resigned to my fate until one day I found out about my little miracle.

Mo Réalta.

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