Page 6 of Hidden Empire

Nine. There are nine of them.

My eyes sting with more potential tears as I lock eyes on another mirror. He’s younger than the first mirror, and his eyes hold more skepticism than Dante’s. He’s guarded or grumpy; either way, I’m not sure that he’s pleased to see me.

“Jade?” Dante asks, and I jolt, looking up at him so fast that my body jerks with the movement. I get the feeling that he’s said something, and I’ve entirely missed it while staring.

“W-what?”

He doesn’t get frustrated or upset that I’ve clearly tuned him out. If I even accidentally misheard something Kim said, she would go ballistic. Not Dante, though.

“I was introducing everyone,” he explains, clearing his throat. Slowly, he points to each of the nine men, naming them one by one. “Apollo, Leon, Cassio, Elio, Emilio, Armani, Nico, Remo, and Matteo. That’s in order of birth, but I don’t expect you to remember that right away. I’m sure it’ll take a few weeks to get used to everyone. Though, they don’t all live here with us.”

A few weeks? Us?

“You want me to live with you?” I ask, trying to keep my jaw off of the floor.

Immediately, my mind begins to spin with poisoned taunts.

Of course, he doesn’t want you to live with him! You’re a stranger. You’re probably not even his daughter. That would be just like Kim, throwing you to the wolves and laughing as they tear you apart.

“Of course, you’ll live here,” Dante responds without hesitation or doubt in his tone.

“Pending a DNA test?” The cold question comes from the oldest and the other mirror, Apollo. The words would hurt if they weren’t entirely logical. The question makes more sense than anything else has all day.

“Apollo,” Dante says like a warning. “There will be no test.”

“Can there be?” I blurt out nervously. “I-I want one if it’s not too much trouble.”

It’s so slight I could be imagining it, but I swear Dante stiffens.

“Damn,” Matteo, the playful youngest one, chuckles. “Rejecting us on day one, little sister? Ouch.”

The idea of having this family, becoming a part of it, and then one day figuring out I don’t actually belong here is crushing. It would kill me, literally kill me, to have this and then have it ripped away. I’ve wanted a family since I understood the concept, and being teased with the idea of it… I need to know for certain.

Flushing, I begin to explain. “I didn’t mean?—”

“It’s okay,” Dante interrupts. “If you want one, we’ll do it.”

“He’s already eating out of your hand,” Matteo muses with a grin. “You’re definitely his daughter. Always wanted a girl, didn’t you, pops?”

“Doc can be in here ten,” Apollo interjects, looking up from a phone I didn’t see him take out. “He’ll bring the test kit, it’ll take an hour for the rapid one.”

An hour? My stomach sinks.

There’s a possibility that all of this ends in an hour. Would they throw me out as soon as the test comes back?

“Jade,” Dante says, pulling my attention back. His warm, calloused hands hold my shoulders, and his eyes bore into mine. “I don’t care what the test says, you’re here to stay. You’re my daughter.”

He can’t mean that. There’s no way.

But the part of me that always holds on to doubt to keep me safe seems to melt away with his gentle declaration.

“O-okay,” I whisper, barely keeping it together.

“Are you hungry?” he asks. I don’t know if I can eat without throwing up. “We were having dinner?—”

Internally, I scream. I interrupted their dinner. Dante said they don’t all live here too, what if they had to travel for this! Oh god.

Nervously, I bite my lip. “Maybe something small?” I can pick at a roll or take a few bites of some salad if it means they can continue their dinner.

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