Page 68 of Shared By 3

“That’s lovely! You four will stand out in every photo!” My mother gushes, hugging me. “Such a romantic, Lief.”

I smile.

“Vanya, will you join us?” Mr. Volkov asks.

Vanya smiles and looks at Chase and Hunter. Hunter is still hesitant with her, but Chase beams right back. “We’ve started wedding planning!”

“That’s wonderful, love,” she says. “They requested me to the card room.”

“I make the requests here,” Mr. Volkov says. “I’m still ...”

“I’m the boss now,” Chase clarifies. “As is Hunter.”

“How cute,” Vanya laughs. “I’m going to go where I was asked to be. I’ll join in wedding planning soon enough.”

My mother raises her phone. “I’ll keep you looped in.”

“Of course, that group text is wonderful,” Vanya says with a light laugh before going to the poker room.

I glance that way and see her stop next to Valerie. I smile. Our woman is making herself at home in our business and in our lives. Vanya’s dismissal of Hunter and Chase’s power is clear now.

Valerie is the one in charge, and I don’t think any of us could argue. Sure, we can curb her excitement and her demands, but she’s done more in the mafia than anyone has in years. She’s created a shift that can’t be ignored.

Beyond encouraging Hunter and Chase to lead the business down a better, less violent path, she’s taken out enemies without a weapon time and time again. She’s created a spark of hope among the wives and in the mansion that we can be better.

She’s the boss, even if Chase has the title formally.

My smile grows as I think of her being left out of our history because she’s so capable and strong she doesn’t need her legacy written or the acknowledgement associated with her place.

TWENTY-FOUR

Valerie

“Vanya,”Vera gushes. “Join us, yes?”

Vanya looks at me, and I clear my throat. “I need to talk to my mother-in-law about some wedding plans.”

“And not us?” Another woman puts her hand to her chest.

I wink. “If I don’t have a good relationship with my in-laws, what will I have?”

The women grumble about me leaving the table with so many winnings, but I shrug and walk with Vanya to the kitchen. She and I pick at some food for a moment, then she smiles. “You’re worried.”

“I’ve been having nightmares,” I admit.

“About your fiancés?”

“And Yuri, and Sven, coming to kill us on our wedding day,” I admit. “It’s like every bad thing I want to forget just keeps circling around. I don’t know how to deal with this without going crazy.”

“I warned you back then about the toll the mafia takes on a person,” she says. “I ran from my family, my husband, and this world.”

“But you came back,” I whisper. “Why would you come back if it’s so terrible?”

Vanya thinks about that for a moment. I see her lips twitch as she considers different elements. She sighs. “I lived a life, had a job, relationships, all of that while I was gone, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was missing something–someone. My sons, my husband ... they lingered.”

“And that overrode what you felt for the business?” I ask.

She nods. “I thought of how any of them could have died and I never would have known. I wouldn’t have forgiven myself. I spent so long checking in on my sons and being a shadow, I wanted more. Perhaps it was greed, but I couldn’t stay to the side anymore.”

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