Page 54 of Legacy

I smiled at her choice of words. “Vik wouldn’t put anyone on a list of potentials who wasn’t worthy of our Laya.”

Laya gave a dramatic sigh. “Keep going.”

“There is one I find the most promising. He has ties to our cousin, Milla, who married into another large family, and he wields a considerable amount of power here and in Italy.”

Laya drew in a long breath, gazing off to the side. “All right.”

“Is he old? Eli works for you but not for Laya. She needs someone younger. Seriously, Avra, give her someone younger.”

I narrowed my gaze. “Eli is ten years older than I am. How is that old?”

“To me, that’s old.”

“Are you done? So we can return to my life,” Laya said in a bland tone.

I lifted a finger at Cali, daring her to talk. “He is thirty-three, not old.”

“Okay, then it’s settled. Accept the offer, and we can plan the wedding.” Laya’s businesslike reaction to this life-changing decision left a lump in my stomach.

The hopeless romantic of our trio deserved to find love and have a life she chose.

“Are we safer now?” Cali asked, moving on from Laya’s future.

“We are safer than before,” I replied honestly. “There was never a safe life in store for us, even when Papa was alive. We were born as the daughters of a syndicate boss, a powerful one many feared and envied.”

“Then…could I look into going back to university now?”

Laya and I exchanged a glance. We were similar: fighters, strong-willed, ready to do business and rule. Cali was the lighthearted one, more open to alternative futures.

“I want to have a ‘normal’ life now. If that’s even possible.” She lowered her hands back to the table after using them for air quotes, considering normal was relative in our world.

“Yes,” I said.

My quick response caused Laya to lift a brow.

If I could give Cali even a tiny semblance of the youth denied to Laya and myself, I would do it. At nearly twenty, she deserved to go to clubs, make friends, and explore various subjects. By leaving Prague, she’d given up her studies and the youthful adventure she sought so deeply.

Papa would have wanted it for her and all of us. Papa wasn’t the traditional type. Whether we chose marriage or university, he would have accepted our choices. Now, I had the opportunity to give at least Cali this.

She deserved it.

I wanted her to spread her wings and enjoy a bit of freedom she had never experienced before.

“Besides,” I added with a devious smile, “it’s finally time for us to start using that trust.”

“Are you serious?” The excitement on Cali’s face wasworth it. “I can study architecture or something that isn’t business and useful to the family?”

“Do what you want.”

“Wait.” Cali scrunched her face. “You want to use the trust to fund it? Are you sure? We’ve only ever pulled money out of it to survive.”

“It’s time to spend the money to live our lives. We don’t need to hide it anymore.”

Papa understood the nuances of keeping secrets and hiding assets as a syndicate boss. This included creating trusts for his daughters in Swiss banks. He funneled millions during his time into those accounts, and they had continued to accrue interest over the last fifteen years.

Vik and the American relatives had kept the funds hidden. Now, the accounts held nearly two hundred million Euros. We rarely touched the money, knowing it would trigger suspicion. But now that others knew of our existence, we could do what we wanted.

“Mama and Papa would be proud to see one of us do something with our lives,” Laya said, smiling at Cali fondly.

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