Page 202 of Legacy
“No,” she cuts in.
“Why didn’t you call for the past five years?”
“Scarlet—”
“No. Don’t Scarlet me. Or Adriana me. Or Tesoro me.”
Her voice rises, shaking, but beneath it I hear the hurt.
See the softness in her eyes.
It slices sharper than anything else.
“Why, Angelo? Why didn’t you call? If you were watching me this whole damn time… why not call and say you wanted me? Or that you were sorry? Why wait until I’m this close—”
She holds two fingers together, her hand trembling. “To passing the bar and having a life of my own to come in and blow it all up?”
“I didn’t know if your number had changed—”
“Oh!” she says, standing now, the couch spring creaking beneath her sudden movement.
Her hands flail as she speaks, pacing like a storm breaking loose in my living room.
“All that money, all those resources and men, and you couldn’t find out if I changed my number?”
“Scarlet—”
“No! Isn’t your brother in tech? You couldn’t ask him for a favor? Couldn’t have one of your men steal my phone? I mean—”
She throws her arms up. “You were over there stealinghair ties.Why not a phone?!”
I grit my teeth. “Are you going to let me speak?”
“No.”
She drops back onto the couch with a thud, arms crossing tight over her chest.
The pout on her lips is so infuriatingly gorgeous, I can’t even be upset.
And worse, everything she’s saying is true.
“Are you done?” I ask, keeping my voice even despite the way her fire scorches me with a single look.
She glares at me, arms still locked like a fortress. “Not by a long shot, but go ahead.”
I inhale deep, trying to order the chaos in my head.
Trying to speak around the guilt tangled in my throat.
“I was… scared,” I say finally. The admission tastes like rust. “I didn’t want to disrupt your life again if I wasn’t ready to offer you what you deserved.”
Her laugh is sharp, bitter. “But you weren’t scared to disrupt it now?”
“It was different this time,” I tell her.
“Oh really?” she says, tears brimming now. “How exactly?”
“Because how many more bastards was I going to have to offer jobs overseas to before I just give in and start killing them?”
