Page 353 of Legacy
“You borrowed them.”
She shrugs, leading me up the steps. “Technically you share them now. Happy alliance.”
I pause just before the door. “You did this?”
“Wait,” she says, ignoring the question. “There’s more.”
She opens the door, and I step inside.
The smell hits me first. Wood polish. Paint. Fresh air.
The foyer is lit. The walls are clean.
It looks… alive again.
Like someone breathed life back into a place that had been dying since I was a kid.
A place I made my personal hell.
She turns to me, smile soft now. Not proud. Not teasing. Just… hopeful.
“I renovated it,” she says. “I thought you might want it that way.”
I can’t speak.
My hands clench at my sides, throat tight.
“When I read her journal… this place mattered to her,” she continues. “This was her safe place. It mattered. So I wanted it to be what it was. For her. For you. So I started with this house.”
I swallow. “Thishouse?”
She nods. “I also… may have purchased the block.”
My head jerks toward her. “Youpurchased the block?”
She gives me a wide-eyed look of mock innocence. “Well technically you purchased the block, everything you own is mine, right? You’ve said that. Pretty sure it’s in writing.”
I stare at her. “So you’re telling me… I bought the block.”
“Yes,” she says, smug. “You’re such a generous man.”
I run a hand through my hair, pacing a few steps. “Why, Adriana?”
And her voice, soft now, quiet and sure—sinks straight into my ribs.
“I thought we could turn the houses into safe havens. For the women you find. For the ones like…”
She trails off.
I meet her eyes. “Like my mom?”
She nods.
Something punches the air from my lungs. I stand there, stunned.
Because she didn’t just fix the house.
She didn’t just make an executive decision.
