Page 78 of Legacy
The phone flashes‘Piccola’across the screen.
Vasilisa.
She wouldn’t call me. Definitely not with Santo hovering around her.
My chest tightens.
Something must be wrong.
I answer immediately.
“Everythingokay, Piccola?”
“Yes,” she responds before whispering.
“Santo doesn’t know I’m calling and I don’t know what’s going on between the two of you, but it has to stop.”
I exhale.Damn it, Tiny.
“Can we set up some sort of ruse to accidentally meet up or something, so you two can sit and talk?”
I can hear the anxiety in her voice.
I take a heavy breath.
“A ruse wouldn’t work, it would only piss Santo off you know that Tiny.”
A small sigh comes from the receiver.
“But I want to meether.”
A warmth I didn’t expect floods through me.
“You can Tiny, it’ll happen, just give Santo some time. He has his reasons to be upset and I have mine.”
The elevator dings.
“But I want,” she begins.
But I have to cut her off. “I want everything too Piccola, I’ll see what I can do. I got to go.”
I end the call in time to watch the elevator doors close behind her.
Her.
Scarlet.
Everything inside me stills. The breath I just took doesn’t make it to my lungs.
She steps forward slowly, heels clicking against marble like the beat of a countdown.
Dressed like she’s ready for a business meeting, her hair is pulled back, exposing the curve of her neck. Makeup perfect. Radiant. Unforgiving.
Older.
Stronger.
She isn’t the girl I left behind.
