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.