Chapter 1
Myphonebuzzedin my hand. Once. Then stopped. Unknown number. It rang again. Shit. I scrubbed my hand over my face and sighed.
“Jimmy’s Flower Shop.”
“I’d like to place an order for a dozen white roses, please.”
That voice. I clutched the phone tighter in my hand. I’d been so sure Mom would be calling. As she had done every week to convince me to visit, and with every call, she was wearing me down.
“Milo, it’s me.”
“Yulia.” My heart thudded in my chest. If something was wrong, she would have ordered a dozen red roses, not white. “Is everything okay?”
Her breath hitched, and then she started crying. Fear gripped me. “Sis, talk to me. Is everyone okay? Are you in trouble?”
“N-no,” she stammered. “It’s not—we’re not—I just miss you, Milo.”
I closed my eyes and rubbed a hand over my chest. Her words stabbed like daggers. I hadn’t spoken to her since moving her and my mother away. All my communication had been through my mother. The last time I’d seen my sister, she’d been clinging to my leg, refusing to go without me. I could still see her tear-streaked face pressed to the car window and hear her voice calling my name, begging me not to send her away.
“Yulia, you shouldn’t have called,” I choked out. Where the hell was Kit when I needed him? He knew how to cuddle and comfort me out of my blues.
“Mom said I could,” she said with a sniffle.
“Did she tell you to call to convince me I should visit?”
“No,” she drawled. “Okay, yes, she did, but I wasn’t going to say no as long as I got to talk to you. It’s been almost ten years, Milo, since the last time I saw you.”
“I know.”
“Will I ever see you again?”
“I don’t know, principessa.” She would always smile when I called her that and walked around with her on my shoulders.
“No one has called me that in so long. I miss you.”
“I miss you too. This isn’t easy on me either, Yulia. There’s nothing more I’d rather do than visit my family. I’ve missed you so much, but this is the way it has to be to keep everybody safe.”
“Everyone is here except you.”
I groaned. “Don’t remind me. Why is nobody listening to me these days? Haven’t I kept you all safe over the years?”
“Everyone’s tired of living by other people’s rules. We want to be a family.”
“Yulia—”
“You can still make it to Katarina’s engagement party. You don’t have to stay long. We just want to see you.”
Damn, Mom was sneaky. Yulia was the baby of the family, and although she was seventeen now, it was still difficult to deny her. If I’d seen her face-to-face, she probably would have succeeded.
“I’ll think about it, but tell me about you. How are you?”
“Great. Looking forward to graduation and prom.”
“Do you need anything?”
“Just to see you.”
“Have you broken any hearts yet?” I asked.