Page 114 of Marcus

Of course.

She wished she was surprised.

“And,” Lucia added, “now is the time you fight for what you want, Cella. I don’t think you’ve ever really had to do that before. Back then, everything was just taken from you and nobody gave you any choice at all. You have a choice now. Fight for it.”

Lucia winked at her sister and climbed out of the car while muttering about take-away food. That left Cella alone in the car to watch as her sister headed into the restaurant, and she still sat there with a phone in her hands.

It should be easy.

All she had to do was dial.

Except it scared her to death.

Lucia was right, though.

Can’t would never be an option when someone asked if she loved Marcus. She wasn’t a liar either, so she couldn’t say she didn’t love him. And though she fell in love once, and had that man ripped away from her by things outside of her control … she would not lose her second chance to be happy because of her own doing.

Yes, it terrified her.

Yes, he was also worth the risk.

Before Cella could overthink it for even one more second, she turned on the screen of the phone, unlocked it, and dialed a familiar cell number. It had never taken Marcus more than two rings before he picked up a call of hers, but this time?

It took five before someone answered.

It wasn’t even him.

“Ashley Marcey speaking.”

Cella blinked. “Um, I think maybe I called the wrong number. I was looking for Marcus—”

“Oh, yeah. I’m his personal assistant. All his calls for this old number and his home office now come through me. What can I help you with?”

What?

When had that happened?

Cella quickly came back to her senses, replying, “It’s Cella Marcello, I was hoping to speak with Marcus.”

“Right, the woman who is heading the team at the penthouse. I guess I am to put you through to Chris if you need anything regarding the penthouse because Marcus is busy handling other … things, at the moment. Is that going to be a problem?”

Um, yes?

And now she was just the woman heading the team?

Cella cleared her throat, regaining whatever sense of professionalism she had left as she replied, “No, that’ll be fine. I’ll just … take his number down, thank you.”

For nothing, she added silently.

“Ma, have you seen Marcus yet?”

Cella did her best to smile at her daughter through the video chat as she walked through the Toronto penthouse. A week after her attempted phone call, and she didn’t have a choice but to make the trip to give her final okay on a few of the rooms. In a couple of weeks, the rest of the rooms would be finished, the project would be done, and that was that.

Hard to believe, but the penthouse—despite everything else that had gone wrong and crazy since she started this contract—turned out beautiful. Not that she honestly expected anything less when it came to seeing her designs come to life.

“Well?” Tiffany asked.

In the background of the call, someone cleared their throat. Either her mother, or father, Cella couldn’t really be sure. They’d agreed to watch Tiffany while Cella made the trip to Toronto, all the while trying to find out if she was going to see Marcus while she was there.