Chapter 3
Duchy of Aragoni
Marco
SATURDAY AND SUNDAY passed by with neither incident nor excitement, but that status changed very early Monday morning when the phone beside our bed rang.
“s**t,” I said, “who would be calling that number at this hour?”
“I don’t know, but it must be important,” Dani said. “Not many people actually have our landline number.”
“Yeah.”
I picked up the handset, and while swiveling around to place my feet on the floor, said, “Hello.”
“Oh, Marco,” a female voice said, “I’m so glad I caught you before you went to work.”
“Who…?”
“I’m sorry. This is Floria.”
“Good morning, Floria, sorry I didn’t recognize your voice. Is everything all right?”
“No, it isn’t. It’s your grandmother—she’s dead.”
A rush of emotion hit me, but I pushed it into a compartment of
