74. Who is she?

Somehow I found myself hoping, just maybe it was my mother calling.

The voice that came through could have frozen my blood in my veins. Cool, distorted, and profoundly disembodied...almost metallic sounding.

"Soon we will meet in Las Vegas, my dear sweet Emily" the eerie, genderless voice said before the call abruptly ended.

I didn't even know when the phone slipped from my trembling hands until Giovanni's calloused palm cupped my cheek, gently urging me to meet his concerned eyes. I tried to speak but it came out in a jumbled torrent of words.

"That...that was not my m-mother," I stammered out shakily.They said..." I swallowed hard, trying to compose myself. "They said we'd meet in Las Vegas soon. It's the Sigerna."

Giovanni's brow furrowed deeply at what I had just said. He muttered somethin under his breath, his jaw tensing but I didn't hear what he had said.

I remembered the strange man from upstairs in Russo’s house and what he had said.

"The man from dinner tonight… the one