The room had become so cold.

Tony could barely feel his fingers, or keep his thoughts together. He grew even more nervous every time he caught her reaching for a book from the shelf and skimming through it.

She had barely said a word to him all fifteen minutes since he had walked in on her, and Tony wasn't sure if he had the right words to say himself.

He thought he was prepared for it. He had spent twelve years, waiting for this moment but he sure didn't think it was going to happen at the time that it did. All his thoughts, everything he thought he had left behind him, they went down the drain the moment he caught her gaze.

He could feel beads of sweat form on his forehead even with all the cold air from the A/C that had filled the room.

She closed the book loudly and dropped it back on the shelf. With the way she turned to him and took slow steps towards him, he could easily tell she was bored.

She came to a stop in front of the huge desk and leaned on it, crossing her legs and leaving her eyes on him. The way a smirk spread itself on her face, it was like she was enjoying how nervous she made him feel.

She chuckled.

"It looks like you saw a ghost."

Tony wished he had. He sure knew that a ghost was never going to bring him close to giving the reaction he was at that moment.

"Why are you back Ivory?" He raised his head to look at her finally. "Why are you here?"

She placed a hand over her chest.

"Ouch." She mouthed, pulling herself back to stand on her feet again. "You sound like you're not excited to see me." She took a few steps towards him.
"I would understand everyone else but you? What happened to the Tony that left me over a thousand voice mails until six years ago?"

"Voice mails you never responded to." He shut his eyes and then squeezed them in an attempt to wrap his head around the situation.
"You made it clear that I meant nothing to you Ivory, you told me never to contact you ever again, you left," he opened his eyes until he was staring right into hers.

"You left without as much as a goodbye, you said you never wanted to have anything to do with me ever again so forgive me for wondering why you suddenly showed up at my office, my private space."

She scoffed, trying to push back a force of laughter that wanted to escape from her lips. He squinted, not realizing where he made a joke. What part of what he had just said was funny?

She rolled her eyes.

"Come on Tony, get over it, that was what? Over a decade ago. We were kids, silly kids that didn't know better. You should have moved on by now."

"What?"

She shrugged her shoulders.

"What do you want me to say?" She frowned. "I don't want to dwell on the past anymore, I don't want to dwell on the part of my life where I was the most vulnerable anymore. Everything that happened thirteen years ago was a mistake Tony, both of us knew that it was never going to work between us."

She came to a stop in front of him and placed a hand on her hip so she could have a better look at him. Tony could see how much she had changed from the time he last saw her, from the time he thought he knew her, a part of him could also see the part of her that he used to know.

"Why did you come back Ivory?" He asked her. "And why are you here?"

"I felt bored." She told him, taking a look at her reflection in his eyes. "It happened that Switzerland wasn't as fun as I hoped it would be, neither was the states, or the UK, China, the Netherlands, or Australia." She exhaled

"I've moved so much over the years that I finally realized how much I actually missed home. I missed the life I had here, and I expected that you of all people would be the most happy to see me, considering our history." She placed a hand on his jacket and gently dusted it with her fingers, keeping her gaze on him.

"His office is over there."

"Thank you." Amy smiled warmly at the lady that had offered to help her with the direction to Tony's office. If she had heard his Secretary correctly, Tony had asked to see her after her interview and she wasn't going to deny the fact that she lowkey wanted to see him too.

The interview had not gone too bad from what she had imagined. She was excited about how confident she was while she answered all the questions that were thrown at her. She missed it, the feeling of excitement and anxiety after an interview and she hoped that this one was going to be better than all the others before it.

She made her way to the door just as she had been directed and reached for the door knob before she paused. The door was open already and she could hear some voices coming from inside of it.

She was curious, even more so when she heard the female voice from inside. She peeped in through the opening the door had left and scanned her eyes around the room until it settled on Tony. He wasn't alone. Amy could feel her heart beat fast when she saw the company he was with. She could barely hear what they were talking about, but it looked like they were extremely comfortable with each other and it was almost as if she catch a smile on Tony's face while he watched her carefully. Amy could see how she had her hands on his chest and how she looked at him so intensely.

She could feel her legs grow weak as she slowly let go of the door knob and staggered backwards in shock at what she had just seen.

What had she seen? What was the meaning of what she had seen?

Were her initial thoughts and assumptions about Tony right? Was that one of his numerous women? Had she also been a victim of his lies too?

She placed a hand over her chest in an attempt to feel her heart beat and stop it from racing so much. She could feel a tightness in her chest area that hurt her a lot each time she thought about what she had seen.

"Miss Amarachi?"

Amy froze at the sound of her name. She turned to her side immediately, trying to get a grip of herself the moment her eyes met with Tony's Secretary. She recognized him immediately.

He took a good look at her, wondering how she had arrived so soon. He could see the shock expression on her face and could also tell from how she had suddenly gone pale. He slowly turned to the door and noticed how it was left open. Had she seen something?

He exhaled and straightened his shoulders

"Would you like me to let him know that you're here?"

She glared at him, her eyes immediately going heavy and glossy with all the tears that hung in them. She couldn't even do as small as give him a response.

Amy walked backwards slowly, her legs were trembling and her head was spinning. She didn't know what to say either. He took a step towards her but she turned quickly and started to walk away from the room as fast as she could before he thought of stopping her.

He swallowed hard and turned back to the door. He looked through the opening and could immediately read the room. He swallowed hard and reached for the door knob quickly. He shut the door close gently.

Tony reached for Ivory's hand quickly to stop her from touching him even further than she did. He slowly pulled it away from his chest, keeping his gaze on her.

"Why are you here?" He drawled, making sure his words were slow and clear.

"To invite you over for dinner." She told him. "My house, tomorrow, seven PM."

Tony scoffed.

"Don't worry. There's not going to be any funny business I promise. It's just a casual dinner with my family. I just don't want to be alone, and I would appreciate it if you came. I can already imagine the disaster and I don't want to go through it alone. No one knows my family than you do, you're the only one I could think of."

Tony couldn't believe it.
He couldn't believe that asking for a favor was the first thing she did after seeing him one time after twelve long years. He was scared of how vulnerable the woman in front of him made him feel. He wanted to be angry, to be furious but at the same time, he just didn't know how to ever tell her no.

He scratched an eyebrow.

"This is crazy."

Her face brightened.

"I'd take that as a yes then?" She asked him with a look of excitement on her face. She let out a breath of relief.

"I'd text you the address." She leaned towards him and gave him a kiss on his cheek. She looked him in his eyes again right after, letting him go after noticing how uncomfortable he was. Her smile grew wider as she took a few steps away from him.

"Thank you Tony." She told him right before she turned and walked away.

Tony could feel all the strength in his legs leave him as he suddenly became light headed. He grabbed on to the edge of the table immediately to stop himself from falling. He could suddenly feel a tightness in his chest especially when the door closed.

He didn't understand why she was back and he didn't know what it meant to him. He didn't know what she meant to him, and that was what scared him.

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She took a deep breath, finally putting her phone to rest on the table. She traced the pool with her gaze, taking a deep breath as she settled her eyes on the seemingly blue water and drew a deep breath, letting herself get lost in her thoughts again.

She loved every breath of fresh air she took, and she loved how the sun and the wind worked together to give her the warmest breeze ever. Sommadina rubbed her arms the moment she felt another chill pass through her and raised her gaze to the small figure that suddenly appeared to be walking through the pool's side, struggling with something.

She sat straight, making sure that she left her eyes on the figure that looked like it was walking towards her. Even as she could barely see who it was clearly without her glasses, Sommadina was able to dot the lines back to Grace.

Her frown worsened when Grace walked closer to her, with what looked like a plastic toy in her hands. Sommadina watched how Grace stood on her toe when she got to the table to put the large toy on it. She couldn't imagine why Grace struggled with it, it didn't look so heavy.

"Good morning Grandma." Grace said with a huge smile on her face that irked Sommadina even more. She couldn't imagine how Grace could bring herself to stand in her presence after what had happened. She couldn't understand why Olivia had not reprimanded Grace about avoiding her.

Sommadina reached for her hand fan and started to wave it from side to side to command a lot of air to herself while Grace managed to get on one of the pool-side chairs across her.

"What are you doing here?" Sommadina left her gaze on Grace. "Have you not done enough already?"

Grace pouted, letting a frown cover her face as she slouched.

"I thought that mother of yours would have spoken to you about staying away from me by now? Do I have to spank you again?"

Grace exhaled.

Sommadina slowly watched her reach for the toy in front of her and clasp it with both her hands. She watched Grace push it towards her, she couldn't bring herself to look Sommadina in her eyes.

"I wanted you to have this Grandma." She said just as Sommadina lowered her gaze to the pig-like toy. She was beginning to recognize what it was. "I'm sorry that I used your chocolates and made you upset. I didn't mean to grandma, I really didn't mean to make you angry."

Sommadina scoffed, fanning herself even harder. Grace exhaled weakly, loudly too.

"I thought if I gave you all that I had, you might like me and my mummy and want us to stay here with you and my Godfather. If you can accept us, and like my mummy, I promise to be a good girl. I won't eat any of your chocolates, or bake cakes any more and I promise to not make you upset and never show myself to you. I would make daddy Rafael happy everyday and I won't do anything to upset you."

Grace raised her head to look at Sommadina, who just sat there, completely lost of words. She could see how Grace's had a look of hope and sadness in her eyes at the same time but still managed to leave her face brightened in front of her, regardless of what she had done to her. Her gaze lowered to Grace's arm. She could see the scratch mark on it from how she had grabbed on to her the day before, while she spanked her. Sommadina could feel a tightening in her chest area, her cheeks reddening with embarrassment.

She took her gaze back to the piggy bank on the table and let it stay there for a while. She let out an exhale. She couldn't believe the kind of person she had become, the kind to even hurt children.

Even if she didn't admit it, she wasn't proud of her actions the day before. She was so occupied with being upset with Olivia that she had let her emotions cloud her judgement. The child in front of her had done nothing wrong to her besides being born of the woman that had caused her family to experience pain, and her family only experienced pain because of what it did to Olivia's family. Life was unfair, she didn't know what to do about it but she admitted that at least.

"You don't have to involve yourself in grown people's business." Sommadina told her. "Keep worrying about everyone else but yourself and you'd end up like your mother."

Grace pouted. She didn't understand why Sommadina said that like it was a bad thing. She loved her mother, and she always thought Olivia to be the best person she ever wanted to take after.

"Take back your savings, you need it more than I do," she pushed the piggy bank a bit towards Grace with her fan. "And go wear something with sleeves, ask Benita to make you a cup of tea to keep you warm!" She raised her voice at Grace and then clicked her tongue.

"It's very cold outside, stop trying to annoy me." She pushed her chair back immediately and got up from it as fast as she could. She suddenly didn't feel like being there anymore, she couldn't bring herself to look at Grace after what she had done to her. She felt even more guilty with how Grace was being nice to her after what had happened. Her heart couldn't take it, she couldn't take being soft to her either.

A wide smile spread itself on Grace's face, the thought that Sommadina worried about her enough to care if she caught a cold excited her in ways she couldn't explain. She turned to see how Sommadina walked as fast as she could to the back door, fanning herself quickly as the wind swayed her dress from side to side.

Grace turned back to the piggy bank with her savings that she got to keep, she clasped her hands together and stretched it in front of her. She took a deep breath.

At least something was finally going her way, maybe she was going to win Sommadina's heart after all.