Chapter 58. What She Took Back

Leo was thinner than Diana remembered.

She noticed that first and resented noticing it. He stood outside her apartment with a cardboard box beneath one arm, wearing a coat she recognized. Once, she would have checked whether he had eaten.

Now she unlocked the door and stepped aside.

Eva was already inside, wrapping the last kitchen glasses. She greeted him without getting up.

Leo looked at her, then at the empty place where Diana's desk had stood.

“You're really moving.”

“Yes.”

“Where?”

“With Gabriel.”

His gaze went straight to her left hand.

Diana did not hide it.

The room had never seemed so bare. Without the familiar clutter, there was nowhere for either of them to pretend they had come to do something ordinary.

Leo set the box on the table.

“Your mother's book is on top.”

Diana opened it. The cover was stained at one corner. Inside, her mother's handwriting slanted across a re