A cold wind moved through the dark.
Leon stood beneath a streetlamp in his precisely tailored suit, his silhouette stretched long across the pavement, carrying a faint, unintentional loneliness.
"Hugo, you're here too?" He acknowledged his brother with a glance before looking past him toward Diana, who stood a few steps away.
His throat tightened. "Diana. I'd like to talk."
Diana looked at him, her expression unreadable.
She had expected this. Turning back to Hugo, she said, "Hugo, have the driver take you to the hotel. If you need anything, contact me or Ray."
Some matters were easier handled through Raymond.
"Of course." Hugo gave a small nod, his tone calm and unhurried. "Diana, if anything comes up... you can always reach out to me too."
His gaze shifted to Leon for only a moment. The look was shallow and unreadable, revealing nothing on the surface that could be named. Even so, it left Leon with a distinct and inexplicable sense of pressure.
The car pulled away. The sound of the engine gradually faded, and silence settled over the courtyard gate as the two of them remained alone.
The neutrality in Diana's expression finally cracked, if only slightly. What surfaced in its place was pure contempt. "Did you come to question me about something else?"
She had heard almost immediately that Joseph had forced Helen out of the hospital, and she had done nothing to stop it. Hence, whatever Leon said now, however harshly he blamed her, she would not be surprised.
Leon understood what she meant. He stepped forward and reached for her hand. "Diana, I didn't come to question you."
She moved before he could touch her, sidestepping him with the ease of instinct.
His hand lingered awkwardly in the air for a moment before he lowered it. After steadying himself, he spoke with deliberate care. "I know the transfer wasn't your doing. And I have a clearer understanding now of what happened to Helen. I made assumptions. I thought you had... lost control for a moment."
VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABEL
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: Once a Doormat Now Untouchable (Caleb and Sydney)