Lena stepped in front of me immediately.
Grant did not come closer.
“Evelyn,” he said.
His voice cracked.
I hated that it reached me.
“You shouldn’t be here,” I said.
“I know.”
“Then why are you?”
“Because I needed to say it where you could hear me.”
“You had years.”
“I know.”
Rain collected on his coat collar. He looked smaller in the amber streetlight. Not weak. Human. I had forgotten he could look that way.
“I read your letter,” he said. “I read it so many times I could hear your voice changing by the end.”
I folded my arms, more to hold myself together than to shut him out.
“I meant what I wrote.”
“I believe you.”
That surprised me.
He opened his hand.
The ring rested in his palm.
“I keep thinking about picking it up from the floor,” he said. “I was angry for maybe five seconds. Then I realized you put it there because I made you feel lower than the thing itself.”
