Chapter 234

• I felt guilt, sadness, exhaustion, hope. I found myself missing the old Leonardo—the one who met the
• world with calm indifference, who kept his feelings buried deep beneath a confident front. It was easier to hate that version of him, to turn him into the heartless stranger who rejected me. This new Leonardo,
• though—he was harder to despise. Despite the cold mask his pale skin and dark hair seemed to wear, his eyes betrayed an emotion that was reserved only for me.