Chapter 2
The day I returned home, it was raining.
I sat at the airport for four hours, waiting for my connecting flight. I was still in the same clothes from the mountain. They were filthy, dark with dirt and snow. My hair was tangled and stuck together. People passed by and quietly moved away from me.
I didn't have the energy to care.
I must have looked at that photo on my phone two hundred times.
The girl in it had a soft, sweet smile. Leo's arm was around her. Around his neck was that wolf tooth pendant.
I had given it to him after his first big summit. He told me he'd wear it for the rest of his life. He said he'd never take it off. Not even in death.
I stood in front of the bathroom mirror and looked at myself.
My skin was raw from the wind. My lips were cracked. My eyes were hollow, dark circles sinking down my cheeks.
I forced a smile.
I looked so bad I didn't even recognize my own face.
As soon as I left the airport, I took a cab straight to Leo's company.
On the way, the driver kept sneaking glances at me in the rearview mirror, like he wanted to say something but swallowed it back.
I knew what he was thinking. I looked like a homeless person heading into the business district.
"Sir, can you go faster?" I asked.
"Lady, it's raining. If I speed up, we could get into an accident," the driver replied.
I didn't say anything else.
The car pulled up in front of Leo's company building. I paid and stepped out. I stood there in the rain for a few seconds before I realized I didn't have an umbrella.
Whatever. By the time I got into the elevator, water was dripping off me. Two men in suits inside leaned away, trying to keep their distance.
I pretended not to notice.
The elevator stopped on the twentieth floor, and a woman stepped in.
She had a perfect figure, smooth skin, and long hair. She wore a slip dress with a man's suit jacket thrown over it.
She didn't even look at me. She stood with her back to me, talking on the phone. "Where did you hide my bra? I've been looking everywhere."
I couldn't hear the reply, but she laughed, shifting her weight a little.
"I'm totally braless right now. This is all your fault," she said.
Her voice was soft and sweet. It made my skin crawl.
"You can have whatever you want tonight. But you're taking me to dinner first. I'm starving," she said.
The elevator reached the ground floor.
The doors opened. Leo was standing right there.
He was in a sharp suit, his hair perfectly done, car keys in his hand.
He saw the girl and smiled. Then he stepped forward, wrapped his arm around her waist, and kissed her.
She lifted her arms around his neck and kissed him back in the elevator doorway as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Someone walking past glanced at them, then quickly looked away.
Leo looked up. His voice was calm and easy, but I caught every word. "Let her look. What's wrong with kissing the person I love most?"
I stood in the corner, soaked through, my hair stuck to my face.
He was only a few feet away. And he didn't recognize me.
The girl laughed and lightly tapped his chest. "Come on, I'm hungry."
"Alright. I'll take you somewhere good," he said.
He kept his arm around her as they walked off, passing right by me.
I stared at the back of his head, at that spot I used to kiss over and over.
The two of them got into the car.
I recognized that car. The license plate number was my birthday.
I stood there at the entrance as the rain came down harder.
Their car was still parked by the curb, not going anywhere.
I just stood there in the rain, watching that car.
Then I saw it. The car was shaking.
It wasn't my imagination. It was really shaking.
I turned around and headed toward the subway station.
I barely made it a few steps before I stopped and threw up.
Nothing but water came out. Everything I had drunk at the airport spilled onto the side of the road.
When it was over, I stayed crouched there, shaking as the rain soaked through me.
My phone rang.
It was my mom. "Diana, I saw the news. There was an avalanche where you are. Is Leo okay? Are you two alright?"
I opened my mouth. Even my own voice sounded strange to me. "We're fine, Mom."
"Oh, thank God. You scared me to death. When are you two coming over? I made ribs," she said.
"In a couple of days, maybe. We're busy right now."
"Alright. Just make sure you eat real food. Don't keep ordering takeout."
"I know, Mom." I hung up, shoved my phone back into my pocket, stood up, and kept walking.
Half an hour later, I stopped in front of an apartment complex.
This was our home.
No, it was our old home. The place had been sold, and I had no clue who lived there now.
I stood at the entrance for a while, then turned and walked away.
It was eleven at night when I finally made it back to my rented apartment.
It was an old building, no elevator, and I had to climb all the way up to the sixth floor.
There was just one bedroom and one living room, and it cost me 1,000 dollars a month.
I took a shower, standing under the stream for forty minutes, switching the water from scalding hot to freezing cold, then back to hot again.
When I finally stepped out, I sat on the bed with my phone and opened Vita's social media.
She was the woman from the elevator. I had searched her number earlier. Her profile came right up.
She was a yoga instructor with 80,000 followers.
Her pinned video showed her doing yoga. Her body bent in ways that didn't seem real. The caption said: [Meeting you is the luckiest thing in my life.]
Someone in the comments asked about her boyfriend.
She replied with a voice message.
I tapped it, and Leo's voice came through.
"She's the one I love most in this world," he said.
I listened to it eight times.
Then I opened a photo of him and me and zoomed in.
The wolf tooth pendant hung at his neck.
I went back to her video, paused it, and zoomed in.
And there it was again—the pendant hanging from his neck.
I threw my phone onto the bed and lay back, staring at the ceiling.
I had no idea how long I lay there; outside, dawn had already broken.
I dragged myself up, took screenshots and screen recordings of every video, then dumped them all into a folder.
I named the folder "Evidence."