After a moment, he nudged his head very slightly in the direction of the sound but still kept his eyes on hers.
"Are you going to get that?"
"Yes," she said.
"But only if you concede."
Leo held her gaze for another second, then another until he finally looked away, exhaling.
"Fine," he said.
Vittoria picked up her phone with an expression that was unmistakably smug, but as she looked at the screen, the expression shifted into something more complicated.
It was her mother calling through a video medium.
She accepted it and held the phone up and put her free hand flat against Leo's chest, the universal signal for do not move and do not speak, which Leo acknowledged by becoming very still.
Her mother appeared on screen, the particular composed elegance of a woman who had never in her life looked dishevelled on a video call.
"Piccola mia, come stai?"
[My baby, how are you?]
