Everything went silent now, dead silent, like there was no one daring to make a sound because that was the end of it.
Theo had nothing left to say, not because he was out of words, but because Diana had expressed a truth so profound that there was no space left for anything else.
Theo sat back in his chair and looked at the table with the expression of someone who had been given the full accounting of a situation and had found that every number in it was correct and every total was his own fault.
Rex looked at his plate.
He felt particularly satisfied about the pain Theo was experiencing. And of course, it exceeds his expectations with what Diana had to say to him.
He had made the calculation before any of this started, and the calculation had included this exact moment, and he had decided the outcome was worth the moment, and he stood by that.
What he felt, looking across at Diana, was something closer to a specific kind of respect.
She had said all of it.
Every word of it.
