"I've never been to anything like this before. I don't belong here. I'll leave right now."
"I'll take off this dress and return it to Warren."
"And the necklace—I'll give it back to you."
"I may be a poor student, but if something isn't mine, I won't take a single thing."
With that, she set her jaw and reached behind her back for the zipper of her dress.
He'd barely pulled the strap down before Warren shrugged off his jacket and draped it over Yvonne's shoulders, pulling her into a tight embrace. "Don't move. Stop crying. If you cry any more, you won't look pretty for your graduation photos."
Then he turned and shot me a warning look. "Leonora, that's enough. Today is Yvonne's graduation. I brought her here. The necklace was my graduation gift to her."
My chest seized like something had lodged itself behind my ribs. I couldn't breathe. I clenched my jaw and stared at him. "You and Yvonne. You don't think you owe me an explanation?"
"She's your lover? Then what am I?"
He barely glanced at me, his tone dismissive. "Leonora, Yvonne is just a twenty-year-old girl. Do you really have to be this petty?"