Chapter 79: My Leo

Chapter 79: My Leo

Ivy

This was exceptionally awkward.

The kind of awkwardness that made the air feel thicker than it should. Julia’s warm, motherly smile wasn’t helping at all.

If anything, it made the silence worse.

We stood in the kitchen on opposite sides of the large island. Poppy leaned against the drawers near the stove, arms loosely crossed, watching everything with the intensity of someone who had already decided she was right.

Thankfully, Andy had not been invited to this little meeting. Small mercies.

It had been more than five minutes since I had hurriedly fixed my clothes upstairs and come down, still flushed from Leo’s mouth and hands.

Julia had asked to speak with me. Yet so far she had said almost nothing. She simply smiled that gentle, knowing smile mom's used when they could tell someone was embarrassed down to their bones and wanted to ease it.

I shifted my weight from one foot to the other. “You wanted to speak to me?” My voice came out thinner than I intended.

Julia smoothed her palm across the clean countertop, as if brushing away invisible dust. “You and my son seem to be getting along well.”

I glanced at Poppy first. The statement felt almost ridiculous. Everyone already knew I was with Leo.

“Yes. We’re dating.” I kept my tone even. “Is something wrong, Julia?”

She smiled again, then walked around the island until she stood directly in front of me. She reached for my hand. Her fingers were warm.

“Dear, I know you might feel an enormous need to cover for your boyfriend.”

I looked down at our joined hands. Part of me wanted to pull away. The polite part of me refused. She was Leo’s mother. Disrespecting her felt like a sure way to create new problems I didn’t need.

“So I’ll ask again,” she continued softly, “now that it’s just us three in here.” She glanced toward the doorway as if confirming we were truly alone. “My Leo isn’t hurting you, is he?”

I frowned. “Why would Leo hurt me?” My eyes flicked to Poppy. She still looked far too satisfied, like a cat that had already finished the cream.

I knew these concerns had started with her.

“Honey.” Julia’s voice stayed gentle. “You know how it can be with someone who has his… temperament. And with the kind of intensity he brings to everything he cares about. Sometimes people lose sight of what truly matters.”

“I’m a little lost,” I said honestly. “Can you be clearer?”

“Poppy was worried about you,” Julia explained. “She saw the handprints on your arm. She just wants to make sure you’re safe.”

“I am safe.” The words came out sharper than I meant. “Leo keeps me safe. Poppy misunderstood and never asked for clarification. She only believed what she thought she already knew.”

Poppy exhaled through her nose. “Ivy, I know what I saw.”

“No. You don’t.” I turned fully toward her. “You jumped to conclusions without bothering to confirm anything. And now all of you are here—for what? To protect me from Leo?”

Julia shook her head. “I don’t think you need protecting. I know my son would never raise his hand against a woman. I’m only here because I believe he sometimes needs someone close enough to keep him in check.”

That still didn’t make sense to me.

“Julia, Leo and I were supposed to spend the coming weeks together. Alone.” I carefully slipped my hand free of hers. “We had plans. You all just… interrupted them.”

Poppy pushed off the drawers. “What about the pills?”

I went still.

“You sounded scared when you called me,” she continued. “Like you were whispering. You can’t deny that I clearly heard Leo tell you to hang up, and you did.”

I glared at her.

She folded her arms, clearly convinced she had backed me into a corner. “What do you have to say about that?”

“You misheard. Again. Stop jumping to conclusions so much, Poppy.”

“Dear, don’t be angry,” Julia soothed. “Nobody is accusing Leo of anything. I know my son would never hurt you.”

“That’s not what this whole thing feels like.”

Julia’s expression softened further. “I’ll stay out of your way. I promise. You won’t even know I’m here. The two of you can still enjoy your time together. I’ll be like a ghost.” She gave a small, hopeful laugh.

I didn’t smile. I didn’t find it funny. “I'd appreciate that. Both of you.”

Poppy took a step closer. “Ivy. Are you seriously mad at me?”

“Yes!” The word burst out of me. “You’re being annoying. I asked you for a private favor. Not for you to go blabbing my business to everyone. It’s not cool.”

I turned on my heel, ready to leave the kitchen entirely.

“Ivy, wait.” Julia’s hand caught mine again before I could reach the doorway.

Out of respect I stopped, though every muscle in my body wanted to keep walking. “What?”

“I think we’ve misunderstood each other,” she said carefully. “Leo has a temper. One you may not fully comprehend yet. I know it best, sweetheart. You don’t know what he—”

“I know,” I interrupted. “I know he lost his sister. He still hasn’t healed from Estella.”

Both women went quiet.

Julia’s eyes searched my face. “He told you about that?”

“Yes. I know she was murdered. He’s still struggling with it. And with the fact that you left him and Solomon.” I folded my arms. “Maybe try being a little kinder to him instead of painting him as some kind of monster. I am fine.”

Poppy stared at me, clearly shocked. “You know about Estella?”

So she had known too. And never once mentioned it to me in all the times I've discussed Leo with her.

“Yes. He opened up to me.”

What she said next made it clear that there was a lot more to the story than I knew. For now.

“Don’t believe everything he says. He refused to accept the truth. Andy had nothing to do with Estella—”

“Poppy!” Julia’s voice cracked like a whip. “Enough.”

Andy? He was involved with this? How? Leo never got to tell me that part.

I felt the floor tilt slightly under my feet.

“What do you mean by that?” I asked, looking straight at Poppy. “Did Andy have something to do with Estella’s death?”

Before either of them could answer, I heard footsteps.

Leo appeared in the doorway, fully dressed in dark jeans, a black shirt and a baseball cap, hair still damp from a shower. The moment his eyes found me, the hard edges of his face softened into a real smile.

He walked straight to me, ignoring the tension still hanging in the kitchen, and kissed me—long, slow, and publicly sweet.

“I’m stepping out for a while,” he murmured against my mouth. “Won’t take long.” He pulled back just enough to look at me, his thumb brushing my earring. “Do you want anything?”

I shook my head, still reeling from Poppy’s unfinished sentence. “No. Just come back quickly.”

He smiled, nodded, and kissed me once more. “Got it.”

Only then did he seem to remember the other two people in the room. He glanced over his shoulder.

“Bye, Mom. See you later.”

And then he was gone, the front door closing behind him a few seconds later and the kitchen fell quiet again.

I turned slowly back to Julia and Poppy. My heart was beating too fast. “What did you mean,” I asked Poppy carefully, “when you said Andy had nothing to do with Estella?”

Poppy’s mouth opened, then closed. She looked at Julia like she was waiting for permission that was never going to come.

Julia’s face had gone carefully blank. “That conversation is finished,” she said, voice calm but final. “Some things are better left in the past.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“It’s the only one you’re getting right now.” She reached out as if to touch my arm again, then thought better of it. “Ivy… please don’t go digging into this. Leo has his version of events. Pushing on old wounds won’t help anyone.”

I stared at her.

The woman who had just spent the last twenty minutes gently interrogating me about whether her son was hurting me was now telling me not to ask questions about her murdered daughter and Andy’s possible connection to it.

Something cold settled in my stomach.

Poppy looked away, suddenly very interested in the floor tiles.

“I think I’m going back upstairs,” I said quietly.

Neither of them tried to stop me this time.

I walked out of the kitchen with measured steps, even though every instinct wanted me to run. The moment I was out of sight I took the stairs two at a time and didn’t stop until I was inside Leo’s bedroom again with the door locked behind me.

I sat on the edge of the bed and stared at my hands.

Leo had told me Estella was murdered. He had told me it still haunted him. He had never once mentioned Andy in the same breath.

Maybe that might have been because I was too emotional to continue with the questions.

But Poppy’s unfinished sentence and Julia’s sharp shutdown sat in my chest like an ache I couldn’t ignore.

Andy had nothing to do with Estella. Which meant someone, at some point, had believed he did.

Or Leo still did.

I pressed my palms against my eyes and tried to breathe through the sudden tightness in my lungs.

Leo would be back soon.

And when he returned, I wasn’t sure I would be able to look at him the same way without the question burning on my tongue.

What exactly had happened to Estella… and what did Andy have to do with it?