Ch. 8: An Unexpected Guest

The morning came in grey and quiet, the way it always did before everything changed.

"I'm not asking you to forgive me," Sophia said. "I'm asking you to listen." "You shouldn't have come," she said, and the words landed softer than they were meant to.

The conversation turned, the way conversations do, from the easy things to the ones that mattered. She remembered the first time, and the last, and all the ordinary days in between that had somehow mattered more. There was a history between them that neither would name, written in the things they did not do.

"You shouldn't have come," she said, and the words landed softer than they were meant to. "You shouldn't have come," she said, and the words landed softer than they were meant to. There was a history between them that neither would name, written in the things they did not do.

"I'm not asking you to forgive me," Sophia said. "I'm asking you to listen." Money could buy a great many things, she had learned, but never the one thing that was wanted most. There was a history between them that neither would name, written in the things they did not do.

Outside, the world went on as if nothing had shifted. Inside, everything had.

Sophia crossed the room slowly, aware of every step, of the way she was watching without seeming to. "I'm not asking you to forgive me," Sophia said. "I'm asking you to listen."