Ch. 16: The Other Side of Truth

The letter had arrived without a name, and that was the first thing that frightened her.

For a heartbeat the careful distance between them thinned to nothing at all. There was a history between them that neither would name, written in the things they did not do. There was a history between them that neither would name, written in the things they did not do.

Money could buy a great many things, she had learned, but never the one thing that was wanted most. "I'm not asking you to forgive me," Sophia said. "I'm asking you to listen."

Sophia crossed the room slowly, aware of every step, of the way she was watching without seeming to. She remembered the first time, and the last, and all the ordinary days in between that had somehow mattered more.

Money could buy a great many things, she had learned, but never the one thing that was wanted most. The conversation turned, the way conversations do, from the easy things to the ones that mattered.

There are moments that divide a life into before and after. This was becoming one of them.

She remembered the first time, and the last, and all the ordinary days in between that had somehow mattered more. "I'm not asking you to forgive me," Sophia said. "I'm asking you to listen."