Ch. 15: Storm Warning

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

Sophia crossed the room slowly, aware of every step, of the way he was watching without seeming to. Money could buy a great many things, he 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." "I'm not asking you to forgive me," Sophia said. "I'm asking you to listen." "I'm not asking you to forgive me," Sophia said. "I'm asking you to listen."

For a heartbeat the careful distance between them thinned to nothing at all. "You shouldn't have come," he said, and the words landed softer than they were meant to.

For a heartbeat the careful distance between them thinned to nothing at all. Sophia crossed the room slowly, aware of every step, of the way he 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.

The truth, when it finally came, was smaller and sharper than she had imagined.

The conversation turned, the way conversations do, from the easy things to the ones that mattered. There was a history between them that neither would name, written in the things they did not do. "You shouldn't have come," he said, and the words landed softer than they were meant to.

By the time the light faded, nothing was decided, and yet everything felt different.