Ch. 13: The Price of Silence

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

Money could buy a great many things, he 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. She remembered the first time, and the last, and all the ordinary days in between that had somehow mattered more.

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.

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

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

"I'm not asking you to forgive me," Sophia said. "I'm asking you to listen." The conversation turned, the way conversations do, from the easy things to the ones that mattered. Sophia crossed the room slowly, aware of every step, of the way he was watching without seeming to.

He watched her go and understood, too late, that he had already made his choice.